The Seesaw Self: Possessions, Identity (De)activation, and Task Performance

Abstract

Research has shown that possessions have the power to change consumers’ self-construal and activate different aspects of the self. Building on this literature, the authors suggest that the salience of product ownership not only activates the product-related self but also simultaneously deactivates product-unrelated selves, resulting in impaired performance on tasks unrelated to the activated self. In five experiments, we first elicit feelings of ownership over a product (e.g., a calculator) to activate a product-related identity (e.g., the math self). Participants then engage in a task that is labeled as being a product-related task (e.g., a math task) or a product-unrelated task (e.g., a visual task). Although the task is the same, participants in the ownership condition perform worse on a task labeled as product-unrelated than those in the baseline condition do. Support for the underlying identity activation process comes from the finding that performance impairment is more likely to hold under conditions of low self-concept clarity, in which identity is malleable. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this finding.

Access-Based Services as Substitutes for Material Possessions: The Role of Psychological Ownership

“…A deliberate disposal of possessions thus can provide a means of identity-related separation (Shelton and Peters 2006). In parallel findings, Chung and Johar (2018) show that psychological ownership activates an object-related self, which improves activities related to this target of ownership but also results in impaired performance on tasks unrelated to the target.…”

Meaning of Manual Labor Impedes Consumer Adoption of Autonomous Products

“…By highlighting the meaningful time gain of autonomous products, even those high in MML (who derive more meaning from completing manual tasks) are “able” to choose the autonomous product (see Steger et al [2006] for a related discussion on why presence of and search for meaning are relatively independent constructs). The idea that activating one source of meaning should deactivate other sources of meaning has parallels in consumer research on the self, showing that activating one aspect of the self (e.g., the math self) deactivates other aspects of the self (e.g., the creative self; Chung and Johar 2018).…”

Untangling the web of misinformation and false beliefs

“…For example, conservatives holding the false belief that climate change is not a serious imminent threat to humanity may be more persuaded if the corrective information is presented in a way that helps them maintain their identities as conservatives even as they update their beliefs. Such a corrective message from a source that shares their identity can be viewed as less threatening and hence be more likely to be accepted with the thought that “I can be a good conservative even if I believe that climate change is a real threat.” Another promising approach is to leverage the finding that activating any single identity simultaneously deactivates other identities (Chung & Johar, 2018). Applying this finding to the climate change context suggests evoking identities such as being a parent when communicating messages about the imminent threat posed by climate change.…”

“…Such a corrective message from a source that shares their identity can be viewed as less threatening and hence be more likely to be accepted with the thought that "I can be a good conservative even if I believe that climate change is a real threat." Another promising approach is to leverage the finding that activating any single identity simultaneously deactivates other identities (Chung & Johar, 2018). Applying this finding to the climate change context suggests evoking identities such as being a parent when communicating messages about the imminent threat posed by climate change.…”