Do I seem real to you? The role of external audiences in the consumption‐driven self‐authentication process

Abstract

People use consumption choices as a means of authenticating their identities. Research on self‐authenticity has been scant in marketing, favoring instead product and brand authenticity. In psychology, research has largely focused on the positive outcomes of self‐authenticity, leaving its antecedents and the process through which it is achieved as key unanswered questions. In this conceptual paper, we address these gaps by delineating the consumption‐driven self‐authentication process. Consumers can engage in authenticating consumption acts involving meaning appropriation and meaning creation, which affect feelings of self‐authenticity. However, external audiences play a key role in validating the individual's self‐authentication through feedback in the form of direct validation or validation via social comparison. We argue that external audiences are a necessary component of the self‐authentication process that has implications for deepening our understanding of self‐authenticity.