Consumption on steroids: The effect of testosterone on preferences for conspicuous consumption and the moderating role of intrasexual competition

Abstract

In line with recent research suggesting that testosterone may only be related to decisions under specific conditions, we show that testosterone is associated with conspicuous consumption only when intrasexual competition is high. In three studies, we provide empirical evidence that prenatal and circulating testosterone are only related to conspicuous consumption when intrasexual competition is high. These findings are in line with recent literature that posits that testosterone is only related to particular decisions or behavior when status is at stake. In Study 1, we find that masculinized digit ratios (an indicator of high prenatal testosterone exposure) are only related to greater conspicuous consumption preferences for men that score high on an intrasexual competitiveness trait measure. In Study 2, we find that masculinized digit ratios are associated with greater conspicuous consumption preferences, but only among men who are primed with an intrasexual competition recall task.Finally, the purpose of Study 3 was to test if similar effects held when measuring circulating testosterone. We show that baseline levels of circulating testosterone are associated with greater conspicuous consumption preferences, but only after men are primed with intrasexual competition. Overall, we identify intrasexual competition as a crucial precondition for relationships between testosterone (prenatal and circulating) and conspicuous consumption to emerge. We argue that men with masculinized digit ratios and men with high circulating testosterone may be more likely to choose conspicuous products as a status-signaling strategy in the mating market if they are inherently intrasexually competitive or when they encounter an intrasexually competitive situation.

Can Digit Ratio and Gender Identity Predict Preferences for Consumption Options With a Distinct Gender Image?

“…A possible explanation for this relationship could be that hungry individuals evaluate masculine options as carrying higher utility with respect to their status-signaling qualities (e.g., a sports car may be perceived as better able to signal status than an environmentally friendly car). Therefore, considering that resource scarcity, such as hunger, tends to activate a competitive mindset focused on resource acquisition ( Xu et al, 2015 ; Goldsmith et al, 2018 ; Elbæk et al, 2022 ) and that status-signaling consumption is often used as a competition tactic ( Otterbring et al, 2018 ; Nepomuceno and Stenstrom, 2021 ; Gasiorowska et al, 2022 ), it could be that hunger induces a stronger striving for status, thereby increasing consumers’ preferences for products and services with a salient masculine gender image.…”

“…Another direction for future research, despite that the digit ratio has been used extensively in the literature ( Fink et al, 2003 ; Voracek and Loibl, 2009 ; Manning J. et al, 2014 ; Manning J. T. et al, 2014 ), is to rely on more objective tools to capture hormonal exposure, such as physiological measures of circulating testosterone or baseline levels on such hormonal factors ( Nave et al, 2018 ; Dinsmore et al, 2021 ; Nepomuceno and Stenstrom, 2021 ). Although circulating testosterone in adults is not necessarily a reliable indicator of prenatal testosterone exposure, which is when sexual differentiation of the brain takes place ( Arnold, 2020 ; McCarthy, 2020 ), future research should examine whether the current results can be extended to more objective measures of hormonal exposure.…”