The narcissistic wine consumer: How Social Attractiveness Associated with Wine Prompts Narcissists to Engage in Wine Consumption

The narcissistic wine consumer: How Social Attractiveness Associated with Wine Prompts Narcissists to Engage in Wine Consumption. Renaud Lunardo, David A. Jaud, Armando Maria Corsi. Food Quality and Preference, November 3 2020, 104107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104107

Rolf Degen's take: https://twitter.com/DegenRolf/status/1323486670604410880

Highlights

• Narcissistic people associate wine with greater social attractiveness.

• Social attractiveness in turn leads to higher consumption.

• These relationships hold even when the emotional value of wine brand is low.

• A typology of narcissist consumers can be identified.

• Wine producers should encourage consuming wine in moderation.

Abstract: Wine consumption can help improve one’s social image. Given this social aspect of wine, we predict that because individuals who are high in narcissism strive for social admiration, wine represents a product of choice for them. In Study 1 (N = 654), we show that for narcissistic people, wine is associated with greater social attractiveness, which in turn leads to higher consumption of wine. We also draw a typology of narcissistic wine consumers. In Study 2 (N = 192), we replicate the mediation results of Study 1 and take a step further by examining the influence of anticipated emotional value. More specifically, we show that the sequence above whereby narcissistic people consume higher amounts of wine due to its social attractiveness not only holds, but is stronger when the emotional value that such people anticipate from wine consumption is low. In other words, narcissists engage more in wine consumption for social reasons when they do not (versus do) anticipate wine consumption as a pleasurable experience. We provide a discussion of the practical implications of our results for wine producers and policymakers.

Keywords: NarcissismWine ConsumptionSocial AttractivenessEmotional ValueCluster Analysis