The Many-Faced Consumer: Consumption Consequences of Balancing Multiple Identities

Abstract

Abstract Cues in the environment can prime consumer identities, increasing adoption of behaviors consistent with the primed identity and avoidance of behaviors consistent with alternate (nonprimed) identities. Although alternate-identity avoidance is common, three studies show that priming an identity (e.g., student) can also encourage consumers to approach alternate identities (e.g., friend). When two identities are relatively easy to balance (e.g., sufficient time for both student- and friend-related activities), participants approach alternate identities that are associated with the primed identity following a cognitive process of spreading activation. However, when identities are difficult to balance, participants approach alternate identities that are dissociated from the primed identity. We argue that this reversal occurs owing to a switch from a cognitive process to a motivational process akin to that seen in multiple-goal management. Under the motivational process, priming a focal identity inhibits (activates) associated (dissociated) identities because the two are seen as (non-)substitutable with each other. The motivational process under high balance difficulty relaxes when participants can self-affirm, causing response to instead mimic the cognitive process. The resulting integrative framework introduces identity-balance difficulty and its interaction with association into identity research, uniquely highlighting the importance of multiple-identity management with implications for research and practice.