See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/355679803

Quiet versus loud luxury: the influence of overt and covert narcissism on
young Chinese and US luxury consumers' preferences?

Article in International Marketing Review · October 2021

DOI: 10.1108/IMR-02-2021-0093

CITATIONS READS

4 2,364

3 authors:

Ling Jiang Juan Shan

Université du Québec à Montréal Shanghai University
15 PUBLICATIONS 286 CITATIONS 22 PUBLICATIONS 366 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Annie Cui
West Virginia University
33 PUBLICATIONS 677 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Juan Shan on 30 December 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0265-1335.htm

Quiet versus loud luxury: Quiet versus

loud luxury
the influence of overt and covert
narcissism on young Chinese
and US luxury
consumers’ preferences? Received 27 February 2021
Revised 22 July 2021
19 September 2021
Ling Jiang Accepted 6 October 2021
School of Management, University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM),
Montreal, Canada
Annie Peng Cui
John Chambers College of Business and Economics, West Virginia University,
Morgantown, West Virginia, USA, and
Juan Shan
School of Management, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

Abstract
Purpose – This study examines the impact of narcissism on young luxury consumers’ preferences for quiet
versus loud luxury products in China and the United States. As young consumers are increasingly becoming
the bedrock of global luxury growth, it is imperative for marketing researchers and practitioners to understand
the psychological and social needs of these consumers.
Design/methodology/approach – A two-study examination of young Chinese and US luxury consumers
suggests that the two types of narcissism influence luxury consumption in different ways. Study 1 is a survey
of young Chinese consumers that examines how the impact of narcissism on luxury purchase is mediated by
social attitude functions and moderated by social anxiety. Study 2 is an experiment conducted in both the
United States and China that establishes the causal relationship between the different types of narcissism and
purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury products.
Findings – Building on an overarching framework that integrates both the narcissism literature and social attitude
function theory, this study shows that overt narcissistic (vs. covert) consumers hold a value-expressive (vs. social-
adjustive) attitude toward luxury products, which leads them to prefer quiet (vs. loud) luxury. In addition, higher
levels of social anxiety enhance the mediating role of narcissistic consumers’ social attitude functions.
Originality/value – This study advances understanding of young Chinese and US luxury consumers’
narcissistic consumption patterns by proposing and empirically testing a novel research model that examines
the mechanisms by which overt and covert narcissism leads to a different preference of quiet and loud luxury
via the routes of different social attitude functions.
Keywords Luxury consumption, Overt narcissism, Covert narcissism, Young luxury consumers, Loud
luxury, Quiet luxury, Social attitude function
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
With thousands of young fashion digital stars on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other social
media, global luxury brands are attracting an increasingly higher number of young consumers.
Estimates indicate that 60% of global luxury spending will be from consumers aged 40 years and

This research is supported by the Fonds de recherche du Qu
ebec-Soci
et
e et culture (FRQSC) and the International Marketing Review
Survey Research Grant by the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, West Virginia © Emerald Publishing Limited
0265-1335
University. DOI 10.1108/IMR-02-2021-0093
IMR below by 2026, as compared with 39% in 2019 (PSFK Research, 2020). This trend toward a
younger luxury fan base is especially prominent in the United States and China, the two largest
luxury markets in the world. In the United States, 85% of luxury growth is fueled by young
consumers (Bain and Company, 2019), while in China, the average age for luxury consumers is
10–15 years younger than those in most other luxury markets, with consumers younger than
40 years accounting for 79% of the country’s luxury consumers (Martin Roll, 2020). To jump on
the bandwagon of this global luxury spending trend, luxury brands must understand the
psychological and social needs that drive young consumers’ luxury consumption.
In this research, we focus on studying young luxury consumers and their narcissistic luxury
consumption preferences for at least three reasons. First, these consumers have an ever-
growing disposable income, which represents a dominant force for luxury market growth. US
consumers between 19 and 37 years of age had an estimated $2.5 trillion annual spending
power in 2020 (YPulse, 2020). According to Fung Business Intelligence (2017), young
consumers (younger than 40 years) are the bedrock of China’s growing purchasing power,
accounting for 65% of the country’s consumption growth. The company estimates that the
share of total consumption by this generation will reach 69% by the end of 2021. These
consumers are a dominant force and a key segment fueling the country’s consumption engine
(Dudarenok, 2021; McKinsey and Company, 2019). Second, as a result of unprecedented
emotional attention and economic support from their nuclear family, young consumers carry
unique psychological characteristics compared to older consumers, which leads to heightened
demand for luxury products (Jiang and Shan, 2018). For example, research has found that
young consumers are more self-centered than previous generations (Twenge, 2013).
Summarizing five studies, Twenge (2013) finds a generational increase in narcissism and
concludes that young consumers are increasingly becoming “Generation Me” versus
“Generation We”. Previous research suggests that consumers’ narcissism, as an important
psychological trait, has a profound impact on their purchase behaviors and brand loyalty
(Fastoso et al., 2018). Thus, young consumers provide a perfect backdrop for examining the
impact of narcissistic sentiments on luxury consumption. Third, young consumers acquire
product-related information differently from their parent’s generation. Unlike older consumers,
they grew up with a prevalence of social media, which offers them a perfect platform to express
their uniqueness in fashion taste and demonstrate their desirable self-image. Research has
found that social media usage is positively associated with narcissism (McCain and Keith,
2018). Young narcissistic consumers constantly post selfies on Instagram and vlogs on TikTok.
Luxury brands are often the focal points in these social media postings, given their symbolic
meaning and self-expressive value. Therefore, examining how narcissism influences young
consumers’ luxury consumption provides both researchers and luxury brand managers a
unique angle to understand this distinctive consumer segment’s consumption behavior.
This study advances understanding of young consumers’ narcissistic consumption in at
least four ways. First, to the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have examined the
young narcissistic consumer segment in the global luxury marketing setting. Specifically, we
conducted our research with narcissistic luxury consumers from the two largest luxury
markets in the world, the United States and China. Our findings offer theoretical and
managerial insights to better understand the psychological and social drivers of this global
segment when they make luxury purchase decisions. Accordingly, narcissism can serve as a
global segmentation tool to examine similar consumer characteristics across country borders.
Second, contrary to common wisdom and previous research (e.g. Neave et al., 2020) on
narcissism and conspicuous luxury consumption, we propose that narcissism does not
always lead to higher purchase intention toward loud luxury products (e.g. products with
easily recognizable brand logos and/or designs). Quiet luxury products (e.g. products with
discrete brand logos and/or designs) also enable consumers to express their unique fashion
tastes and thus fulfill narcissistic consumers’ elevated self-image. To further uncover
narcissistic consumers’ preference for loud versus quiet luxury products, we distinguish Quiet versus
overt (i.e. narcissists who are extroverted, bold and attention-seeking) from covert loud luxury
(i.e. narcissists who are shy, withdrawn or self-deprecating) narcissism and examine how
these two types of narcissism influence luxury consumption. Although both types of
consumers show high levels of excessive admiration for themselves, overt narcissists differ in
how they present themselves in public and how they view themselves (Wink, 1991). Overt
narcissists are never shy of displaying a self-centered, overly confident image publicly, while
covert narcissists are often insecure and lack self-esteem (Miller et al., 2011; Wink, 1991). We
propose that owing to these fundamental differences, overt and covert narcissists seek
different benefits and values in luxury consumption. Therefore, they demonstrate different
preferences for quiet versus loud luxury products.
Third, this study focuses on the underlying mechanism through which these two forms of
narcissism influence young consumers’ luxury preferences. Our study offers a theoretical
explanation for this mechanism by examining two mediators—value-expressive attitude and
social-adjustive attitude—that lead overt and covert narcissistic consumers down different paths
when making luxury product purchase decisions (i.e. loud versus quiet luxury products).
Consequently, this study breaks new ground in the international luxury literature by examining
how luxury products satisfy different psychological and social needs of global young consumers.
Fourth, this study answers the call for research to determine what drives consumers’ choices
between quiet and loud luxury products (Kauppinen-R€ais€anen et al., 2018; Makkar and Yap, 2018a;
Pino et al., 2019). Previous research has documented a trend for quiet luxury, and luxury brands
charge a premium price for quiet luxury products (i.e. a Louis Vuitton handbag with a small logo)
compared with loud luxury products (i.e. a Louis Vuitton handbag with a large logo) (Eckhardt
et al., 2015; Jiang et al., 2021; Shao et al., 2019). Remaining unclear, however, is how young luxury
consumers perceive the value of quiet luxury and how this perception is influenced by their
narcissistic tendencies. Our study explicitly answers these questions through a systematic
examination of the effect of the two types of narcissism (i.e. overt and covert narcissism) on Chinese
and US young consumers’ luxury consumption preference through a multi-method approach.
The structure of this paper is as follows: we first synthesize previous studies on narcissism and
luxury consumption, after which we discuss our theoretical model. We then develop our
hypotheses and present the study design. Next, we discuss our study results. Finally, we discuss
the theoretical contributions and managerial implications and provide avenues for future research.

2. Theoretical framework
2.1 Young narcissistic luxury consumers: a global phenomenon
Narcissism refers to people’s tendency to admire themselves excessively (Campbell and
Foster, 2007; Kang and Park, 2016; Lee et al., 2013). It is considered both a psychological
disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Freud, 1991) and a personality trait
(Chokshi, 2019; Fastoso et al., 2018; Weiser, 2015). The most prominent feature of narcissists is
self-centeredness (Campbell and Foster, 2007; Wink, 1991). Studies indicate that narcissism
has become a global epidemic, with increasingly more people demonstrating narcissistic
tendencies (Newman, 2018; Vater et al., 2018). This is because a worldwide mainstream value
today is to inspire people to boost their self-esteem, achieve success and seek uniqueness.
Moreover, the prevalence of smartphones and social media has pushed people to live in a
virtual reality in which everyone strives to exhibit an ideal self in carefully edited and
enhanced pictures. Narcissism is particularly prevalent among young adults as they indulge
in social media and selfie-taking (Chokshi, 2019; Panek et al., 2013; Weiser, 2015).
The field of consumer behavior treats narcissism both as a personality trait that
consumers tend to consistently exhibit to varying degrees (Fastoso et al., 2018; Sedikides
et al., 2007); and a situational construct that the state of narcissist can be activated in specific
IMR situations (De Bellis et al., 2016; Sakellaropooulo and Baldwn, 2007). Consumers scoring high
on narcissism are eager to attract attention and admiration, so they show great interest in
buying symbolic products to boost their self-image (Lee et al., 2013; Sedikides et al., 2007). For
young consumers, symbolic products, which are generally prestigious luxury brands, serve
as key elements of self-image expression. Owning luxuries enables young consumers who are
highly concerned about the self to realize a brand-image—self-image congruity (Sirgy, 1982).
Specifically, buying luxuries is a means for them to feel like their self-images are in
accordance with the luxury brands’ prestigious images. Not surprisingly, previous research
has found that narcissism has a positive influence on luxury consumption behaviors (Cisek
et al., 2014; Sedikides et al., 2007; Velov et al., 2014).
In adopting the psychologist view that consumers’ narcissistic orientation is not a
monolith (Fastoso et al., 2018; Lambert and Desmond, 2013), recent consumer behavior
research has further found that different forms of narcissism give rise to different tendencies
in luxury purchasing preferences. Specifically, two subtypes are overt (or grandiose) and
covert (or vulnerable) narcissism (Akhtar and Thomson, 1982; Wink, 1991). While overt
narcissists openly display self-satisfied, arrogant, ambitious and grandiose tendencies (Wink,
1991), covert narcissists are more subtle in showing their narcissism and instead appear
hypersensitive, timid and insecure (Miller et al., 2011). Adopting a qualitative exploratory
approach, Kang and Park (2016) indicate that covert narcissist consumers value quantity
over quality, prefer low-priced trendy luxury items and even purchase counterfeits because
luxuries are means to show off; conversely, overt narcissist consumers value quality over
quantity, and thus prefer genuine luxury products to express an elevated self. In a similar
vein, Fastoso et al. (2018) found that young Chinese consumers scoring high on covert
narcissism showed less strong brand loyalty than those scoring high on overt narcissism, and
thus were more prone to buy counterfeit luxury brands. Neave et al. (2020) further found that
both narcissistic subtypes, which they named as grandiose (overt) and vulnerable (covert)
(e.g. Fastoso et al., 2018; Wink, 1991), engaged in conspicuous luxury consumption. They
argue that overt narcissists are motivated to buy conspicuous luxury products to reflect their
perceived grandiose self, while covert narcissists want to avoid negative social evaluations
and thus buy conspicuous luxury products to compensate for their fragile self (Neave
et al., 2020).
In summary, recent luxury consumption literature suggests that the two subtypes of
narcissism indeed play an important role in explaining consumer’s luxury consumption
(Fastoso et al., 2018; Kang and Park, 2016; Neave et al., 2020). This study contributes to this
stream of literature by proposing and empirically testing an alternative model that argues
narcissism does not always lead to conspicuous luxury consumption. Quiet luxury (e.g. low-
key and logo-free luxury products) may fulfill the psychological needs of overt narcissists
who strive to demonstrate their unique fashion tastes. As such, our study builds an integrated
framework incorporating the two subtypes of narcissism (i.e. overt and covert narcissism),
the two types of luxury products (quiet and loud luxury products) and two social attitude
functions (i.e. value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes) to further examine the
mechanisms by which narcissism influences luxury consumption.

2.2 Preference for quiet versus loud luxury

Recent luxury consumption literature divides luxury into two groups: loud and quiet luxury
(Amatulli et al., 2020; Jiang et al., 2021; Pino et al., 2019). Loud luxury features products with
high brand prominence that enable the general public to recognize the brand quickly,
whereas quiet luxury displays discreetly marked products that are less recognizable to the
masses. In other words, the difference between quiet and loud luxury is whether the product
has visible and recognizable brand signals (Han et al., 2010). The luxury literature indicates
that loud and quiet luxury products appeal to different consumer motivations.
The motivation to buy loud luxury is related to conspicuous luxury consumption— Quiet versus
consumers purchase recognizable luxury products to show social status (O’Cass and Frost, loud luxury
2002; Vigneron and Johnson, 1999) and enhance self-image (Kauppinen-R€ais€anen et al., 2018;
Shukla, 2008; Truong, 2010). Quiet luxury, on the other hand, relates to consumers’
internalized motivation where the luxury consumption has more to do with aesthetics (Wu
et al., 2017), personality (Kauppinen-R€ais€anen et al., 2018; Makkar and Yap, 2018b) and
hedonics (Amatulli et al., 2020) than with status signaling. Eckhart and her colleagues (2015)
indicate that consuming quiet (instead of loud) luxury is on the rise. This is because many
luxury brands adopt a “masstige luxury” strategy, which makes luxury products more
attainable by the general public than ever before. Thus, in order to regain exclusivity and
superiority, elite consumers now turn to quiet luxury that features subtle but distinctive
styles (Eckhardt et al., 2015). In line with this argument, researchers have found that
consumers who purchase quiet luxury seek products that help them differentiate themselves
from the masses (Berger and Ward, 2010; Han et al., 2010) and show personal taste
(Kauppinen-R€ais€anen et al., 2018; Makkar and Yap, 2018b; Wu et al., 2017).
By combining these two streams of research, we expect overt and covert narcissistic
young consumers to differ in their preferences for quiet and loud luxury. We argue that overt
narcissism is positively related to young consumers’ preference for quiet (vs. loud) luxury for
two reasons. First, quiet luxury products are usually discreet pieces recognizable only by
people with high cultural capital and good taste and thus are viewed as superior products
(Amatulli et al., 2020; Berger and Ward, 2010; Han et al., 2010). Second, researchers have noted
that young luxury consumers scoring high on overt narcissism exhibit high self-esteem and a
strong desire to stand out from the crowd (Fastoso et al., 2018; Ng et al., 2011). In this sense, we
can expect that quiet luxury with unusual designs would appeal to overt narcissists because
it helps consumers demonstrate their sophisticated taste.
By contrast, covert narcissistic consumers focus on protecting their perceived fragile self
when making luxury purchase decisions (Kang and Park, 2016). Thus, luxury products ac as
an instrument to avoid threats and conceal fragility rather than convey superiority (Neave
et al., 2020). Previous studies indicate that consumers buy loud luxuries to compensate for a
state of fragility (Rucker and Galinsky, 2008) and gain social approval (Zhan and He, 2012).
Therefore, we propose that covert narcissistic young consumers are more likely to prefer loud
luxury products because the visible, flashy and recognizable features are effective markers in
compensating for their uncertain self and showing an enhanced self-image. Thus, we predict
the following:
H1. Overt narcissism is positively related to purchase intention toward quiet versus loud
luxury.
H2. Covert narcissism is negatively related to purchase intention toward quiet versus
loud luxury.

2.3 Social attitude functions

Previous studies indicate that two social attitude functions—namely, social-adjustive and
value-expressive—play critical roles in consumers’ luxury consumption decision-making
(Bian and Forsythe, 2012; Jiang et al., 2021). For narcissist consumers, gaining positive social
feedback is crucial because it boosts their ego (Baumeister and Leary, 1995). By combining
these two streams of literature, we believe that the characteristics of a narcissistic orientation
in relation to consumers’ social attitude functions would further explain the subtypes of
narcissism on young consumers’ preferences for luxury.
According to previous studies, when attitudes serve a social-adjustive function,
consumers buy to regulate the self in the social environment to project a favorable self-
image to others. Conversely, the value-expressive attitude function enables consumers to buy
IMR to express their true selves (Bian and Forsythe, 2012; Wilcox et al., 2009). In other words, the
social-adjustive attitude function works on others’ perspectives, as consumers are motivated
to gain approval from others, while the value-expressive attitude function focuses on
showing the unique self, including beliefs, attitudes or tastes.
Kang and Park (2016) argue that overt narcissistic consumers tend to view luxury
products as a reflection of who they are, while covert narcissistic consumers tend to use
luxury items as a means to follow the fashion trend. Along the same lines, Neave et al. (2020)
note that overt narcissists care about distinguishing themselves from others via luxury
products, while covert narcissists tend to use luxury brands to seek social approval. The
social attitude function theory indicates that when consumers hold value-expressive
attitudes, they view luxury consumption as a way to show their true self (Jiang et al., 2021;
Wilcox et al., 2009). Quiet luxury is considered “exclusive” items for privileged insiders that
have less to do with display and more to do with aestheticism and craftsmanship (Makkar
and Yap, 2018b; Wu et al., 2017). Accordingly, the value-expressive attitude helps overt
narcissistic consumers fulfill their need for uniqueness and pursuit of aesthetics, which in
turn increase their preferences for quiet luxury. By contrast, covert narcissistic consumers
who are looking for approaching others would have the social-adjustive attitude in luxury
consumption, and when their social-adjustive attitude function is activated, they strive for
social approval (Bian and Forsythe, 2012), which in turn increases their likelihood to purchase
loud luxury products that have noticeable identity-signaling cues and symbolic meanings.
Thus, we propose that overt (vs. covert) narcissistic consumers are likely to hold value-
expressive (vs. social-adjustive) attitudes, which in turn cause them to prefer quiet (vs. loud)
luxury. In other words, we predict that the two parallel mediators (value-expressive and
social-adjustive attitudes) jointly explain the effect of different forms of narcissism on
preference for quiet versus loud luxury products. Thus:
H3. The value-expressive attitude function mediates the positive relationship between
overt narcissism and purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury.
H4. The social-adjustive attitude function mediates the negative relationship between
covert narcissism and purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury.

2.4 Social anxiety

Social anxiety refers to a condition in which individuals fear being negatively evaluated in
real or imagined social situations (Hart et al., 2008). It usually arises when individuals are
overly concerned about others’ comments about them (Bl€ote et al., 2014). Social anxiety is
more salient when individuals attempt to express or create a desirable self to others (Goffman,
1959; Schlenker and Leary, 1982). The cognitive behavior model indicates that the fear of
negative evaluation is a core cause of social anxiety (Bautista and Hope, 2015; Rapee and
Heimberg, 1997).
As indicated previously, overt and covert narcissism are different types of narcissism and
thus elicit different behavior patterns. For example, overt narcissists have a sense of privilege
and vigorously pursue social success (Akhtar and Thomson, 1982). By contrast, covert
narcissists are hypersensitive, are insecure and feel inferior, and thus they are more prone to
behave defensively (Wink, 1991). In this sense, we posit that when overt and covert
narcissists experience social anxiety, their manifestations will differ. In other words, they
should worry about different types of negative evaluations.
Specifically, following Fastoso et al. (2018), we use the theory of approach–avoidance
motivation to determine overt and covert narcissists’ luxury purchasing behavior. Overt
narcissists tend to have a propensity to move toward a perceived grandiose self; that is, they
have an approach-oriented enhancement motive. Conversely, covert narcissists have a
tendency to move away from the inferiority feeling of the self; that is, they have an avoidance-
oriented protection motive (Foster and Trimm, 2008; Sedikides and Gregg, 2001). As such, as Quiet versus
overt narcissistic consumers’ motivation is to approach a grandiose self through luxury, they loud luxury
tend to be concerned about whether they are superior to others. We therefore propose that, by
holding a value-expressive attitude, overt narcissists’ purchase intention toward quiet luxury
will be salient when they experience social anxiety. This is because quiet luxury features
anonymously superior items that are limited to the “superior few” who possess ultra-wealth
and high cultural capital (Berger and Ward, 2010; Eckhardt et al., 2015; Han et al., 2010). By
contrast, an avoidance motivation leads covert narcissistic consumers to focus on pulling
themselves back from social disapproval. Therefore, social anxiety should manifest as a fear
of being rejected or ignored. Previous research indicates that consumers buy loud luxury to fit
in their social groups or avoid the feeling of being left behind by others (Kang and Park, 2016;
Lee and Shrum, 2012; Wilcox et al., 2009). In this regard, we propose that when covert
narcissistic consumers feel social anxiety, their social-adjustive attitude will lead to an
increased purchase intention toward loud luxury. Thus:
H5. Social anxiety moderates the positive relationship between value-expressive attitude
function and purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury, such that this
relationship is stronger when consumers’ social anxiety is high rather than low.
H6. Social anxiety moderates the negative relationship between social-adjustive attitude
function and purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury, such that this
relationship is stronger when consumers’ social anxiety is high rather than low.

3. Method
We followed a multi-method approach (survey and experiment) to validate our hypotheses by
using both US and Chinese samples (see Figure A1 for the research models). While Study 1
aims to establish a correlational relationship, Study 2 aims to establish causal relationships
by manipulating the two forms of narcissism and the social attitude functions to further
validate the model in different countries (i.e. the United States and China).
We followed the well-established research to generate the stimuli. Specifically, we used the
genuine Louis Vuitton (LV) handbags issued from the brands’ official website in study 1’s
survey. The selected handbags stay in the same collection but different in terms of the brands’
signature color, pattern and logo visibility (Han et al., 2010; Wilcox et al., 2009; see Figure A2);
In study 2, we illustrated two abstract Gucci unisex T-shirt to avoid the bias that respondents
may choose upon the look or the color palette of the product (Wang and Griskevicius, 2014;
see Figure A3). Here are the reasons for the brand and product choices: First, Louis Vuitton
and Gucci are among the top list of the most popular luxury brands, especially for young
consumers (Vogue, 2021), so that respondents should be highly familiar with and recognize
these brands (Kaufmann et al., 2016); second, fashion products such as handbag and apparel
are efficient tools for young consumers to symbolize the self-identities (Han et al., 2010) and
third, both handbags and apparel are daily essentials that equally popular among women and
men (Greenberg et al., 2020). By using a different brand and product category in both survey
(study 1) and experiment (study 2) with samples from different countries would ensure both
generalizability and validity of our research.
Further, we pretest the two pairs of Louis Vuitton handbags and the Gucci T-shirts
(prominent logo vs. subtle logo) on brand prominence through an online survey (LV: n 5 140;
Gucci: n 5 120). Each respondent randomly evaluated one of the two pictures of LV
handbags/Gucci T-shirts (prominent logo vs. subtle logo). We measured brand prominence
with three items (e.g. “The product is easily noticeable by most people”) adapted from Han
et al. (2010) and Rucker and Galinsky (2008). In addition, we controlled for the brand
familiarity of LV/Gucci by asking the respondents “To what extent is Louis Vuitton/Gucci a
IMR familiar brand to you?” from 1 (not at all) to 7 (very much). A one-way ANOVA showed that
respondents who saw the loud Louis Vuitton handbag/Gucci T-shirt reported significantly
higher scores of brand prominence than those who saw the quiet Louis Vuitton handbag/
Gucci T-shirt (LV: Mloud 5 5.38 vs. Mquiet 5 3.09, F (1, 137) 5 285.02, p < 0.001; Gucci:
Mloud 5 5.63 vs. Mquiet 5 3.05, F (1, 117) 5 297.06, p < 0.001). Further, brand familiarity did not
impact the brand prominence (LV: F (1, 137) 5 1.28, p 5 ns; Gucci: F (1, 117) 5 2.33, p 5 ns).

4. Study 1
4.1 Sample and measurement
The target participants for this research were young luxury consumers aged 18–40 years
who had bought luxury fashion goods within the past 12 months or planned to do so within
the following year. We set up the luxury buying experience question as a screening question
to make sure that only qualified respondents were able to proceed to complete the
questionnaire. The final sample consisted of 370 young Chinese consumers recruited from the
online data collection platform Sojump. Of the participants, 57% were female; 22.7% were
between the ages of 18–25 years, 59.2% were between the ages of 26–30 years and 18% were
between the ages of 31 and 40 years.
After the screening question, qualified respondents were assigned to the gender-specific
luxury handbags (Louis Vuitton) according to their gender. They were shown the two pairs of
handbags (prominent logo vs. subtle logo) selected during the pretest (see Figure A2). In line
with prior research (Berger and Ward, 2010; Han et al., 2010), we measured the purchase
intention towards quiet versus loud by using three bi-polar scales labelled with a more visible
and prominent Louis-Vuitton logo at one end and a less visible and prominent Louis-Vuitton
logo at the other end. The respondents were told that the two genuine luxury products could
be acquired for the same price and were asked to evaluate which option they would be more
likely to purchase. In addition, we asked the respondents to evaluate the likability of the
product design and brand familiarity. Last, they responded to a set of questions about overt
narcissism, covert narcissism, social-adjustive attitude, value-expressive attitude, social
anxiety and demographics. In order to ensure data quality, we also randomly inserted an
attention check question into the survey questions.

4.2 Measures
All measures used in the study came from prior research and then were reviewed by an expert
panel of five marketing researchers to ensure content validity. We used the back-translation
method to ensure that the translated Chinese versions of the items maintained their original
English meaning (Brislin, 1970). Table 1 lists all the scales and key statistics.
We measured overt narcissism using the NPI-16 scale, adopted from Ames et al. (2006).
The respondents were asked to choose the closest description of their personality from 16
pairs of statements reflecting narcissistic (1 score) and non-narcissistic (0 score) behavior (e.g.
“I like to be the center of attention” versus “I prefer to blend in with the crowd”). We added the
scores for all 16 items to reflect respondents’ overt narcissism; these ranged from 0 (not at all
narcissistic) to 16 (very narcissistic) (Raskin and Hall, 1979). We measured purchase intention
with three items (e.g. “I would prefer to buy . . . “), adopted from Gao et al. (2016). We measured
covert narcissism with a 10-item hypersensitive narcissism scale (e.g. “I often interpret the
remarks of others in a personal way”), adopted from Hendin and Cheek (1997). We measured
social-adjustive attitude with six items (e.g. “It is important for my friends to know the luxury
brand I possess”), adopted from the established research (Grewal et al., 2004). The value-
expressive attitude was measured through a six-item scale (e.g. “Luxury brands reflect the
kind of person I see myself to be”), adopted from Grewal et al. (2004). Finally, we used a six-
 Standardized
Quiet versus
Constructs and their items coefficients loud luxury
Overt narcissism (NPI-16 scale) (Ames et al., 2006): α 5 0.70
Overt narcissism was measured using the NPI-16 forced-choice scale
The scores were added for all 16 items to reflect individuals’ overt narcissism (0 5 not
at all narcissistic, 16 5 very narcissistic)
Covert narcissism (Hendin and Cheek, 1997): α 5 0.95; CR 5 0.95; AVE 5 0.71
1. I can become entirely absorbed in thinking about my personal affairs, my health, my 0.93
cares or my relations to others
2. My feelings are easily hurt by ridicule or by the slighting remarks of others 0.95
3. When I enter a room I often become self-conscious and feel that the eyes of others are 0.87
upon me
4. I dislike sharing the credits of an achievement with others 0.55
5. I dislike being with a group unless I know that I am appreciated by at least one of those 0.73
present
6. I feel that I am temperamentally different from most people 0.68
7. I often interpret the remarks of others in a personal way 0.94
8. I easily become wrapped up in my own interests and forget the existence of others 0.95
9. I am secretly “put out” when other people come to me with their troubles, asking me 0.86
for my time and sympathy
Purchase intention (Gao et al., 2016): α 5 0.91; CR 5 0.91; AVE 5 0.78
1. I would buy . . . 0.92
2. I would prefer to buy . . . 0.85
3. I am very interested in buying . . . 0.87
Social-adjustive attitude (Grewal et al., 2004): α 5 0.95; CR 5 0.95; AVE 5 0.77
1. It is important for my friends to know the luxury brand I possess 0.90
2. Luxury brands are a symbol of social status 0.87
3. Luxury brands help me in fitting into important social situations 0.87
4. I like to be seen with my luxury brands 0.90
5. The luxury brand that a person owns tells me a lot about that person 0.87
6. My luxury brand indicates to others the kind of person I am 0.85
Value-expressive attitude (Grewal et al., 2004): α 5 0.93; CR 5 0.92; AVE 5 0.65
1. Luxury brands reflect the kind of person I see myself to be 0.70
2. Luxury brands ascertain my self-identity 0.97
3. Luxury brands make me feel good about myself 0.73
4. Luxury brands are an instrument to my self-expression 0.76
5. Luxury brands play a critical role in defining my self-concept 0.99
6. Luxury brands help me establish the kind of person I see myself to be 0.63
Social anxiety (Hart et al., 2008): α 5 0.95; CR 5 0.96; AVE 5 0.80
1. I am afraid that people find me unattractive 0.92
2. I worry people will judge the way I look negatively 0.90
3. I am concerned people will find me unappealing because of my appearance 0.89
4. I am frequently afraid I would not meet others’ standards of how I should look 0.91
5. I am concerned that people think I am not good looking 0.89 Table 1.
6. I feel anxious when other people say something about my appearance 0.86 Reliability analysis and
Notes(s): CR 5 composite reliability; AVE 5 average variance extracted CFA of measures

item reduced scale developed by Hart et al. (2008) to measure social anxiety (e.g. “I feel
anxious when other people say something about my appearance”). All items of the variables
were rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).
To test the reliability and convergent validity of the variables, we first conducted a series of
exploratory factor analyses and then validated the constructs with confirmatory factor
analysis. After dropping one item of covert narcissism, the analyses showed that all the items
IMR used to measure covert narcissism, purchase intention, social-adjustive attitude, value-
expressive attitude and social anxiety loaded strongly (λ > 0.50) and significantly on their
respective target factors. The Cronbach’s alpha value of each construct range from 0.70 to 0.90,
suggesting satisfactory internal reliability of all scales. Next, we included all constructs in an
overall confirmatory measurement model, which yielded satisfactory model fits (χ 2/df 5 1.99,
IFI 5 0.97, CFI 5 0.97, NFI 5 0.94, RMSEA 5 0.04). The composite reliability of each construct
was higher than the recommended thresholds (range: 0.91–0.96). All average variance extracted
(AVE) values were also above 0.5 (range: 0.65–0.80). All the items presented significant loadings
(range: 0.55–0.99). In addition, the correlation of the variables was smaller than the square roots
of the relevant constructs’ AVEs, indicating discriminant validity. Therefore, in applying the
procedures Fornell and Larcker (1981) and Bagozzi et al. (1991) suggest, we confirm convergent
and discriminant validity (see Table 1). Table 2 presents the descriptive statistics, as well as
correlations between the various constructs.
4.3 Hypotheses testing and results
We used the PROCESS macro for SPSS (Hayes, 2013; model 14) to test our research model and
hypotheses. The advantage of a PROCESS moderated mediation model is that it includes the
bootstrapping technique (bootstrap 5 5,000) to provide the conditional indirect effect results
and generate a robust estimation for the proposed model (Hayes, 2013).
To explore the relationship between overt narcissism and purchase intention toward quiet
versus loud luxury (H1), and the underlying mechanism of value-expressive attitude (H3), as
well as the moderating role of social anxiety (H5), we conducted a moderated mediation
analysis (Hayes, 2013, model 14, 5,000 bootstrap samples), with overt narcissism as the
independent variable (IV), value-expressive attitude as the mediator, social anxiety as the
moderator and purchase intention as the dependent variable (DV). We also added brand
familiarity and product likability as the covariates into the model. Among the control
variables, only brand familiarity had a significant, positive effect on value-expressive
attitude (β 5 0.23, p < 0.05). In contrast, none of the covariates had a significant effect on
purchase intention (p 5 ns). The regression analysis indicated a significant, positive main
effect of overt narcissism on purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury (β 5 0.12,
t 5 5.14, p < 0.001), in support of H1. The mediation analysis showed that overt narcissism
had a positive effect on value-expressive attitude (β 5 0.20, t 5 11.21, p < 0.001), which in turn
had a positive effect on purchase intention (β 5 0.25, t 5 3.15, p < 0.01). In addition, when we
controlled for the mediator, overt narcissism did not have a significant direct effect on
purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury (β 5
0.002, t 5
0.11, ns), suggesting
the full mediating role of value-expressive attitude. Thus, H3 was supported. In addition, we
found that social anxiety significantly interacted with value-expressive attitude to influence
purchase intention toward quiet versus loud luxury (β 5 0.04, t 5 2.16, p < 0.05). As shown in
Table 3, the conditional indirect effect of overt narcissism on purchase intention through
value-expressive attitude was stronger and significant at high level of social anxiety
(Effect 5 0.10, SE 5 0.02, 95% CI [0.06, 0.14]), while weaker and significant at low level of

M Sd 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 Overt narcissism 5.83 3.19 1

2 Covert narcissism 4.54 1.50
0.01 1
Table 2. 3 Social-adjustive attitude 4.33 1.56
0.09 0.68** 1
Means, standard 4 Value-expressive attitude 4.73 1.38 0.49**
0.19**
0.21** 1
deviation and 5 Social anxiety 4.70 1.51 0.16**
0.29**
0.31** 0.44** 1
correlations of 6 Purchase intention 4.57 1.55 0.28**
0.38**
0.41** 0.64** 0.70** 1
variables Note(s): **p < 0.01
Predictors β SE t
Quiet versus
loud luxury
Outcomes: value-expressive attitude (R2 5 0.25, F (3, 366) 5 40.71)
Overt narcissism 0.20*** 0.02 11.21
Control variables
Brand familiarity 0.23* 0.09 2.49
Product likability 0.02 0.04 0.59
Outcomes: purchase intention (R2 5 0.73, F (6, 363) 5 167.73)
Overt narcissism
0.002 0.02
0.11
Value-expressive attitude (VE) 0.25** 0.08 3.15
Social anxiety 0.47*** 0.08 5.57
VE 3 Social anxiety 0.04* 0.02 2.16
Control variables
Brand familiarity 0.03 0.06 0.52
Product likability 0.05 0.03 1.87
Direct effect of overt narcissism on purchase intention

0.002 0.02
0.11
Conditional indirect effect through VE across levels of social anxiety Table 3.
Moderator Level Mean Effect SE 95% CI Test of the mediating
Social anxiety Low (
1 SD) 3.19 0.07 0.01 0.05, 0.10 impact of value-
High (þ1 SD) 6.21 0.10 0.02 0.06, 0.14 expressive attitude and
moderating impact of
Index of moderated mediation: Index 5 0.01, SE 5 0.004, 95% CI [0.0001, 0.02] social anxiety on the
Note(s): We also run the PROCESS model 14 without the covariates, the details results can be found in effect of overt
Table A1; Number of bootstrapping samples 5 5,000; CI 5 confidence intervals; Low 5 1 SD below the mean narcissism on purchase
value; High 5 1 SD above the mean value; p < 0.001; p < 0.01; p < 0.05
*** ** *
intention (Study 1)

social anxiety (Effect 5 0.07, SE 5 0.01, 95% CI [0.05, 0.10]). In addition, the moderated
mediation analysis (Process, model 14) with overt narcissism as IV, purchase intention as DV,
value-expressive attitude as mediator, social anxiety as moderator showed that the index of
the moderated mediation was positive and significant (index 5 0.01, SE 5 0.004, 95% CI
[0.0001, 0.02]), suggesting the overall moderated mediation model was validated. Thus, we
had enough evidence to support H5.
We conducted the same analysis (Hayes, 2013, model 14, 5,000 bootstrap samples) to test
the negative relationship between covert narcissism and purchase intention toward quiet
versus loud luxury (H2), the mediating role of social-adjustive attitude (H4), as well as the
moderating role of social anxiety (H6). We controlled for brand familiarity and product
likability in the model. None of the covariates had a significant effect on the social-adjustive
attitude and purchase intention (p 5 ns). The regression analysis indicated that covert
narcissism had a significant, negative main effect on purchase intention toward quiet versus
loud luxury (β 5
0.37, t 5
7.47, p < 0.001), supporting H2. The mediation analysis also
revealed that covert narcissism had a positive effect on social-adjustive attitude (β 5 0.69,
t 5 17.25, p < 0.001), which in turn had a negative effect on purchase intention toward quiet
versus loud luxury (β 5
0.44, t 5
3.70, p < 0.001). When we controlled for the mediator,
covert narcissism still had a significant direct effect on purchase intention toward quiet
versus loud luxury (β 5
0.09, t 5
2.01, p < 0.05), suggesting the partial mediating role of
social-adjustive attitude. Thus, H4 was supported. In addition, social anxiety significantly
interacted with social-adjustive attitude to influence purchase intention toward quiet versus
loud luxury (β 5 0.06, t 5 2.74, p < 0.01), in support of H6. Furthermore, as shown in Table 4,
the conditional indirect effect of covert narcissism on purchase intention through social-
IMR Predictors β SE t

Outcomes: social-adjustive attitude (R2 5 0.46, F (3, 366) 5 104.19)

Covert narcissism 0.69*** 0.04 17.25
Control variables
Brand familiarity
0.12 0.09
1.37
Product likability
0.02 0.04
0.41
Outcomes: purchase intention (R2 5 0.67, F (6, 363) 5 122.96)
Covert narcissism
0.09* 0.04
2.01
Social-adjustive attitude (SA)
0.44*** 0.12
3.70
Social anxiety 0.43*** 0.11 3.75
SA 3 social anxiety 0.06** 0.02 2.74
Control variables
Brand familiarity 0.06 0.07 0.78
Product likability 0.04 0.03 1.22
Direct effect of covert narcissism on purchase intention

0.09* 0.04
2.01

Table 4. Conditional indirect effect through SA across levels of social anxiety

Test of the mediating Moderator Level Mean Effect SE 95% CI
impact of social- Social anxiety Low (
1 SD) 3.19
0.04 0.03
0.10, 0.02
adjustive attitude and High (þ1 SD) 6.21
0.17 0.04
0.25,
0.10
moderating impact of
social anxiety on the Index of moderated mediation: Index 5 0.04, SE 5 0.01, 95% CI [0.02, 0.07]
effect of covert Notes(s): We also run the PROCESS model 14 without the covariates, the details results can be found in
narcissism on purchase Table A2; Number of bootstrapping samples 5 5,000; CI 5 confidence intervals; Low 5 1 SD below the mean
intention (Study 1) value; High 5 1 SD above the mean value; ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05

adjustive attitude was stronger and significant at high level of social anxiety (Effect 5
0.17,
SE 5 0.04, 95% CI [
0.25,
0.10]), but was weaker and not significant at low level of social
anxiety (Effect 5
0.04, SE 5 0.03, 95% CI [
0.10, 0.02]). The moderated mediation analysis
with covert narcissism as IV, purchase intention as DV, social-adjustive attitude as mediator,
social anxiety as moderator showed that index of the moderated mediation was positive and
significant (index 5 0.04, SE 5 0.01, 95% CI [0.02, 0.07]), suggesting the overall moderated
mediation model was validated. Thus, we had enough evidence to support H6.

5. Study 2
5.1 Design, participants and procedure
To test the causal relationship of our model in the global settings, we conducted an
experiment in Study 2. This experiment was a 2 (narcissism: overt vs. covert) 3 3 (social
attitude functions: social-adjustive vs. value-expressive vs. control) between-subjects design.
In total, 224 young American consumers (Age range between 18 and 40, Mage 5 33 years,
SDage 5 4.99; 65.6% female) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and 365 young
Chinese consumers (Age range between 18 and 40, Mage 5 30 years, SDage 5 5.37; 60.3%
female) recruited from Sojump participated in the study.
To ensure the data quality, we used the same screening question and attention check-
question in study 1. Qualified respondents were randomly assigned to one of the six
experimental cells. Next, they were asked to indicate their purchase intention toward two
Gucci T-shirts (prominent logo vs. subtle logo). Finally, they finished the manipulation check
and demographic questions.
5.2 Manipulations and measures Quiet versus
While most previous research examined narcissism as a personal trait (e.g. Fastoso et al., loud luxury
2018; Neave et al., 2020), more recent research suggests narcissism can be situational, and
thus the state of narcissism can be manipulated by experimental designs (Sakellaropoulo and
Baldwin, 2007; Bellis et al., 2016). Sakellaropoulo and Baldwin (2007) and Bellis et al. (2016)
successfully manipulated narcissism using a visualization task that asks consumers to recall
a personal experience in which they had impressed someone. To induce overt vs. covert
narcissism, we built on this visualization task and added further instructions. In the overt
narcissism condition, we asked consumers to “recall a specific and personally experienced
occasion in which you felt you had impressed someone. In this situation, you find yourself at
the center of attention, and you feel great.” In the covert narcissism condition, consumers
were asked to “describe a specific and personally experienced occasion in which you felt you
had impressed others. In this situation, you find yourself under the eyes of others, and you feel
insecure/anxious.” Then, the participants were asked to describe these experiences in
approximately 30 words. Four items assessed the overt narcissism manipulations (e.g. “Right
now, I feel I would make a good leader”; “Right now, I feel I am more capable than other
people”), adapted from Sakellaropoulo and Baldwin (2007). We used four items (e.g. “Right
now, I feel self-conscious and feel that the eyes of others are upon me”; “Right now, I feel that I
would be easily hurt by ridicule or by the slighting remarks of others”) adapted from Hendin
and Cheek (1997) to assess the covert narcissism manipulations.
We adapted the attitude function manipulation from Wilcox et al. (2009). Specifically, the
value-expressive-primed condition indicated that participant “wear a luxury brand to
express yourself, showcase your individuality, and communicate your values”, followed by
the tagline “You yourself will know it is a luxury brand”. The social-adjustive condition
indicated that participant “wear a luxury brand to get noticed, be admired, and enhance your
social standing”, followed by the tagline “People around you will know it is a luxury brand”.
Next, the participants wrote down how consuming designer brands might help them achieve
those important social (social-adjustive attitude) and personal (value-expressive attitude)
goals in approximately 30 words. The participants in the control condition were asked to
review their daily routine and to write down their thoughts at the moment in approximately
30 words. In order to check the manipulation of social attitude function, we adopted the social-
adjustive function (e.g. luxury brands are a symbol of social status) and value-expressive
function (e.g. luxury brands reflect the kind of person I see myself to be) scales developed by
Grewal et al. (2004).
Similar to Study 1, we measured the purchase intention towards quiet versus loud by
using three bi-polar scales labelled (“I would buy”, “I would prefer to buy”, “I am very
interested in buying”) with a more visible and prominent Gucci logo T-shirt at one end and a
less visible and prominent Gucci logo T-shirt at the other end (see Figure A3). In both
conditions, we explicitly told the respondents that the T-shirts were from Gucci. For the brand
prominence manipulation check, we used two items (e.g. “How prominently does the T-shirt
display its logo”), adopted from Han et al. (2010).

5.3 Manipulation checks

We conducted a full-factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) using overt/covert narcissism
levels as the DVs and narcissism manipulation, social attitude function manipulations and
their interaction as IVs. In both the US and Chinese samples, the mean values of overt
narcissism (US: F(1, 218) 5 22.97, p < 0.001; China: F(1, 359) 5 19.46, p < 0.001) and covert
narcissism (US: F(1, 218) 5 5.01, p < 0.05; China: F(1, 359) 5 8.59, p < 0.01) are significantly
different across the two conditions. In particular, participants in the overt narcissism
condition reported stronger levels of overt narcissism (US: Movert 5 5.65 versus
Mcovert 5 4.96; China: Movert 5 5.38 versus Mcovert 5 4.85), and the participants in the
IMR covert narcissism condition reported stronger levels of covert narcissism (US: Mcovert 5 5.13
versus Movert 5 4.68; China: Mcovert 5 5.00 versus Movert 5 4.60), indicating success of the
narcissism manipulation in both the US and Chinese samples. Furthermore, in both
conditions, neither the attitude function manipulation nor the interaction effect of narcissism
and attitude manipulation on the mean values of overt/covert narcissism was significant.
Thus, the manipulation of the mediators did not confound the narcissism manipulation.
For the social attitude function and brand prominence manipulation checks, we conducted
separately a t-test among participants in the two conditions for both the US and Chinese
samples. The results indicated that the manipulation of social attitude function was
successful, as participants in the social-adjustive-primed condition scored higher on the
social-adjustive scales (US: Msocial-adjustive 5 5.66 versus Mvalue-expressive 5 4.07; t(138) 5

8.14, p < 0.001; China: Msocial-adjustive 5 5.25 versus Mvalue-expressive 5 4.48; t(240) 5
4.27,
p < 0.001), while participants in the value-expressive-primed condition scored higher on the
value-expressive function scales (US: Mvalue-expressive 5 5.98 versus Msocial-adjustive 5 4.64;
t (138) 5 5.73, p < 0.001; China: Mvalue-expressive 5 5.25 versus Msocial-adjustive 5 4.60;
t (240) 5 3.55, p < 0.001). In addition, as expected, participants in the high brand prominence
condition perceived the Gucci brand logo as significantly more prominent on the T-shirt than
participants in the low brand prominence condition (US: Mloud 5 5.32 versus Mquiet 5 3.21;
t (138) 5 5.86, p < 0.001; China: Mloud 5 6.02 versus Mquiet 5 3.02; t (240) 5 5.12, p < 0.001).
Thus, the manipulation of brand prominence was successful in both the US and Chinese
samples.

5.4 Hypotheses testing and results

As indicated in H1 and H2, we expected overt (vs. covert) narcissists to prefer quiet to loud
luxury. Two social attitude functions mediate this main effect (H3 and H4). To test the
hypotheses, we conducted a full-factorial ANOVA using quiet luxury purchase intention as
the DV and narcissism, attitude function manipulation and their interaction as the IVs.
Similar to Study 1, we controlled for brand familiarity, age, gender and income (US: R2 5 0.30;
China: R2 5 0.53). Among the control variables, for both the US and Chinese samples, only the
effect of brand familiarity (US: F (1, 211) 5 5.02, p < 0.05; China: US: F (1, 355) 5 54.13,
p < 0.001) was significant, while the effects of age, gender, income were not (F < 1). Among the
main effects, both the effects of the narcissism (US: F (1, 211) 5 31.58, p < 0.001; China: F
(1, 355) 5 51.77, p < 0.001) and the attitude function manipulation were statistically
significant (US: F (2, 211) 5 11.30, p < 0.001; China: F (2, 355) 5 88.19; p < 0.001). More
important, the interaction between narcissism and the attitude function was significant (US:
F (2, 211) 5 12.81, p < 0.001; China: F (2, 355) 5 16.62, p < 0.001).
To further validate the mediation effect of social attitude functions, we conducted the
moderation-of-process design test (Spencer et al., 2005), including three steps. In the first step,
we tested the main effect of overt/covert narcissism (IVs) on consumer’s purchase intention
toward quiet versus loud luxury (DV) under the control condition. We expected to find a
significant difference in the DV across the overt and covert narcissism groups, indicating that
our main effect is significant when using the mediation manipulation (control condition).
Indeed, for both the US and Chinese samples, our results showed a significant difference
between the cells (US: Movert 5 5.84, Mcovert 5 3.03; t 5
8.94, p < 0.001; China: Movert 5 5.62,
Mcovert 5 3.56; t 5
6.11, p < 0.001). This result indicated that overt narcissists prefer quiet
luxury, while covert narcissists prefer loud luxury, further supporting H1 and H2. In the
second step, we tested the mediation effect of the value-expressive attitude function. Under
the condition of activated value-expressive attitude, we expected to find a non-significant
mean difference in the DV across the overt and covert narcissism groups, indicating a perfect
mediation effect of value-expressive attitude. This is because when a value-expressive
attitude is activated, consumers tend to favor quiet over loud luxury regardless of their form
of narcissism. Our t-test result worked as expected; purchase intention across the overt and Quiet versus
covert narcissism cells became non-significant for both the US and Chinese samples (US: loud luxury
Movert 5 5.38, Mcovert 5 5.01; China: Movert 5 5.27, Mcovert 5 4.84), indicating that the value-
expressive function completely mediated the effect of narcissism on purchase intention. In the
third step, we similarly tested the mediation effect of the social-adjustive attitude function.
We expected to find a non-significant mean difference in the DV in the overt and covert
narcissism groups when social-adjustive attitude was activated, indicating a perfect
mediation effect of social-adjustive attitude, thus supporting H3. Again, the t-test worked as
expected; purchase intention across the overt and covert narcissism cells showed non-
significant differences across the US and Chinese samples (US: Movert 5 4.08, Mcovert 5 3.59;
China: Movert 5 2.78, Mcovert 5 2.61), indicating that social-adjustive function completely
mediates the effect of covert narcissism on purchase intention, supporting H4. Interestingly,
when the social-adjustive attitude function was activated, we found that both overt and
covert Chinese consumers prefer loud to quiet luxury, while both overt and covert US
consumer’s preference for quiet luxury decreased, indicating that social-adjustive attitude
function is more important for Chinese than US consumers. The two-independent sample t-
test results of purchase intention across the two forms of narcissism and social attitude
functions were reported in Table 5.

6. General discussion
Our findings reveal that the narcissistic young consumer segment is a global phenomenon.
Young consumers from both the United States and China, two culturally distant countries,
demonstrate a high level of narcissistic tendencies in their luxury consumption. The
prevalence of narcissism among young consumers across different continents makes these
consumers a unique global luxury segment. In addition, we found that overt and covert
narcissists indeed have different preferences for quiet versus loud luxury products. Overt
narcissists are more likely to purchase quiet luxury products, while covert narcissists prefer
loud luxury products. This difference can be explained by the different decision-making
routes these consumers take to fulfill their psychological and social needs. Specifically, we
found that the value-expressive attitude mediates the impact of overt narcissism on luxury
consumption preferences, while the social-adjustive attitude mediates the relationship
between covert narcissism and consumers’ luxury preferences. More importantly,
consumers’ social anxiety moderates these two paths, such that when consumers

US sample Chinese sample

Overt Covert t-value Overt Covert t-value
narcissism narcissism (p) narcissism narcissism (p)

Social Control 5.84a 3.03a
8.94b 5.62a 3.56a
6.11b

attitude (1.04) (1.74) (0.000) (0.93) (1.51) (0.000)
function
Value- 5.38a 5.01a
0.80b 5.27a 4.84a
1.70b
expressive (1.82) (1.77) (0.43) (1.30) (1.48) (0.09)
Social- 4.08a 3.59a
1.15b 2.78a 2.61a
0.68b Table 5.
adjustive (1.80) (1.99) (0.26) (1.47) (1.28) (0.50) Consumers’ purchase
intention towards quiet
Note(s): aThe first set of numbers represent the cell means under the corresponding conditions, and the versus loud luxury
numbers in parentheses represent the standard deviation of the corresponding cell mean; bThe first set of under different social
numbers indicate the t-values of the corresponding comparison between overt and covert narcissists under the attitude functions and
respective social attitude functions, and the numbers in parentheses represent the p-values of the narcissism conditions
corresponding comparison (Study 2)
IMR experience a high level of social anxiety, the relationships mentioned above are further
enhanced. Our research findings advance both marketing theory and practice in the
following ways.

6.1 Theoretical contributions

As a driving force behind the global luxury consumption growth, young consumers in the
United States and China provide an ideal backdrop for our research. This population
demonstrates prevalent narcissism tendencies, paired with an ever-increasing appetite for
luxury products, is no coincidence. By examining how the two forms of narcissism influence
these consumers’ luxury product preferences, our research contributes to the literature on
international luxury marketing in at least four ways.
First, our findings show that narcissism is prevalent among young consumers across
different cultural backgrounds and country borders. Consumers from both the United States
and China, regardless of their different cultural upbringing, demonstrate a high level of
narcissism. More importantly, the narcissistic tendencies observed in these two samples
profoundly influence their luxury purchase preferences. Though at different levels,
consumers in these two samples demonstrate similar patterns in how two types of
narcissism drive their choices between loud and quiet luxury products. Accordingly, our
findings suggest that narcissism is a meaningful global construct to examine global luxury
consumptions.
Second, our study offers empirical evidence that, contrary to conventional wisdom and
previous research (e.g. Neave et al., 2020), overt and covert narcissism have distinctive
influences on consumers’ luxury consumption. As narcissistic consumers are overly
concerned with their social image and often seek various measures to enhance their social
status, the symbolic meaning of luxury products is particularly attractive to them.
Accordingly, previous research found that overt and covert narcissists are equally attracted
to conspicuous luxury products (e.g. Neave et al., 2020). However, our findings reveal a
different story. Across both the US and Chinese samples, overt narcissists express stronger
preferences for quiet luxury products, while covert narcissists prefer loud luxury products.
Thus, our study offers theoretical insights into the psychological drivers of luxury
consumption.
Third, our study goes beyond documenting overt and covert narcissists’ preferences for
quiet and loud luxury products and examines the underlying mechanisms by which the two
forms of narcissism influence the different luxury preferences. As hypothesized, we found
that overt narcissists are primarily motivated by the self-expressive value of luxury products,
which helps them stand out in their social circles. To these consumers, luxury products reflect
their unique identity and exquisite tastes. They do not want to conform to the popularity of
loud luxury and, instead, take pride in expressing their own uniqueness by purchasing quiet
luxury products. By contrast, covert narcissists are driven by social-adjustive attitudes and
use luxury brands as a way to ease their insecurity, lack of self-esteem and fear of being
judged and evaluated by others. Loud luxury, widely recognized by others in their social
circle, fulfills their need to enhance their social image and achieve social approval (Amatulli
et al., 2020; Jiang et al., 2021). These findings extend our current knowledge of the relationship
between social attitudes and luxury consumption (e.g. Amatulli et al., 2020; Jiang et al., 2021b)
and fill a research gap by uncovering the fundamentally different mediators through which
the two forms of narcissism influence luxury consumption.
Fourth, narcissists often feel the pressure of performing at their best in social settings
(Akehurst and Thatcher, 2010). Such pressures may lead to social anxiety that further
complicates their luxury choices. To provide a more comprehensive understanding of the
impact of narcissism on luxury consumption, we examined the moderating role of social
anxiety. Our findings show that social anxiety further exacerbates the influence of overt and
covert narcissism on luxury preference, such that when social anxiety is high, the mediation Quiet versus
effects of both value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes are more pronounced. These loud luxury
findings advance knowledge on how narcissism and other factors jointly influence
consumers’ luxury consumption.

6.2 Managerial implications

Luxury consumption in the United States and China is likely to continue fueling the growth of
the global luxury market. Young consumers in the two largest luxury markets in the world
are the most influential segment accounting for the majority of this growth (Dudarenok, 2021;
McKinsey and Company, 2019). The study’s findings give global luxury brand managers a
meaningful tool to treat narcissistic consumers as a unique global market segment. Research
has found that young consumers are more likely to be influenced by digital fashion stars and,
in turn, to influence other consumers in their social circle (McCain and Keith, 2018; Jin et al.,
2019). Our findings provide additional evidence that these consumers demonstrate similar
purchase tendencies across different cultures.
Furthermore, our findings provide a better understanding of this unique segment’s
psychological and social needs. For example, managers can design different marketing
campaigns to cater to overt narcissists’ value-expressive needs and covert narcissists’ social-
adjustive needs. For overt narcissists, ads that stress a brand’s unique design and
exceptional, fashion-forward brand image may attract additional attention and boost
purchase intention. Conversely, communication messages that target covert narcissists
should focus on the product’s desirability and signaling value in social settings. For example,
portraying a luxury brand as a popular, mainstream item that is widely recognizable by the
general public may be an effective way to assure covert narcissistic consumers that are
showing off these luxury items earn the ideal social image they desire. However, there is a fine
line between a luxury brand’s popularity and exclusivity. Even covert narcissists are
reluctant to invest in brands that are accessible to a wide range of consumers. Therefore,
luxury brand managers should use caution when designing their promotional strategies.
In addition, our research suggests that overt narcissistic consumers are motivated by their
value-expressive needs when purchasing luxury brands. Various social media platforms (e.g.
YouTube, Instagram, WeChat, Little Red Book and TikTok/Dou Yin) provide these
consumers a perfect space to show off their luxury possessions, demonstrate their unique
fashion tastes and maintain their ideal social image. The number of likes and positive
feedback from followers satisfies narcissists’ need for self-enhancement and self-
confirmation. Global luxury brands should monitor these narcissistic young consumers’
social media postings and encourage them to showcase their individuality on social media
continuously. In addition, brand managers should consider incorporating different types of
social media influencers who are also trendsetters to promote their brands to appropriate
audiences. For example, the artistic director of Louis Vuitton and the chief executive officer of
Off-White, Virgil Abloh, opened an account on one of the China’s most popular social
commerce APP Little Red Book when the brand (Off-White) held a show in Beijing. The
designer attracted the attention of a vast audience, so did the brand.
Last, our findings offer strategic insights for luxury brand managers to make effective
product portfolio decisions. Our research shows that overt and covert narcissistic consumers
prefer quiet and loud luxury products, respectively. Thus, luxury companies need to designs
different product lines to better target these different consumer segments. Overt narcissists
do not mind paying a price premium for quiet luxury products, as long as these items assist in
positive identity formation. By contrast, covert narcissists are driven by their need for
identity confirmation (Fastoso et al., 2018) and thus do not find quiet luxury attractive. If a
luxury brand is to win over this segment, it should consider broadening its product line of
loud luxury. Our findings are supported by luxury branding practices. For example, brands
IMR such as Bottega Veneta, Loewe and Tom Ford focus on low-key design with small logos,
while Gucci recently introduced new collections with more discreet designs to complement its
traditional lines with big logos (Business of Fashion, 2018; Vogue Business, 2020). Gucci’s
branding strategy helps it maintain its status as one of the most desired luxury brands,
especially among young consumers (Vogue, 2021).

6.3 Limitations and future research

This study contributes to both international marketing theory and practice, but it is not
without limitations. First, the study focuses on consumers from the United States and China.
Although these countries are the two largest luxury markets in the world, future studies
should include other countries to offer stronger theoretical and managerial insights. Second,
as discussed previously, luxury brands need to strike a balance in portraying their brand
image as popular versus exclusive. Future studies could examine strategies that help achieve
this balance. Third, luxury consumption is increasingly concentrated in top luxury
conglomerates, with smaller brands struggling to survive. This situation calls for additional
research efforts to find ways for smaller brands to attract overt narcissists by serving their
value-expressive needs. In addition, our study represents a preliminary effort to manipulate
covert vs. overt narcissism as situational constructs. Future studies can cross-validate our
methodology in different research settings. Lastly, future studies could replicate our studies
by running a comparison analysis between actual and potential luxury buyers.
In summary, this study makes an initial effort toward a more comprehensive
understanding of narcissism and luxury consumption. Developing additional theories and
strategies in this stream of research is critical for researchers.

References
Akehurst, S. and Thatcher, J. (2010), “Narcissism, social anxiety and self-presentation in exercise”,
Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 49 No. 2, pp. 130-135.
Akhtar, S. and Thomson, J.A. (1982), “Overview: narcissistic personality disorder”, American Journal
of Psychiatry, Vol. 139 No. 1, pp. 12-20.
Amatulli, C., Angelis, M.D. and Donato, C. (2020), “An investigation on the effectiveness of hedonic
versus utilitarian message appeals in luxury product communication”, Psychology and
Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 523-534.
American Psychiatric Association (2013), Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th
ed., American Psychiatric Association, Washington, DC.
Ames, D.R., Rose, P. and Anderson, C.P. (2006), “The NPI-16 as a short measure of narcissism”,
Journal of Research in Personality, Vol. 40 No. 4, pp. 440-450.
Bagozzi, R.P., Yi, Y. and Phillips, L.W. (1991), “Assessing construct validity in organizational
research”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 421-458.
Bain & Company (2019), “Luxury goods worldwide market study, Fall–Winter 2018”, available at:
https://www.bain.com/contentassets/8df501b9f8d6442eba00040246c6b4f9/bain_digest__
luxury_goods_worldwide_market_study_fall_winter_2018.pdf.
Baumeister, R.F. and Leary, M.R. (1995), “The need to belong: desire for interpersonal attachments as
a fundamental human motivation”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 117 No. 3, pp. 497-529.
Bautista, C.L. and Hope, D.A. (2015), “Fear of negative evaluation, social anxiety and response to
positive and negative online social cues”, Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol. 39 No. 5,
pp. 658-668.
Bellis, E.D., Sprott, D.E., Herrmann, A., Bierhoff, H.W. and Rohmann, E. (2016), “The influence of trait
and state narcissism on the uniqueness of mass-customized products”, Journal of Retailing,
Vol. 92 No. 2, pp. 162-172.
Berger, J. and Ward, M. (2010), “Subtle signals of inconspicuous consumption”, Journal of Consumer Quiet versus
Research, Vol. 37 No. 4, pp. 555-569.
loud luxury
Bian, Q. and Forsythe, S. (2012), “Purchase intention for luxury brands: a cross cultural comparison”,
Journal of Business Research, Vol. 65 No. 10, pp. 1443-1451.
Bl€ote, A.W., Miers, A.C., Heyne, D.A., Clark, D.M. and Westenberg, P.M. (2014), “The relation between
social anxiety and audience perception: examining Clark and Wells’ (1995) model among
adolescents”, Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, Vol. 42 No. 5, pp. 555-567.
Brislin, R.W. (1970), “Back-translation for cross-cultural research”, Journal of Cross-Cultural
Psychology, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 185-216.
Business of Fashion (2018), “Hedi Slimane and the art of the ‘drop’”, available at: https://www.
businessoffashion.com/articles/luxury/hedi-slimane-and-the-art-of-the-drop.
Campbell, W.K. and Foster, J.D. (2007), “The narcissistic self: background, an extended agency model,
and ongoing controversies”, The Self, pp. 115-138.
Chokshi, N. (2019), “Attention young people: this narcissism study is all about you”, The New York
Times, Vol. 15 May, available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/science/narcissism-
teenagers.html (accessed 19 February 2021).
Cisek, S.Z., Sedikides, C., Hart, C.M., Godwin, H.J., Benson, V. and Liversedge, S.P. (2014), “Narcissism
and consumer behavior: a review and preliminary findings”, Frontiers Media S.A., Switzerland,
Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 5, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00232.
De Bellis, E., Sprott, D.E., Herrmann, A., Bierhoff, H.W. and Rohmann, E. (2016), “The influence of trait
and state narcissism on the uniqueness of mass-customized products”, Journal of Retailing,
Vol. 92 No. 2, pp. 162-172.
Dudarenok, A.G. (2021), “Meet China’s new, young luxury heroes for 2021”, Jing Daily, Vol. 6 January,
available at: https://jingdaily.com/china-new-luxury-consumer-post00s/ (accessed 24 February 2021).
Eckhardt, G.M., Belk, R.W. and Wilson, J.A. (2015), “The rise of inconspicuous consumption”, Journal
of Marketing Management, Vol. 31 Nos 7–8, pp. 807-826.
Fastoso, F., Bartikowski, B. and Wang, S. (2018), “The ‘little emperor’ and the luxury brand: how overt
and covert narcissism affect brand loyalty and proneness to buy counterfeits”, Psychology and
Marketing, Vol. 35 No. 7, pp. 522-532.
Fornell, C. and Larcker, D.F. (1981), “Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable
variables and measurement error”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 39-50.
Foster, J.D. and Trimm, R.F. (2008), “On being eager and uninhibited: narcissism and approach-
avoidance motivation”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 1004-1017.
Freud, S. (1991), “On narcissism: an introduction”, On Metapsychology: The Theory of Psychoanalysis,
Vol. 11 No. 1914, pp. 165-197.
Fung Business Intelligence (2017), “Understanding China’s new consuming class – the millennials”,
available at: https://www.fbicgroup.com/sites/default/files/CCS_series01.pdf (accessed 24
February 2021).
Gao, H., Winterich, K.P. and Zhang, Y. (2016), “All that glitters is not gold: how others’ status
influences the effect of power distance belief on status consumption”, Journal of Consumer
Research, Vol. 43 No. 2, pp. 265-281.
Goffman, E. (1959), The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Anchor, New York, NY.
Greenberg, D., Ehrensperger, E., Schulte-Mecklenbeck, M., Hoyer, W.D., Zhang, Z.J. and Krohmer, H.
(2020), “The role of brand prominence and extravagance of product design in luxury brand
building: what drives consumers’ preferences for loud versus quiet luxury?”, Journal of Brand
Management, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 195-210.
Grewal, R., Mehta, R. and Kardes, F.R. (2004), “The timing of repeat purchases of consumer durable
goods: the role of functional bases of consumer attitudes”, Journal of Marketing Research,
Vol. 41 No. 1, pp. 101-115.
IMR Han, Y.J., Nunes, J.C. and Dreze, X. (2010), “Signaling status with luxury goods: the role of brand
prominence”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 74 No. 4, pp. 15-30.
Hart, T.A., Flora, D.B., Palyo, S.A., Fresco, D.M., Holle, C. and Heimberg, R.G. (2008), “Development
and examination of the social appearance anxiety scale”, Assessment, Vol. 15 No. 1, pp. 48-59.
Hayes, A.F. (2013), Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A
Regression-Based Approach, Guilford Press, New York.
Hendin, H.M. and Cheek, J.M. (1997), “Assessing hypersensitive narcissism: a reexamination of
Murray’s narcism scale”, Journal of Research in Personality, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 588-599.
Jiang, L. and Shan, J. (2018), “Heterogeneity of luxury value perception: a generational comparison in
China”, International Marketing Review, Vol. 35 No. 3, pp. 458-474.
Jiang, L., Gao, H. and Shi, L.H. (2021), “The effect of power distance beliefs on the inconspicuous
versus conspicuous consumption of luxury accessories in China and the USA”, Journal of
Marketing Management. doi: 10.1080/0267257X.2021.1913214.
Jin, S.V., Muqaddam, A. and Ryu, E. (2019), “Instafamous and social media influencer marketing”,
Marketing Intelligence and Planning, Vol. 37 No. 5, pp. 567-579.
Kang, Y.J. and Park, S.Y. (2016), “The perfection of the narcissistic self: a qualitative study on luxury
consumption and customer equity”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 69 No. 9, pp. 3813-3819.
Kaufmann, H.R., Petrovici, D.A., Filho, C.G. and Ayres, A. (2016), “Identifying moderators of brand
attachment for driving customer purchase intention of original vs counterfeits of luxury
brands”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 69 No. 12, pp. 5735-5747.
Kauppinen-R€ais€anen, H., Bj€ork, P., L€onnstr€om, A. and Jauffret, M.-N. (2018), “How consumers’ need for
uniqueness, self-monitoring, and social identity affect their choices when luxury brands
visually shout versus whisper”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 84, pp. 72-81.
Lambert, A. and Desmond, J. (2013), “Loyal now, but not forever! A study of narcissism and male
consumer–brand relationships”, Psychology and Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 8, pp. 690-706.
Lee, J. and Shrum, L.J. (2012), “Conspicuous consumption versus charitable behavior in response to
social exclusion: a differential needs explanation”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 39 No. 3,
pp. 530-544.
Lee, S.Y., Gregg, A.P. and Park, S.H. (2013), “The person in the purchase: narcissistic consumers prefer
products that positively distinguish them”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
Vol. 105 No. 2, pp. 335-352.
Makkar, M. and Yap, C. (2018a), “Emotional experiences behind the pursuit of inconspicuous luxury”,
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 44, pp. 222-234.
Makkar, M. and Yap, S.F. (2018b), “The anatomy of the inconspicuous luxury fashion experience”,
Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, Vol. 22 No. 1,
pp. 129-156.
Martin, Roll. (2020), “Chinese luxury consumers – trends and challenges for luxury brands”, available
at: https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/asia/chinese-luxury-consumers-trends-and-
challenges-for-luxury-brands/.
McCain, J.L. and Campbell, W.K. (2018), “Narcissism and social media use: a meta-analytic review”,
Psychology of Popular Media Culture, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 308-327.
McKinsey & Company (2019), “China Luxury Report 2019 - how young Chinese consumers are
reshaping global luxury”, available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/∼/media/mckinsey/featured
%20insights/china/how%20young%20chinese%20consumers%20are%20reshaping%
20global%20luxury/mckinsey-china-luxury-report-2019-how-young-chinese-consumers-are-
reshaping-global-luxury.ashx.
Miller, J.D., Hoffman, B.J., Gaughan, E.T., Gentile, B., Maples, J. and Keith Campbell, W. (2011),
“Grandiose and vulnerable narcissism: a nomological network analysis”, Journal of Personality,
Vol. 79 No. 5, pp. 1013-1042.
Neave, L., Tzemou, E. and Fastoso, F. (2020), “Seeking attention versus seeking approval: how Quiet versus
conspicuous consumption differs between grandiose and vulnerable narcissists”, Psychology
and Marketing, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 418-427. loud luxury
Newman, K.M. (2018), “The surprisingly boring truth about millennials and narcissism”, available at:
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_surprisingly_boring_truth_about_
millennials_and_narcissism.
Ng, H.K.S., Tam, K.P. and Shu, T.M. (2011), “The money attitude of covert and overt narcissists”,
Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 51 No. 2, pp. 160-165.
O’Cass, A. and Frost, H. (2002), “Status brands: examining the effects of non-product-related brand
associations on status and conspicuous consumption”, Journal of Product and Brand
Management, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 67-88.
Panek, E.T., Nardis, Y. and Konrath, S. (2013), “Mirror or megaphone? how relationships between
narcissism and social networking site use differ on Facebook and Twitter”, Computers in
Human Behavior, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 2004-2012.
Pino, G., Amatulli, C., Peluso, A.M., Nataraajan, R. and Guido, G. (2019), “Brand prominence and social
status in luxury consumption: a comparison of emerging and mature markets”, Journal of
Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 46, pp. 163-172.
PSFK Research (2020), “Engaging the new luxury consumer: how to adapt sales & marketing
strategies to meet consumers’ emerging value-driven expectations”, available at: https://www.
psfk.com/2020/11/engaging-the-new-luxury-consumer.html.
Rapee, R.M. and Heimberg, R.G. (1997), “A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia”,
Behaviour Research and Therapy, Vol. 35 No. 8, pp. 741-756.
Raskin, R.N. and Hall, C.S. (1979), “A narcissistic personality inventory”, Psychological Reports, Vol. 45
No. 2, p. 590.
Rucker, D.D. and Galinsky, A.D. (2008), “Desire to acquire: powerlessness and compensatory
consumption”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 35 No. 2, pp. 257-267.
Sakellaropoulo, M. and Baldwin, M.W. (2007), “The hidden sides of self-Esteem: two dimensions of
implicit self-esteem and their relation to narcissistic reactions”, Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, Vol. 43 No. 6, pp. 995-1001.
Schlenker, B.R. and Leary, M.R. (1982), “Social anxiety and self-presentation: a conceptualization and
model”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 92 No. 3, pp. 641-669.
Sedikides, C. and Gregg, A.P. (2001), “Narcissists and feedback: motivational surfeits and motivational
deficits”, Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 237-239.
Sedikides, C., Gregg, A.P., Cisek, S. and Hart, C.M. (2007), “The I that buys: narcissists as consumers”,
Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 254-257.
Shao, W., Grace, D. and Ross, M. (2019), “Investigating brand visibility in luxury consumption”,
Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 49, pp. 357-370.
Shukla, P. (2008), “Conspicuous consumption among middle age consumers: psychological and brand
antecedents”, Journal of Product and Brand Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 25-36.
Sirgy, M.J. (1982), “Self-concept in consumer behavior: a critical review”, Journal of Consumer
Research, Oxford University Press, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 287-300.
Spencer, S.J., Zanna, M.P. and Fong, G.T. (2005), “Establishing a causal chain: Why experiments are
often more effective than mediational analyses in examining psychological processes”, Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 89 No. 6, pp. 845-851.
Truong, Y. (2010), “Personal aspirations and the consumption of luxury goods”, International Journal
of Market Research, Vol. 52 No. 5, pp. 655-673.
Twenge, J.M. (2013), “The evidence for generation me and against generation we”, Emerging
Adulthood, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 11-16.
IMR Vater, A., Moritz, S. and Roepke, S. (2018), “Does a narcissism epidemic exist in modern western
societies? Comparing narcissism and self-esteem in East and West Germany”, PLoS One,
Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 1-16.
Velov, B., Gojkovi
c, V. and Djuric, V. (2014), “Materialism, narcissism and the attitude towards
conspicuous consumption”, Psihologija, Vol. 47, pp. 113-129.
Vigneron, F. and Johnson, L.W. (1999), “A review and a conceptual framework of prestige-seeking
consumer behavior”, Academy of Marketing Science Review, Vol. 1999, p. 1.
Vogue (2021), “The most-searched brands of 2021 (so far) indicate a return to high fashion”, available
at: https://www.vogue.com/article/what-brands-are-trending-lyst-q1-2021.
Vogue Business (2020), “At fashion houses, a new designer’s impact takes time”, available at: https://
www.voguebusiness.com/fashion/when-a-new-creative-director-leaves-their-mark-mugler-
burberry-celine-gucci.
Wang, Y. and Griskevicius, V. (2014), “Conspicuous consumption, relationships, and rivals: Women’s
luxury products as signals to other women”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 40 No. 5,
pp. 834-854.
Weiser, E.B. (2015), “Me: narcissism and its facets as predictors of selfie-posting frequency”,
Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 86, pp. 477-481.
Wilcox, K., Kim, H.M. and Sen, S. (2009), “Why do consumers buy counterfeit luxury brands?”, Journal
of Marketing Research, Vol. 46 No. 2, pp. 247-259.
Wink, P. (1991), “Two faces of narcissism”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 61 No. 4,
pp. 590-597.
Wu, Z., Luo, J., Schroeder, J.E. and Borgerson, J.L. (2017), “Forms of inconspicuous consumption: what
drives inconspicuous luxury consumption in China?”, Marketing Theory, Vol. 17 No. 4,
pp. 491-516.
YPulse (2020), “Millennials & Gen Z teens’ combined spending power is nearly $3 trillion in 2020”,
available at: https://www.ypulse.com/article/2020/01/09/millennials-gen-z-teens-combined-
spending-power-is-nearly-3-trillion-in-2020/.
Zhan, L. and He, Y. (2012), “Understanding luxury consumption in China: consumer perceptions of
best-known brands”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 65 No. 10, pp. 1452-1460.

Further reading
Baron, R.M. and Kenny, D.A. (1986), “The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social
psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations”, Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 51 No. 6, pp. 1173-1182.
Hauser, D.J. and Schwarz, N. (2016), “Attentive Turkers: MTurk participants perform better on online
attention checks than do subject pool participants”, Behavior Research Methods, Vol. 48 No. 1,
pp. 400-407.
Kees, J., Berry, C., Burton, S. and Sheehan, K. (2017), “An analysis of data quality: professional panels,
student subject pools, and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 46 No. 1,
pp. 141-155.
Wessling, S.K., Huber, J. and Netzer, O. (2017), “MTurk character misrepresentation: assessment and
solutions”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 44 No. 1, pp. 211-230.
Appendix Quiet versus
loud luxury

Figure A1.
Overview of the
conceptual models of
the main studies
IMR

Figure A2.
Study 1 stimuli for loud
versus quiet luxury

Figure A3.
Study 2 stimuli for loud
versus quiet luxury
Predictors β SE t
Quiet versus
loud luxury
Outcomes: value-expressive attitude (R2 5 0.24, F (1, 368) 5 113.22)
Overt narcissism 0.21*** 0.02 10.64
Outcomes: purchase intention (R 5 0.73, F (4, 365) 5 249.12)
2

Overt narcissism 0.002 0.02 0.13

Value-expressive attitude (VE) 0.24** 0.08 3.07
Social anxiety 0.48*** 0.08 5.72
VE 3 Social anxiety 0.04* 0.02 2.24
Direct effect of overt narcissism on purchase intention
0.002 0.02 0.13 Table A1.
Test of the mediating
Conditional indirect effect through VE across levels of social anxiety impact of value-
Moderator Level Mean Effect SE 95% CI expressive attitude and
Social anxiety Low (
1 SD) 3.19 0.08 0.01 0.05, 0.10 moderating impact of
High (þ1 SD) 6.21 0.10 0.02 0.07, 0.14 social anxiety on the
effect of overt
Index of moderated mediation: Index 5 0.01, SE 5 0.004, 95% CI [0.0001, 0.02] narcissism on purchase
Note(s): Number of bootstrapping samples 5 5,000; CI 5 confidence intervals; Low 5 1 SD below the mean intention without the
value; High 5 1 SD above the mean value; ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05 covariates (Study 1)

Predictors β SE t

Outcomes: social-adjustive attitude (R 5 0.46, F (1, 368) 5 154.99)

2

Covert narcissism 0.70*** 0.04 17.61

Outcomes: Purchase intention (R 5 0.67, F (4, 365) 5 183.65)
2

Covert narcissism
0.09* 0.04
2.08

Social-adjustive attitude (SA)
0.47*** 0.12
3.94
Social anxiety 0.42*** 0.11 3.69
SA 3 social anxiety 0.07** 0.02 2.96
Direct effect of overt narcissism on purchase intention

0.09* 0.04
2.08 Table A2.
Test of the mediating
Conditional indirect effect through SA across levels of social anxiety impact of social-
Moderator Level Mean Effect SE 95% CI adjustive attitude and
Social anxiety Low (
1 SD) 3.19
0.04 0.03
0.10, 0.02 moderating impact of
High (þ1 SD) 6.21
0.18 0.04
0.26,
0.10 social anxiety on the
effect of covert
Index of moderated mediation: Index 5 0.05, SE 5 0.01, 95% CI [0.02, 0.08] narcissism on purchase
Note(s): Number of bootstrapping samples 5 5,000; CI 5 confidence intervals; Low 5 1 SD below the mean intention without the
value; High 5 1 SD above the mean value; ***p < 0.001; **p < 0.01; *p < 0.05 covariates (Study 1)

About the authors

Dr. Ling Jiang is an assistant professor of Marketing at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).
Her research centers on brand consciousness, consumer perception and consumption values, with a
focus on luxury brand and counterfeit consumption. Her articles have been published and cited in
various international academic journals.
Dr. Annie Peng Cui is the Kmart Chair in Marketing, Associate Professor of Marketing at John
Chambers College of Business & Economics, West Virginia University. She received her PhD in
Marketing from Kent State University. Her research interests are in global marketing and branding.
IMR Dr. Juan Shan is an associate professor of Marketing at School of Management, Shanghai University,
China. She received her Ph.D. from Aix-Marseille University, France and has published in several
renowned journals including Journal of Business Research and International Marketing Review. Her
research focuses on consumer behavior related to luxury brands and counterfeiting, face view and
consumer ethics. Juan Shan is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: shanjuan@shu.edu.cn

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:
www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htm
Or contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

View publication stats