Why the drive: The utilitarian and hedonic benefits of self-expression through consumption.

In response to a recent call to better understand the drivers of self-expressive consumption; this review examines the latest relevant research to identify two broad classes of benefits of self-expressive consumption. First are utilitarian benefits that result from cognitively-driven self-expressions intended to fulfill a consumer's need to create and maintain a self-identity. Second are hedonic benefits that result from the mere act of self-expression and make the consumption experience more fun and pleasurable. This discussion reflects a recent shift in how researchers conceptualize self-expression, from a behavioral mechanism to a basic human need. Moreover, the review highlights findings on various new forms of self-expressive consumption that now occur in the modern marketplace. This review thus offers insights into the positive elements of self-expressive consumption.

Using aesthetics and self-affirmation to encourage openness to risky (and safe) choices.

Research has shown self-affirmation to be a powerful tool for increasing openness to arguments. However, prior examinations of its effects involved manipulations with limited applicability outside the laboratory. Building on recent work suggesting that choice of highly aesthetic products can be a form of affirmation, we proposed and tested whether merely affiliating people with high aesthetics can affirm their sense of self and thus encourage openness to arguments advocating selection of one option over another. In 3 experiments we examined this effect in financial and consumer decisions in which choices varied in their inherent risk. Across the experiments, after affiliating people with high (vs. low) aesthetics, they were more likely to select the advocated option--whether that option was the riskier or less risky option. This occurred using actual annual reports and a sample of experienced investors (Experiment 1), when the aesthetic affiliation and the choice tasks were in entirely unrelated areas (Experiment 2) and was driven by greater openness to arguments (Experiment 3). Together these studies offer a self-affirmation manipulation that is relevant and easily used by practitioners in a variety of fields. They also provide novel insights on the link between aesthetics, self-affirmation, openness, and risk taking.