Status Consumption and Economic Inequality

Economic inequality is related to multiple social and psychological consequences. The main objective of this research is to identify the relationship between objective economic inequality (GINI) and perceived economic inequality (PEI) with status consumption, materialism and indebtedness. Furthermore, the status seeking is analyzed as a possible mediator between inequality (objective/perceived) and statutory consumption; and the role of the perception of justice in the distribution of resources is explored. The research uses a ex post facto, retrospective design with multiple measures. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire in two different contexts: Colombia (N = 217) and Spain (N = 119). The results shown that the relationship between objective inequality and the status consumption preferences is mediated by the status seeking (B = 0.10, SE = 0.03, 95 % IC = [0.0441, 0.1683]) and moderated by the perception of justice in the resources distribution (B = -0.25, SE = 0.10, t(322) = -2.49, p < 0.005). These results show how consumption preferences are defined not only by individual psychological variables, but also by ideological and social variables and economic conditions, being important to manipulate economic inequality in different scenarios to analyze if the results are maintained at the causal level.