Journal of Consumer Behaviour, J. Consumer Behav. 11: 467–476 (2012) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/cb.1396

If I want you to like me, should I be like you or unlike you? The effect of prior positive interaction with the group on conformity and distinctiveness in consumer decision making
VERONIKA PAPYRINA* College of Business, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA, USA ABSTRACT The extant research points to conflicting results regarding social influence in consumer decision making. On the one hand, there is empirical evidence that suggests that people conform to other members of their groups. On the other hand, several studies demonstrated the opposite pattern, namely, that individuals seek distinctiveness from others in the group. The goal of the present research is to reconcile these contradictory findings. To this end, I propose that whether a person will conform to or seek distinctiveness from others in a particular consumption situation is contingent on the absence or presence of one’s prior positive interaction with the group. I also suggest that this effect will occur in a public context, that is, when an individual’s choice is visible to other group members. The results of experiment supported these propositions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suppose Alice wants to start figure skating and goes to watch a training session conducted by a local skate club before making the final decision. She likes what she sees, and on the next day, she goes to the sport store to buy a pair of figure skates. In the store, Alice sees a few brands of white skates that look pretty much the same, and she recalls that all people she saw on the ice the day before were wearing white skates. There is also one brand that stands apart from the others. It seems like its skates were designed after rollerblades. They