Restrained by resources: The effect of scarcity cues and childhood socioeconomic status (SES) on consumer preference for feasibility

Scarcity cues are ubiquitous in our everyday lives and thus attract great attention in consumer research. However, little attention has been devoted to examining whether exposure to scarcity cues influences consumers' trade-off between feasibility and desirability in product choices. The present research argues that the impact of scarcity cues on consumers' preference for products that offer more feasible or more desirable features depends on consumers' childhood socioeconomic status (childhood SES). The findings consistently show that consumers with low childhood SES who were reminded of resource scarcity seek more feasibility in product choices than consumers in other conditions. We trace this effect to the fact that scarcity cues cause consumers with low childhood SES to process information at a low construal level. By presenting this conceptualization and evidence, the present study contributes to research on childhood SES, resource scarcity, and construal level theory (CLT).