Status, Race, and Money: The Impact of Racial Hierarchy on Willingness to Pay

A deeply entrenched status hierarchy in the United States classifies African Americans as lower status than Caucasians. Concurrently, African Americans face marketplace discrimination; they are treated as inferior and poor. Because having money and spending money signify status, we explored whether African Americans might elevate their willingness to pay for products in order to fulfill status needs. In Studies 1 and 2, explicit activation of the race concept led some African Americans to pay more than they would otherwise pay and also more than Caucasians. Individual differences in perceived status disadvantage and racial identification moderated this result. In Study 3, when race was salient, an overt status threat (inferior treatment in a purchasing context) similarly led African Americans, but not Caucasians, to pay more than they would otherwise pay. This research illustrates how African Americans whose status is threatened use spending as a way to assert status.