Research Paper

The research paper discusses about how power influences consumer behavior decision making of what to value and who to value. Individuals with high power fosters an agnostic orientation where they give themselves more importance as compare to other while individuals with low power fosters an communal orientation where others are given importance. Effects of power can be driven by psychological propensity of power or psychological need of power. Psychological propensity of power means that there is inclination or tendency towards a particular outcome which are naturally triggered. While in case of psychological need of power, the motivation or desire of an individual shapes and guides the preference for a particular outcomes, experience or object. From the findings of the research conducted by Rucker and Galinsky (2008), it was obtained that the value for self or other is because of psychological propensity of power while the consumer’s response for status is because of the psychological need of power.
The two forces will be acting together but the dominance of one over the other will depend upon the situation. For a product which lacks association with status or which does not bring any status to its consumer, it has been found that in this situation psychological propensity of power will be dominated over the psychological need of power. This means that the consumer associated with high power will spend more on the purchase done for him/her rather than the purchase which is being done for others. This type of behavior is of agnostic orientation. While the consumer associated with low power in case of low status product will spend more on the purchase which is being done for others rather than the purchase which will be done for oneself. In the case where the product is associated with status, consumer with low power will spend more when the purchase is being done for oneself. Thus in the latter case – status product, psychological need of power will be