Signaling smarts? Revealed preferences for self and social perceptions of intelligence

Signaling Ideology Through Consumption

“…7 Previous studies show that people value self-image based on intelligence (e.g., Möbius et al, 2022;Zimmermann, 2020). While my findings were unexpected, they are in line with those of McManus and Rao (2015), who find that subjects considered intelligence a desirable trait but also disliked signaling it to others. 8 There are few examples of firms trying to avoid customers that have undesirable characteristics unrelated to ideology.…”

Signaling Moral Values through Consumption

“…6 Previous studies show that people value self-image based on intelligence (e.g., Eil and Rao, 2011;Möbius et al, 2017;Zimmermann, 2020). While my findings were unexpected, they are in line with those of McManus and Rao (2015), who find that subjects considered intelligence a desirable trait but also disliked signaling it to others. 7 I know of only few examples of firms trying to avoid customers that have undesirable characteristics unrelated to moral values.…”

Cents of self: How and when self-signals influence consumer value derived from choices of green products

“…When subjects were led to believe that tolerance for a certain kind of pain (submerging one's hand in extremely cold water) was diagnostic of either a good or a risky heart condition, participants reacted by respectively extending or shortening the amount of time they withstood that pain of the cold water (Quattrone & Tversky, 1984). Since the publication of this seminal study, research on the general phenomenon of self-signaling has gained momentum across several different fields (Baca-Motes, Brown, Gneezy, Keenan, & Nelson, 2013;Bénabou & Tirole, 2004Bennett & Chakravarti, 2008;Bodner & Prelec, 1997;Dubé, Luo, & Fang, 2017;McManus & Rao, 2015;Mijović-Prelec & Prelec, 2010;Monterosso & Luo, 2010;Savary et al, 2015;Sedikides, Gregg, Cisek, & Hart, 2007;Verplanken & Holland, 2002;Dhar & Wertenbroch, 2012).…”