The effect of social identity threats on products evaluations. An exploration in the field of popular music

Through an experiment carried out in the field of music consumption, we show that, when fans are exposed to a threat that attacks their favourite artist, the way they value products associated with that artist is not affected. Considering different types of object (unique vs. consistent artists), however, we illustrate that diverse objects respond differently to the same threat. In fact, while an object is positively valued when it is criticized for the same reason why it is loved (i.e. uniqueness or consistency), it is negatively valued when it is attacked for a different reason why it is loved (e.g. an artist who is loved to be unique is criticized to be inconsistent). This interaction effect is statistically significant for the evaluation of objects related to a favourite artist and used in a private (rather than public) context, and for subjects with high (rather than low) need for uniqueness. Implications are provided.