From Status-Seeking Consumption to Social Norms:An Application to the Consumption of Cleanliness

Interdependencies in consumer behavior stem from either status-seeking consumption orcompliance with social norms. This paper analyzes how a consumption act changes froma means to signal the consumer’s status to a means of norm compliance. It is shown thatsuch a transformation can only be understood when consumer motivations other thansocial recognition are taken into account. We depict norm emergence as a learningprocess based on changing associations between a specific consumption act and widelyshared, non-subjectivist consumer needs.[...]