Consumers tend to have more favorable attitudes for their in-group brands than their out-group brands. However, little is known regarding how brand managers can overcome consumers’ negative attitudes toward out-group brands. Drawing on the moral identity literature, the authors theorize that moral identity may enhance out-group (but not in-group) brand attitudes through decreased psychological distance. Four studies demonstrate that moral identity increases out-group brand attitudes. The authors also identify two important boundary conditions of this moral identity effect. These findings suggest that brand managers who want to overcome the less-than-favorable perceptions associated with out-group brands may benefit from drawing on consumers’ moral identity in marketing communications. Theoretically, this research establishes that moral identity extends beyond prosocial behaviors to influence marketplace judgments (i.e., brand attitudes and categorization).
AakerDavid, A. (1991), Managing Brand Equity.New York: The Free Press.
2.
AakerDavid A., and KellerKevin Lane (1990), “Consumer Evaluations of Brand Extensions,”Journal of Marketing, 54(January), 27–41.
3.
AhluwaliaRohini (2008), “How Far Can a Brand Stretch? Understanding the Role of Self-Construal,”Journal of Marketing Research, 45(June), 337–50.
4.
AquinoKarl, and ReedAmericusII (2002), “The Self-Importance of Moral Identity,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(December), 1423–40.
5.
AquinoKarl, FreemanDan, ReedAmericusII, LimVivien K.G., and FelpsWill (2009), “Testing a Social-Cognitive Model of Moral Behavior: The Interactive Influence of Situations and Moral Identity Centrality,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(1), 123–41.
6.
AquinoKarl, McFerranBrent, and LavenMarjorie (2011), “Moral Identity and the Experience of Moral Elevation in Response to Acts of Uncommon Goodness,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(4), 703–718.
7.
AronArthur, AronElaine N., and SmollanDanny (1992), “Inclusion of the Other in the Self Scale and the Structure of Interpersonal Closeness,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(October), 596–612.
8.
BanduraAlbert (1999), “Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities,”Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3(3), 193–209.
9.
BeardenWilliam O., and EtzelMichael J. (1982), “Reference Group Influence on Product and Brand Purchase Decisions,”Journal of Consumer Research, 9(September), 183–94.
10.
BergerJonah, and HeathChip (2007), “Where Consumers Diverge from Others: Identity Signaling and Product Domains,”Journal of Consumer Research, 34(August), 121–34.
11.
BergerJonah, and RandLindsay (2008), “Shifting Signals to Help Health: Using Identity Signaling to Reduce Risky Health Behaviors,”Journal of Consumer Research, 35(August), 509–518.
12.
BlasiAugusto (1984), “Moral Identity: Its Role in Moral Functioning,” in Morality, Moral Behavior, and Moral Development, KurtinesWilliam, and GewirtzJacob, eds. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 128–39.
13.
BrewerMarilynn, B. (1991), “The Social Self: On Being the Same and Different at the Same Time,”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17(5), 475–82.
14.
BrewerMarilynn B., and GardnerWendi (1996), “Who Is This ‘We’? Levels of Collective Identity and Self Representations,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(1), 83–93.
15.
BrownThomas J., and DacinPeter (1997), “The Company and the Product: Corporate Associations and Consumer Product Responses,”Journal of Marketing, 61(January), 68–84.
16.
ChanCindy, BergerJonah, and Van BovenLeaf (2012), “Identifiable but Not Identical: Combining Social Identity and Uniqueness Motives in Choice,”Journal of Consumer Research, 39(3), 561–73.
17.
ChernevAlexander, HamiltonRyan, and GalDavid (2011), “Competing for Consumer Identity: Limits to Self-Expression and the Perils of Lifestyle Branding,”Journal of Marketing, 75(May), 66–82.
18.
CohenJacob (1992), “A Power Primer,”Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 155–59.
ErdemTülin, and SunBaohong (2002), “An Empirical Investigation of the Spillover Effects of Advertising and Sales Promotions in Umbrella Branding,”Journal of Marketing Research, 39(November), 408–420.
21.
EscalasJennifer E., and BettmanJames R. (2003), “You Are What They Eat: The Influence of Reference Groups on Consumer Connections to Brands,”Journal of Consumer Psychology, 13(3), 339–48.
22.
EscalasJennifer E., and BettmanJames R. (2005), “Self-Construal, Reference Groups, and Brand Meaning,”Journal of Consumer Research, 32(December), 378–89.
23.
FournierSusan (1998), “Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer Research,”Journal of Consumer Research, 24(March), 323–73.
24.
GómezÁngel, DovidioJohn F., HuiciCarmen, GaertnerSamuel L., and CuadradoIsabel (2011), “The Other Side of We: When Outgroup Members Express Common Identity,”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24(December), 1613–26.
25.
HardySam, A. (2006), “Identity, Reasoning, and Emotion: An Empirical Comparison of Three Sources of Moral Motivation,”Motivation and Emotion, 30(3), 207–215.
26.
HardySam A., BhattacharjeeAmit, ReedAmericusII, and AquinoKarl (2010), “Moral Identity and Psychological Distance: The Case of Adolescent Parental Socialization,”Journal of Adolescence, 33(1), 111–23.
27.
HazanCindy, and ShaverPhillip R. (1987), “Attachment as an Organizational Framework for Research on Close Relationships,”Psychological Inquiry, 5(1), 1–22.
28.
HerzensteinMichal, SonensheinScott, and DholakiaUtpal M. (2011), “Tell Me a Good Story and I May Lend You My Money: The Role of Narratives in Peer-to-Peer Lending Decisions,”Journal of Marketing Research, 48(Special Issue), S138–49.
29.
IsenAlice M., and DaubmanKimberly A. (1984), “The Influence of Affect on Categorization,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47(December), 1206–1217.
30.
JonesBryan, and RachlinHoward (2006), “Social Discounting,”Psychological Science, 17(4), 283–86.
31.
KapfererJean-Noel (2001), Reinventing the Brand: Can Top Brands Survive the New Market Realities?London: Kogan Page.
32.
LeBoeufRobyn A., ShafirEldar, and BayukJulia Belyavsky (2010), “The Conflicting Choices of Alternating Selves,”Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 111(1), 48–61.
33.
LibermanVarda, SamuelsSteven M., and RossLee (2004), “The Name of the Game: Predictive Power of Reputations Versus Situational Labels in Determining Prisoner's Dilemma Game Moves,”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(9), 1175–85.
34.
LichtensteinDonald R., DrumwrightMinette, and BraigBridgette (2004), “The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Customer Donations to Corporate-Supported Nonprofits,”Journal of Marketing, 68(October), 16–32.
35.
McFerranBrent, DahlDarren W., FitzsimonsGavan J., and MoralesAndrea C. (2010), “I'll Have What She's Having: Effects of Social Influence and Body Type on the Food Choices of Others,”Journal of Consumer Research, 36(6), 915–29.
36.
MikulincerMario, KedemPeri, and PazDov (1990), “Anxiety and Categorization—1. The Structure and Boundaries of Mental Categories,”Personality and Individual Differences, 11(8), 805–814.
PittsDavis, and JarryElizabeth M. (2007), “Ethnic Diversity and Organizational Performance: Assessing Diversity Effects at the Managerial and Street Levels,”International Public Management Journal, 10(2), 233–54.
39.
PreacherKristopher J., RuckerDerek D., and HayesAndrew (2007), “Addressing Moderated Mediation Hypotheses: Theory, Methods, and Prescriptions,”Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42(1), 185–227.
40.
ReedAmericusII, and AquinoKarl (2003), “Moral Identity and the Expanding Circle of Moral Regard Toward Out-Groups,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(June), 1270–86.
41.
ReedAmericusII, AquinoKarl, and LevyEric (2007), “Moral Identity and Judgments of Charitable Behaviors,”Journal of Marketing, 71(January), 178–93.
42.
RoschEleanor, H. (1975), “Cognitive Representations of Semantic Categories,”Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 4(3), 192–233.
43.
RosenthalHarriet E.S., and CrispRichard J. (2006), “Reducing Stereotype Threat by Blurring Intergroup Boundaries,”Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(4), 501–511.
44.
SenSankar, and BhattacharyaC.B. (2001), “Does Doing Good Always Lead to Doing Better? Consumer Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility,”Journal of Marketing Research, 38(May), 225–43.
45.
SkarlickiDaniel P., van JaarsveldDanielle D., and WalkerDavid D. (2008), “Getting Even for Customer Mistreatment: The Role of Moral Identity in the Relationship Between Customer Interpersonal Injustice and Employee Sabotage,”Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 1335–47.
46.
SoodSanjay, and KellerKevin Lane (2012), “The Effects of Brand Name Structure on Brand Extension Evaluations and Parent Brand Dilution,”Journal of Marketing Research, 49(June), 373–82.
47.
ŠtrachPavel, and EverettAndré M. (2006), “Brand Corrosion: Mass Marketing's Threat to Luxury Automobile Brands After Merger and Acquisition,”Journal of Product and Brand Management, 15(2), 106–120.
48.
SwaminathanVanitha, StilleyKaren, and AhluwaliaRohini (2009), “When Brand Personality Matters: The Moderating Role of Attachment Styles,”Journal of Consumer Research, 35(April), 985–1002.
49.
TajfelHenri, and TurnerJohn C. (1979), “An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict,”The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
50.
TropeYaacov, and LibermanNira (2003), “Temporal Construal,”Psychological Review, 110(3), 403–421.
51.
TropeYaacov, and LibermanNira (2010), “Construal Level Theory and Psychological Distance,”Psychological Review, 117(2), 440–63.
52.
TurnerJohn, C. (1985), “Social Categorization and the Self-Concept: A Social Cognitive Theory of Group Behavior,” in Advances in Group Processes: Theory and Research, Vol. 2, LawlerE.J., ed. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 77–121.
53.
ÜlkümenGülden, ChakravartiAmitav, and MorwitzVicki G. (2010), “Categories Create Mind-Sets: The Effect of Exposure to Broad Versus Narrow Categorizations on Subsequent, Unrelated Decisions,”Journal of Marketing Research, 47(August), 659–71.
54.
VerrochiNicole, ReedAmericusII, and TongJennifer (2009), “Moral Identity and Attributions of Corporate Social Responsibility,” in Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 36, McGillAnn L., and ShavittSharon, eds. Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 51–52.
55.
ChristianWheeler S., and BergerJonah (2007), “When the Same Prime Leads to Different Effects,”Journal of Consumer Research, 34(October), 357–68.
56.
ChristianWheeler S., DeMarreeKenneth G., and PettyRichard E. (2008), “A Match Made in the Laboratory: Persuasion and Matches to Primed Traits and Stereotypes,”Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(4), 1035–47.
57.
WhiteKate, and ArgoJennifer J. (2011), “When Imitation Doesn't Flatter: The Role of Consumer Distinctiveness in Responses to Mimicry,”Journal of Consumer Research, 38(December), 667–80.
58.
WhiteKate, and DahlDarren (2006), “To Be or Not Be: The Influence of Dissociative Reference Groups on Consumer Preferences,”Journal of Consumer Psychology, 16(4), 404–413.
59.
WhiteKate, and DahlDarren (2007), “Are All Out-Groups Created Equal? Consumer Identity and Dissociative Influence,”Journal of Consumer Research, 34(December), 525–36.
60.
WhiteKate Winterich, KarenP., MittalVikas, and WilliamT. RossJr. (2009), “Donation Behavior Toward In-Groups and Out-Groups: The Role of Gender and Moral Identity,”Journal of Consumer Research, 36(August), 199–214.
61.
YoonCarolyn, GutchessAngela H., FeinbergFred, and PolkThad A. (2006), “A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Neural Dissociations Between Brand and Person Judgments,”Journal of Consumer Research, 33(June), 31–40.
62.
ZhangYinlong, and KhareAdwait (2009), “The Impact of Accessible Identities on the Evaluation of Global Versus Local Products,”Journal of Consumer Research, 36(October), 524–37.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
