From discomfort to desirable: The effect of embarrassment on prosocial consumption

Abstract

Embarrassment plays a pivotal role in the consumer landscape by significantly influencing consumers' purchase and consumption experiences. While marketing scholarship has primarily focused on the undesirable facets of embarrassment, the present research examines the positive outcomes of embarrassment for consumers, firms, and the environment. Based on costly signaling theory, this research seeks to determine the effect of embarrassment on consumer preferences toward prosocial products. Using six experimental studies (including one in the Supporting Information: Appendix), we demonstrate that embarrassment positively influences the purchase intention for environment‐friendly and sustainable products. Using lab and consequential studies, we show that the motivation to repair the social image mediates the effect of embarrassment on prosocial product preference. We also identify that public self‐consciousness moderates this effect, such that embarrassed individuals with high (vs. low) public self‐consciousness exhibit higher prosocial product preference. We also show that our core predictions on the effect of embarrassment on prosocial products is contingent upon the social context, such that embarrassment leads to enhanced intentions to repair social image and prosocial product preference in public but not in private purchase context. The results hold for various product categories. The findings contribute to a greater theoretical understanding of embarrassment by revealing a prosocial facet of the phenomenon.