Boycotting, Buycotting, and the Psychology of Political Consumerism

2019/08/20 by Cindy D. Kam, Maggie Deichert · 1 voice · 3 citations
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Social Media and Politics #Social and Intergroup Psychology

paper · doi:10.1086/705922

openalex publication_date 2019/08/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Political consumerism refers to the intentional avoidance or purchase of products because of political, social, or ethical concerns. The intentional avoidance (boycotting) and the intentional purchase (buycotting) of products constitute a growing form of political behavior. In this article, we offer a conceptual framework for understanding and disentangling boycotting and buycotting, based on a psychological framework of avoidance and approach, respectively. We conduct three original survey experiments to identify the differential effects of negative and positive information in stimulating boycotting and buycotting behaviors. In all three studies, we find that negative information is far more powerful in inducing boycotting than positive information is in inducing buycotting.

Citations

• Citizenship Norms and the Expansion of Political Participation
• Consequences of Automatic Evaluation: Immediate Behavioral Predispositions to Approach or Avoid the Stimulus
• A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains

Cited by

• The Political Psychology of Cancel Culture: Value Framing or Group Identity?
• Politically Contaminated Clothes, Chocolates, and Charities: Distancing From Neutral Products Liked by Out-Group or In-Group Partisans
• TikTok and Black political consumerism: Investigating how TikTok use is linked to Black Americans’ activism and identity

Discussions

• Going to use this as a scenario for a study in relation to political consumerism in videogames Kam, C. D., & Deichert, M. (2020). Boycotting, Buycotting, and the Psychology of Political Consumerism. [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]