Women's Luxury Products as Signals to Other Women

TL;DR: Wang and Griskevicius as discussed by the authors reported that women flaunt luxury products to signal their partners' devotion, thereby guarding their relationships from rivals, and found that perceived partner contribution to possessions was higher for designer products.

Abstract: We present two preregistered replications of the paper by Wang and Griskevicius (2014), which reported that women flaunt luxury products to signal their partners' devotion, thereby guarding their relationships from rivals. In Study 1, which was a conceptual replication with real luxury brands, we did not observe an effect of luxury products on partner devotion but found that women assumed that male partners contribute financial resources to women's luxury possessions. In Study 2, which was a direct replication with designer products, we observed a small-sized effect in the opposite direction, such that perceived partner devotion increased when women used nondesigner products. Similar to Study 1, perceived partner contribution to possessions was higher for designer products. (Less)

Summary

Introduction

• This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Now Publishers terms and conditions for self-archiving.
• In Study 2, which was a direct replication with designer products, the authors observed a small-sized effect in the opposite direction, such that perceived partner devotion increased when women used nondesigner products.
• Similar to Study 1, perceived partner contribution to possessions was higher for designer products.

1. Background

• The motivational underpinnings of luxury consumption have long been a research area in marketing, and much attention has been directed towards understanding the role of luxury possessions in romantic relationships.
• Yet, this motive did not explain why women spend on luxury, given that men are not attracted by expensive handbags or designer jewelry.
• The question of why women spend on luxury was later addressed by Wang and Griskevicius (2014), which showed that the main motivation behind women’s luxury possessions was “mate guarding”, as women used luxury products to signal other women that they had a devoted partner, thereby protecting the mate and the relationship.
• This study has not only been cited widely (over 300 citations in Google Scholar as of February 2020), but also received substantial coverage in media outlets such as Daily Mail, CBS News, The Atlantic, and Science Daily.
• The main tenets of this research have not been replicated in the literature.

2.1. Hypotheses

• In Study 1, their objective was to conceptually replicate and extend the findings presented in Wang and Griskevicius (2014).
• Luxuriousness of a woman’s possessions will lead other women to perceive her as having a more devoted partner, also known as H1.
• 1 Study hypotheses and methods were preregistered prior to data collection to ensure that data collection and analyses were conducted as planned.
• Preregistration, as well as the survey, dataset, and analyses outputs for both experiments are publicly available at the Open Science Framework (see https://osf.io/czvu6/).
• Benevolent sexism gives rise to beliefs such as women should be cherished by men or women’s financial needs should be satisfied by men; thus, women who score high in this trait might be more likely to link a woman’s luxury products to her partner’s devotion and his resources.

2.2. Sample and Design

• The authors collected data from 250 participants (original experiment: N = 69) using the online participant pool Prolific (Palan & Schitter, 2018).
• Participants were randomly assigned to the conditions (nnonluxury = 123, nluxury = 127).
• He is her date and current relationship partner.

2.3. Procedure and Measures

• First, all participants responded to six items that gauged benevolent sexism, which were adopted from the short version of the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (e.g., “Many women have a quality of purity that few men possess”, “Women should be cherished and protected by men”; Glick & Whitehead, 2010).
• Louis Vuitton® and Tiffany & Co.®, which are among the most desirable luxury brands in the U.S. (Statista, 2018), represented luxury brands; H&M® and ZARA®, which are among the top general apparel brands (Brandirectory, 2019), represented nonluxury brands.
• Participants read the following description (luxury condition in parentheses): “Imagine you are at a gala party, where you see another woman.
• The survey ended with demographics questions and debriefing about the aim of the study.

2.4. Results

• Hypothesis 1 examined whether women perceived other women with luxury possessions to have a more devoted partner.
• Hypothesis 2 examined the likelihood that women assumed that the target woman’s partner paid for her luxury belongings.
• The corresponding correlation matrix for these variables is presented in Table 2.
• Conditional mediation analyses showed that, in the luxury possessions condition, the indirect effect of benevolent sexism on devotion through perceived partner contribution was not significant (B = 0.05, 95%CI [-0.01, 0.11], p = .102).

3.2. Procedure and Measures

• As in Study 1, participants first read the description of a woman who was at a gala party with her date and had designer possessions: “Imagine you are at a gala party, where you see another woman.
• He is her date and current relationship partner.
• She is carrying a luxury designer (an unbranded) handbag.
• You also notice that she has expensive and impressive (inexpensive and unimpressive) jewelry.”.
• Next, participant responded to the manipulation check item (“I think this woman is interested in designer products”), followed by the two items measuring devotion (r = 0.86, p < .001; α = 0.92) and one item measuring male partner’s financial contribution to woman’s possessions, which were identical to the items in Study 1.

3.3. Results

• Hypothesis 1, which stated that women with luxury possession will be perceived as having a more devoted partner, was not supported in Study 1.
• The authors further conducted internal meta-analyses for the two presented replications.

4. Discussion and Conclusions

• Wang and Griskevicius (2014) posited that one of the major motives for women to consume luxury is mate guarding, such that women use luxury possessions to signal other women that their partners are devoted to the relationship.
• Another possibility is that women with luxury possessions were implicitly perceived to have materialistic traits, and the participants did not believe that the partner was devoted to a highly materialistic person.
• Experimentally manipulating whom the women is with (e.g., friend, mother, husband, etc.) could uncover whether this contribution is linked to the romantic relationship or it is just a demand effect.

Figures

Table 2: Correlation coefficients between the variables and interaction term (meancentered) in the moderation analyses.

Figure 1: Comparison of perceived devotion and partner contribution variables between experimental conditions in Study 1.

Figure 2: Comparison of perceived devotion and partner contribution variables between experimental conditions in Study 2.

Table 1: Comparison between the original experiment (Wang & Griskevicius, 2014, Study 1) and the replication experiment (Study 1).

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions mentioned in the paper "Replication note: women's luxury products as signals to other women" ?

The authors present two preregistered replications of the paper by Wang and Griskevicius ( 2014 ), which reported that women flaunt luxury products to signal their partners ’ devotion, thereby guarding their relationships from rivals. 

Q2. What future works have the authors mentioned in the paper "Replication note: women's luxury products as signals to other women" ?

To eliminate this possibility, the authors conducted Study 2, a direct replication with designer ( vs. nondesigner ) products. One possibility is desirability bias. Another possibility is that women with luxury possessions were implicitly perceived to have materialistic traits, and the participants did not believe that the partner was devoted to a highly materialistic person. Future studies should further scrutinize the boundary conditions of the relationship between luxury products and partner devotion.