The impact of self‐construal and ethnicity on self‐gifting behaviors

Abstract

Abstract This research extends the understanding of how self‐construal plays a role in our consumption behavior using self‐gifting as its context. By applying a four‐dimensional self‐construal model, we sought to examine differences in self‐gifting behaviors among the four self‐construal groups (i.e., Bicultural , Western , Traditional , and Alienated ), composed of participants from four ethnic groups in the UK (White, Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi). The dependent variables included self‐gift propensity, self‐gift selection effort, and self‐gift post‐emotion. Our findings revealed significant differences in self‐gifting patterns among different self‐construal groups. Generally, the Bicultural and Western self‐construal groups are similar, but differ in self‐gifting behaviors from Traditional and Alienated self‐construal groups. We demonstrate how the four‐dimensional self‐construal model allows a more precise conceptualization of self‐construal and a more thorough investigation of cross‐cultural consumption patterns than does the two‐dimensional view.