The Exception Effect

Abstract

Results from a field experiment conducted in Guangzhou, China, show that Chinese consumers react more negatively to culture-mixed products after shopping (vs. simply entering) in a high-status Chinese store (Exception). This effect was absent among Chinese consumers who shopped (vs. simply entered) in a high-status European store, a low-status European store, or a lower status Chinese store. The effect was also absent among Western shoppers. We argue that the Exception effect among Chinese consumers emerges due to heightened perceptions of the rising status of China—which might increase the positivity of Chinese identity and hence prompt a rejection of foreign cultural influences.

Keywords

consumer behavior cultural status cultural identity culture mixing

Culture mixing refers to the experience of encountering two or more cultures or their symbols in the same space at the same time (Hao, Li, Peng, Peng, & Torelli, 2016). An example of culture mixing may be a Starbucks in Beijing’s Forbidden City (Chiu, Gries, Torelli, & Cheng, 2011) or a pizza with the shape of an ancient Chinese bronze coin. Recent research suggests that culture mixing renders “culture” salient as a mental category for organizing perception (Torelli, Chiu, Tam, Au, & Keh, 2011), which can in turn promote both exclusionary and integrative reactions. Exclusionary reactions are emotional, reflexive responses evoked by perceived threats to the integrity of one’s heritage culture, whereas integrative responses are reflective mental processes that promote the integration of foreign and local ideas as means to further one’s valued goals (Chiu et al., 2011).

Past research has identified several factors that can trigger exclusionary responses to culture mixing (Chiu & Kwan, 2016). For instance, people reject culture mixing when this is perceived as a local identity threat (Tong, Hui, Kwan, & Peng, 2011), or when they are guided by a culture-defense mind-set (Torelli et al., 2011). These findings are consistent with the notion that exclusionary responses emerge as defense mechanisms to avoid contamination of the local culture. We argue in this research that exclusionary responses to culture mixing can also be driven by heightened perceptions that the local culture is on the rise, which might in turn heighten feelings of pride in the local culture and a desire to immunize the local culture against foreign influence. We flesh out this prediction and report the results of a field experiment demonstrating less favorable reactions to culture mixing after reminding Chinese consumers of the rising status of Chinese culture.

Perceived Status Differences of Cultures

In consumer psychology, the term nation equity has been used to refer to the basket of properties (both negative and positive) that comes with the country’s name (Maheswaran & Chen, 2006). The equity of a nation sets up consumers’ expectations of the quality and attributes expected from the products of that nation for both local and foreign consumers. The nation equity of a country is closely linked to the history of developing products that are of superior quality, and can be used as an indicator of the status of a country in the market. A country with a long history of developing products of superior quality is assumed to have higher cultural status than one with a history of developing inferior quality products. In general, developed countries such as European and North American countries have higher nation equity than do developing countries such as China. Chinese consumers also recognize that American and European brands have higher status than Chinese brands (Cheng et al., 2010). Given the superior nation equity of American and European brands, Chinese consumers often appreciate and admire Western products and evaluate Chinese-American/European blends (e.g., Starbucks coffee moon cake, Haagen-Dazs moon cake ice-cream) favorably.

However, China is also a rapidly growing economy. When aware of China’s rising economic prowess, Chinese consumers may no longer feel a strong need to rely on cultural blends to affirm the positive distinctiveness of its cultural products. Clifford and Heath (1993) argue that upward mobility inspires individuals’ aspiration to acquire a favorable evaluation of the self. Extending this rationale to perceptions of the upward mobility of one’s own culture, we propose that perceiving that one’s culture is on the rise would nurture a desire to promote distinctive local brands, rather than relying on cultural blends to enhance positive distinctiveness. In short, Chinese consumers with heightened perceptions of China’s rising status in the marketplace would react less favorably to the mixing of their local and a foreign culture.

The Current Study

We tested our prediction in a field experiment carried out in Guangzhou, China. In the study, we measured Chinese consumers’ reactions to culture-mixed products before and after they shopped in a high-status Chinese store (Exception). Based on the notion that consumers can vicariously experience their own national culture through the products that they use (Alter & Kwan, 2009), injecting sentiments to cultural iconic brands (Bulmer & Buchanan-Oliver, 2010), we posit that shopping in Exception would heighten the perception of China’s rising status in the marketplace. Thus, we anticipated that, after heightening perceptions of their country’s success in creating high quality indigenous brands, Chinese consumers would react less favorably to culture-mixed products. As a baseline comparison, we added conditions in which Chinese consumers shopped in a low-status Chinese store as well as in Western stores of lower and higher status. We also added conditions in which European consumers shopped at the same stores. The predicted effect should emerge only when Chinese consumers shopped at the high-status Chinese store—the only condition that would heighten perceptions of Chinese products’ rising cultural status.

Method

Participants and Procedures

Mainland Chinese (N = 313, 38.7% male) and European consumers (N = 270, 42.6% male, 30 British, 48 French, 68 Germans, 28 Italians, 31 Russians, and the rest from other European countries) were recruited at two shopping malls in Guangzhou (a cosmopolitan city in Southern China) to participate in a field experiment.

Half of the European and Chinese participants attempting to enter one of the four stores (four different groups of participants) were intercepted by an interviewer while attempting to enter the store, and filled in the survey at that moment. The remaining participants were intercepted to complete the same survey after leaving the store (mean time shopping = 16.65 min, SD = 14.4). Assignment to the entering or leaving condition was determined randomly by flipping a coin. A Chinese (European) interviewer interviewed the Chinese (European) consumers in Chinese (English). All participants were presented with a culture-mixed product: a pizza with the shape of an ancient Chinese bronze coin and a rice burger (see Appendix 1). Presentation of the products included an image and a description of the product. The participants rated their liking for and the likelihood of trying and recommending this product to a friend. They also indicated their evaluation of each product on three attributes: attractive, desirable, and pleasant. Participants also rated their negative emotions (hatred, anger, and contempt) toward each product. All evaluations are on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 = not at all, 7 = very much so). We collapsed across pertinent items and products to form a measure of product evaluation (α = .93) and negative emotions (α = .90).¹

To verify our assumption that both European and Chinese consumers attributed higher status to European (vs. Chinese) products, we showed the participants a China-made and a Europe-made scale for measuring body weight and asked the participants to rate each scale on four evaluative attributes (good, pleasant, desirable, and attractive), each on a Likert-type scale from 1 (negative) to 7 (positive). The two scales had similar designs. The mean rating of the four attributes for the China-made (Europe-made) product was used to form a measure of nation equity for Chinese (European) products (α = .94). Finally, to assess the validity of the status associated with the stores chosen as stimuli (see below), we asked participants to indicate their extent of agreement with the following statement: “[store name] sells luxury products” on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Store Selection

The selection of the four stores came from a separate pretest in which 30 consumer psychology undergraduates (17 Europeans and 13 Mainland Chinese) of a business school in Guangzhou participated in a brainstorming session to identify high- and low-status Chinese and European fashion stores. They identified Exception as a high-status Chinese store and MetersBonwe, a Shanghai brand known for its affordable prices, as a lower status Chinese store. In addition, they identified Armani Exchange (A|X) as a relatively high-status European brand and H&M as a relatively low-status European brand. A|X has a strong presence in Guangzhou and has stores in several upscale shopping malls, whereas H&M is a European brand widely known in China to have similar styles and comparable prices as MetersBonwe. H&M and MetersBonwe stores are often located in the same shopping malls in Guangzhou.

Results

Manipulation Checks

First, to verify the validity of the store selection, we submitted participants’ responses to the manipulation check (luxury perception) question to an ANOVA with the brand (Exception, A|X, MetersBonwe, or H&M) and participants’ culture (Chinese or Europeans) as fixed factors. There was a significant main effect of brand, F(3, 535) = 138.40, p < .001, which was qualified by the significant two-way interaction, F(3, 535) = 21.07, p < .001. Follow-up analysis revealed that for Chinese consumers, the main effect of brand was significant, F(3, 294) = 34.25, p < .0001; Exception (M = 4.97) was perceived to have the same level of luxury as A|X (M = 4.16). Both Exception and A|X were perceived to have higher levels of luxury than were H&M (M = 3.08) and MetersBonwe (M = 2.55), ps < .001. The difference between H&M and MetersBonwe was also significant, p = .03. For Europeans, the mean effect of brand was significant, F(3, 241) = 155.66, p < .0001; Exception (M = 5.53) was perceived to have the same level of luxury as A|X (M = 5.78), p > .05. Both Exception and A|X were perceived to have higher levels of luxury than were H&M (M = 2.30) and MetersBonwe (M = 1.84), ps < .0001. The difference between H&M and MetersBonwe was not significant. In short, as we intended, both Chinese and European consumers perceived Exception and A|X to have the same level of luxury, as well as higher level of luxury than H&M and MetersBonwe.

Second, to verify perceptions of nation equity, we submitted participants’ mean evaluation of the body weight scales to a repeated measures ANOVA with the country of origin (European or Chinese) as a within-subjects factor and participant’s culture (Chinese or European) as a between-subjects factor. The main effect of country of origin was significant, F(1, 550) = 117.57, p < .0001. Participants evaluated the Europe-made (vs. China-made) weight scale more favorably (M = 4.29 vs. 3.61). The interaction was also significant, F(1, 550) = 19.07, p < .0001; European (vs. Chinese) consumers evaluated the European product more favorably (M = 4.47 vs. 4.13), F(1, 552) = 9.48, p = .002, and the Chinese product marginally less positively (M = 3.51 vs. 3.71), F(1, 552) = 3.33, p = .07.

Reactions Toward Culture-Mixed Products

Among consumers who completed the study before entering the stores, the Chinese (vs. European) consumers had higher evaluation of the culture-mixed products (M = 4.07 vs. 3.23), F(1, 263) = 27.78, p < .0001, suggesting that the Chinese consumers had higher baseline evaluation of culture mixing. To assess the effect of shopping experiences on reactions toward culture-mixed products, we performed separate ANOVAs on the two dependent variables (evaluation and negative emotions), with Participant, Stores, and Time of Completing the Survey as between-subjects factors. The three-way interaction was significant for both variables—F(3, 567) = 4.82, p = .003, for evaluation; F(3, 554) = 4.53, p = .004, for negative emotions. To understand the nature of these interactions, we compared the differences between consumers entering (vs. leaving) the store separately for each store and each cultural group. The results are presented in Table 1. As shown in the table, the Chinese consumers’ favorable evaluations of the culture-mixed products were significantly reduced after shopping in the high-status Chinese store, F(1, 37) = 18.34, p < .0001. Interestingly, European consumers expressed stronger negative emotions toward the culture-mixed products after shopping in a low-status Chinese store, F(1, 34) = 9.94, p = .003. No other differences between consumers entering (vs. leaving) the store were significant.

Table 1.

Effects of Shopping Experience on Responses to Culture-Mixed Products.

	Chinese consumers		European consumers
	Evaluation	Negative emotion	Evaluation	Negative emotion
Exception
Enterers (M)	4.45 (0.25)	2.49 (0.33)	2.47 (0.30)	2.14 (0.31)
Exiters (M)	2.86 (0.27)	3.16 (0.36)	2.94 (0.22)	2.31 (0.22)
Difference	−1.59***	0.67	0.47	0.17
MetersBonwe
Enterers (M)	4.07 (0.15)	2.78 (0.17)	3.29 (0.31)	2.25 (0.28)
Exiters (M)	3.92 (0.13)	2.60 (0.14)	3.58 (0.36)	3.62 (0.33)
Difference	−0.15	−0.18	0.29	1.38*
A\|X
Enterer (M)	3.98 (0.35)	2.58 (0.39)	2.83 (0.17)	1.99 (0.18)
Exiters (M)	3.93 (0.22)	2.69 (0.25)	3.20 (0.18)	2.35 (0.19)
Difference	−0.05	0.002	0.38	0.36
H&M
Enterer (M)	3.91 (0.15)	2.42 (0.18)	3.77 (0.20)	2.04 (0.15)
Exiters (M)	3.88 (0.14)	2.82 (0.18)	3.40 (0.18)	2.00 (0.14)
Difference	−0.03	0.40	−0.37	−0.04

Note. Standard errors are shown in parentheses. A|X = Armani exchange.

p < .01. ***p < .001.

Discussion

The results from the present study help to improve our understanding of the drivers of people’s exclusionary responses to culture mixing. Our findings show that although Chinese consumers attribute higher status to European (vs. Chinese) products and have higher baseline evaluation of culture-mixed products, they react less favorably to culture-mixed products after shopping (vs. simply entering) in a high-status Chinese store (Exception). This effect was absent among Chinese consumers who shopped (vs. simply entered) in a lower status Chinese store or a European store of relatively low or high status. The effect was also absent among Western shoppers. We argue that the Exception effect among Chinese consumers emerges due to heightened perceptions of the rising status of China—which might increase the positivity of Chinese identity and hence prompt a rejection of foreign cultural influence.

Past studies (Klein, 2002) have shown that resistance to foreign cultural influence often stems from concerns with cultural erosion and cultural threat (i.e., when one’s cultural/national/racial status is descending). Yet, our study shows that rejection of culture mixing can also occur when people have heightened perceptions of the ascending status of their own culture. The lowered evaluation of culture-mixed products among the Chinese consumers in our study might arise from momentary rise in national pride. Visiting Exception might have temporarily raised the Chinese consumers’ patriotism, as well as their confidence in China’s leadership in the marketplace, which in turn might have lower receptiveness toward culture mixing (see Cheon, Christopoulos, & Hong, 2016).

European consumers also associate European versus Chinese products with higher level of nation equity. European consumers also have a tendency to attribute low status to Chinese stores. They consider Exception to be similar to A|X, which is not regarded as a luxury brand in the West. Nonetheless, they strongly disagree that MetersBonwe sell luxury products (M = 1.84 on a scale from 1 to 7). Hence, after a visit to MetersBonwe, European consumers might have an urge to dissociate European culture from Chinese culture and view culture mixing as a cultural threat. Being Europeans in China, cultural identities might be particularly salient (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). Our result is consistent with past finding that fear of contamination of a high-status culture also drives resistance to cultural mixing (Chiu & Kwan, 2016).

Our study shows that shopping experiences interact with the relative status (or nation equity) and mobility of a country to affect evaluations of and emotions toward culture-mixed products. The current study was conducted in Guangzhou, a metropolitan city in China. Both European and Chinese participants attributed higher status or nation equity to European (vs. Chinese) products. The Chinese consumers, who acknowledge China’s relatively low level of nation equity, also evaluated cultural mixing more favorably relative to their European counterparts. However, after shopping at a premium indigenous fashion store, they lowered their evaluation of culture-mixed products. This result suggests that responses to cultural mixing in a developing country are related to its upward mobility.

One limitation of the current study is that we did not directly measure the mechanism hypothesized to underlie the Exception effect (i.e., rise in national pride). Although the overall pattern of findings in our study is consistent with the proposed mechanism, future studies should attempt to provide direct evidence for the underlying process. Recent studies on globalization, polyculturalism, and cosmopolitanism (Alter & Kwan, 2009; Chiu et al., 2011; Morris, Chiu, & Liu, 2015) have inspired new thoughts on how cultures evolve through individuals’ active participation in cultural interactions. The current research attempts to shed further light on how the status of one’s culture and everyday experiences (i.e., shopping) interact to shape people’s responses to cultural mixing.

Footnotes

Appendix 1 Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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