Compensatory consumption: Research reveals emotional challenges behind habit
Study identifies six coping strategies that lead to compensatory behaviors and highlights the need for more research into long-term effects.
Have you ever made an impulsive purchase and later regretted it? Have you ever consumed a service that was, in a way, unnecessary? Compensatory consumption is a common practice used by people to deal with feelings of inadequacy or frustration. Accordingly, this behavior involves buying or consuming products and services as a way of easing the discomfort caused by a discrepancy between who someone is and who they want to be.
The search for social status, emotional relief or a sense of control are some of the motivations behind this type of consumption. This type of consumption can have both positive and negative effects. To delve into this topic, four researchers at Fundação Getulio Vargas’ Sao Paulo School of Business Administration (FGV EAESP) – Gabriela Rauber, Lucia Barros, Felipe Zambaldi and Marcelo Perin – recently wrote an article that was published in Psychology & Marketing.
The researchers carried out a systematic review of almost 100 articles published between 1997 and 2023, contained in the EBSCO and Web of Science academic databases, covering various areas of research on compensatory consumption. They used the antecedents, decisions and outcomes (ADO) framework to organize their findings and facilitate a broad understanding of the phenomenon.
One of the study’s main findings is that compensatory consumption does not occur randomly. It is related to specific strategies that consumers adopt to deal with negative emotions. For example, a person who feels insecure about their social status might buy designer clothes to try to compensate for this perceived gap between their reality and the ideal they want to achieve. This is known as conspicuous consumption, where the aim is to display symbols of success to others.
Another example is compulsive buying, which is often linked to feelings of low self-esteem. Someone who feels inadequate in an area of life, such as work, may end up making frequent and excessive purchases as a way of seeking temporary satisfaction. These behaviors are coping strategies that offer immediate relief, but in the long run can lead to negative consequences, such as debt or regret.
The article points out that compensatory consumption can become a vicious cycle. Although it offers symbolic benefits and emotional relief in the short term, it doesn’t resolve the root causes of self-discrepancy (the gap between who you are and who you want to be). Behaviors such as conspicuous or compulsive consumption, when repeated, can have harmful long-term consequences, including debt and remorse.
Compensatory consumption can manifest itself in various ways, such as through the acquisition of luxury goods, travel or even the use of technology. For example, a person who feels overwhelmed by technological challenges might buy an expensive gadget in the hope of improving their competence in this area, even if this purchase doesn’t solve the perceived difficulty. These behaviors illustrate the complexity and multifaceted nature of compensatory consumption.
This phenomenon has been widely studied in developed countries, especially the United States, but the researchers suggest the need for more research in non-Western countries to understand the diversity of emotional and cultural responses to compensatory consumption. They also emphasize that future studies should explore not only the factors leading to this behavior, but also the impacts and mechanisms related to compensatory habits.
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