When posting aspirational products in social media lowers interest in luxury: relationships between self-concept, social signaling, and ownership

Consumers often use luxury products to signal their aspirational selves. In social media, consumers can publicly affiliate with such products and brands virtually without having to physically own them. This research demonstrates how social media can enable consumers to engage with aspirational products in ways that facilitate social signaling of ideal (as opposed to actual) self-concepts, and instill a sense of psychological ownership for the posted-about products. Ironically, as a consequence of this, consumers’ interest in luxury goods, indicated by wanting to purchase them or to visit high-end retailers, decreases. The authors find this with correlational data and five experiments. Further, this reduction in interest in actually owning luxury goods after posting about aspirational products in social media is found to arise only when the social media-based product affiliation is public and posting instill a strong sense of psychological ownership for the products.