| Abstract: | Many firms use loyalty programs to stratify their customers into status tiers and reward those with high status with special privileges. This research documents how consumers with high status willingly incur a cost to utilize the exclusive privileges, termed “status‐reinforcing behaviors,” that accompany their high status because doing so reinforces their high‐status identity. They do so in the absence of threats to their high status or self‐worth and also in the absence of an opportunity to conspicuously signal their high status to others through face‐to‐face interactions. This suggests that the behavior is undertaken neither for compensatory nor conspicuous reasons. Across two studies, results indicate that consumers who hold high status in a loyalty program engage in “status‐reinforcing behaviors,” even when doing so offers no material or conspicuous signaling benefit and in fact causes them to incur some costs. Engaging in status‐reinforcing behaviors yields a distinct psychological outcome—elevated feelings of prestige. Results indicate that when high status is made salient, individuals demonstrate a greater propensity to engage in status‐reinforcing behaviors. However, individuals who have a reinforced sense of status (i.e., already validated their high‐status position) are less likely to engage in status‐reinforcing behaviors, which suggests that utilizing status privileges does serve as a reinforcing behavior, even in the absence of a status threat. |
