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

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.,...