Antecedents of Consumer Economic Nationalism: The Role of Need for Cognition and Cosmopolitanism

Abstract The authors examine if need for cognition predisposes consumers to take positions concerning economic nationalism and the role cosmopolitanism might play in the process, especially when consumers experience attitudinal ambivalence. Prior research has focused on need for cognition as a moderating variable in attitude process. The present study departs from this tradition, asking if need for cognition might be associated with the likelihood of attitude formation, independent of the direction of an attitude. The hypotheses are tested using structural equation modeling. The authors identify two distinct factors in the original scale of need for cognition - cognitive appreciation and cognitive sophistication. Increased appreciation for cognitive activities is negatively associated with consumer economic nationalism. In contrast, increased cognitive sophistication has no direct impact on the likelihood of holding economic nationalistic views or committing to economic nationalistic behavior, but would decrease the likelihood of holding economic nationalistic views through a positive impact on cosmopolitanism. Implications for global marketing theory and practice are discussed.