People sometimes seek out expensive goods, and the more expensive they are, the more they are loved by consumers, a phenomenon known as the “Veblen effect.” As economic development and material standards have increased, conspicuous consumption has received full attention in the fields of behavior, economics, and social psychology. Some researchers have argued that individuals engage in conspicuous consumption to highlight their social status, show their unique personalities, and protect their face and identity, which can negatively impact their social group and economic development (Leibenstein, 1950; Vigneron and Johnson, 1999; Trigg, 2001; O'Cass and McEwen, 2004; Deng and Dai, 2005). However, some studies suggest that conspicuous consumption is a way for individuals to consume symbolic goods or services to satisfy their needs in a particular context and that there may be positive effects (Rucker and Galinsky, 2008; Sivanathan and Pettit, 2010; Zheng and Peng, 2014; Li and Sun, 2016; Chen et al., 2018; Hammad and El-Bassiouny, 2018; Zheng et al., 2018; Oh, 2021).

Compensatory consumption theory states that an individual’s need for X can be solved by acquiring X or by acquiring Y. If it is solved by Y, this process is called “compensation” (Grunert, 1993). Previous research has found that conspicuous consumption can compensate for a missing need within an individual (Rucker and Galinsky, 2013) for example, individuals may engage in conspicuous consumption to compensate for threats to their self-esteem (Hammad and El-Bassiouny, 2018; Zheng et al., 2018; Oh, 2021). This may imply that conspicuous consumption is also a means of compensatory consumption (Mazzocco et al., 2012; Ma et al., 2019). It is thus hypothesized that individuals who have their egos threatened will also compensate for their feelings through conspicuous consumption behavior. Uncertain contexts can cause the individual’s ego to feel threatened by, for example, lacking a sense of belonging or a lack of control, creating a sense of self-uncertainty, which in turn forces the individual to seek to restore that certainty (Luhmann et al., 2011; Wagoner and Hogg, 2017). Therefore, what will an individual do after an uncertain context activates self-uncertainty? Will he or she choose conspicuous consumption?

Self-uncertainty is a subjective feeling in which the individual has doubts about his or her self-concept (Van den Bos, 2009). Self-affirmation theory states that individuals will consciously maintain their ego integrity (Sherman and Cohen, 2006). Therefore, when individuals have high levels of self-uncertainty, they will adopt compensatory strategies to compensate and repair themselves (McGregor et al., 2001; McGregor and Jordan, 2007; Wagoner and Hogg, 2017). Studies have found that when individuals are faced with uncertain contexts, they tend to self-repair through consumption behaviors (Cornil and Chandon, 2013; Chen et al., 2017; Liang et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2018; Ma et al., 2019), with conspicuous consumption being an effective tool (Mazzocco et al., 2012; Ma et al., 2019). This is because people are used to seeing objects as part of an extension of the self (Belk, 1988), and some products that have conspicuousness have a symbolic and emblematic value of manifesting and repairing the self (Bell and Dittmar, 2011; Koles et al., 2018). This means that individuals may engage in conspicuous consumption to assert themselves and compensate for a sense of lack after an uncertain context has triggered self-uncertainty (Morrison et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2020). However, other studies found that individuals with high levels of self-uncertainty avoid standing out and engage in group-aligned decision-making behaviors when the group position is ambiguous (Van Prooijen et al., 2004; Smith et al., 2007). More specifically, when self-uncertainty is activated, individuals are less inclined to engage in conspicuous consumption. Accordingly, this study hypothesizes that this difference is because people are exposed to different uncertain contexts in which there are different environmental factors that influence their behaviors (Yang et al., 2017). In other words, different uncertain contexts will trigger different types of self-uncertainty in individuals, which in turn leads to different compensatory behaviors.

Current research suggests that self-uncertainty is mainly derived from conflict situations (Yang et al., 2017), which mainly include cognitive conflict situations, moral conflict situations, and interpersonal conflict situations. Cognitive conflict situations refer to situations in which evidence or facts are incompatible with existing knowledge concepts (Lee et al., 2003), where cognition is not a cognitive resource in the broad sense (Botvinick et al., 2001), but rather a variety of knowledge content that individuals already have (Darnon, 2007). Moral conflict situations refer to situations in which there are possible negative consequences arising from moral dilemmas (Pavlish et al., 2014), whereas interpersonal conflict situations refer to situations in which interdependent parties become conflicted and negative and want to separate (Barki and Hartwick, 2004). Accordingly, this study classifies self-uncertainty into cognitive, moral, and interpersonal self-uncertainty. Cognitive self-uncertainty and moral self-uncertainty are more concerned with the psychological processes of the self. When individuals have high levels of cognitive and moral self-uncertainty, they will accentuate their ego and engage in conspicuous consumption behavior to compensate for their sense of control and belonging (Krohne, 1989; Morrison et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2020). Interpersonal self-uncertainty refers to an individual’s uncertainty about his or her relationship with others, his or her identity, and status in the group (Morrison et al., 2012). Individuals in group situations are more likely to act in a way that is consistent with the group to compensate for their sense of lack and therefore do not engage in conspicuous consumption (Van Prooijen et al., 2004; Smith et al., 2007). Accordingly, this study proposes the hypothesis that cognitive and moral self-uncertainty increases individuals’ conspicuous consumption in uncertain social contexts, while interpersonal self-uncertainty decreases individuals’ conspicuous consumption.

In a previous study, McGregor et al. (2010) found that tolerance of uncertainty influenced behavioral responses in individuals with high self-uncertainty. More precisely, individuals with low tolerance of uncertainty will be very averse to a variety of uncertain and ambiguous situations and will engage in more compensatory behaviors than individuals with high tolerance of uncertainty once their self-uncertainty is accepted and experienced (Butzer and Kuiper, 2006). Tolerance of uncertainty reflects individual differences in the tendency of cognitive, emotional, or behavioral responses to contexts of uncertainty (Zvolensky et al., 2010). Therefore, it is hypothesized that tolerance of uncertainty moderates the effect of self-uncertainty on conspicuous consumption. That is, individuals with low tolerance of uncertainty are more likely to consume conspicuously than individuals with high tolerance of uncertainty.

In summary, based on compensatory consumption theory and self-affirmation theory, this study proposes to examine the influence of moral, cognitive, and interpersonal self-uncertainty on conspicuous consumption through four experiments while introducing tolerance of uncertainty as a moderating variable to further investigate the influence of self-uncertainty on conspicuous consumption (see Figure 1). This study explores self-uncertainty from three conflict contexts, aiming to investigate the impact of uncertainty on individuals’ behavioral decisions and to verify the compensatory role of conspicuous consumption. It is also expected to provide new ideas on individual behavior and decision-making in uncertain social contexts and to draw attention to the real needs of the inner self.

Individual behavioral decisions in uncertain contexts have received extensive attention in behavior, economics, and social psychology. It has been found that uncertain contexts pose a threat to individuals, and to compensate for this threat, individuals will adopt some behaviors to compensate for it (Choi et al., 2019; Dufner et al., 2019), and conspicuous consumption can be a good way to compensate for the sense of lack triggered by self-uncertainty (Mazzocco et al., 2012; Ma et al., 2019). Therefore, this study provides insight into the effects of self-uncertainty on conspicuous consumption by using different methods to manipulate different types of self-uncertainty and examines the moderating role of tolerance of uncertainty.

First, experiments 1–3 primarily explored the effects of moral, cognitive, and interpersonal self-uncertainty on conspicuous consumption, with results indicating that moral, cognitive, and interpersonal self-uncertainty all motivate individuals to engage in conspicuous consumption. The results of experiments 1–2 were consistent with the expectations, finding that moral and cognitive self-uncertainty lead individuals to engage in conspicuous consumption. This is possibly because when individuals develop feelings of uncertainty, they actively take means to compensate for them, and conspicuous consumption is an effective means for individuals to restore their sense of certainty (Mazzocco et al., 2012; Ma et al., 2019). However, the results of experiment 3 were contrary to the expectations, and it was found that interpersonal self-uncertainty triggered conspicuous consumption. This may be because, in experiment 3, participants were confronted with a different uncertainty context than in previous studies. Whereas the situation in the previous study was merely one in which participants felt inconsistent with the group, and this inconsistency which may not have threatened their status and did not constitute interpersonal conflict may have led individuals to seek group approval (Hogg, 2007), the situation in experiment 3 accurately manipulated participants’ interpersonal self-uncertainty. The participants may feel less valued in the group and that their status was threatened by recalling their experiences of exclusion or neglect (Shin et al., 2020; Yang et al., 2020), and instead of choosing to conform to the group (Smith et al., 2007), they may choose to consume conspicuously to manifest their self-worth and increase their sense of self-worth (Morrison et al., 2012; Sun et al., 2020). Self-affirmation theory also suggests that individuals compensate for a lack of sense of worth by maintaining a good self-image (Sherman and Cohen, 2006; Teng, 2019) and that the visibility and uniqueness of conspicuous goods can be well suited to the individual’s purpose of maintaining a good image (Bell and Dittmar, 2011; Koles et al., 2018). At the same time, after interpersonal self-uncertainty is activated, individuals may also feel that their social identity is threatened and lose their sense of control over their surroundings and sense of belonging in the group, but individuals cannot immediately regain their sense of control and belonging and must take other means to compensate themselves, and conspicuous consumption can help individuals compensate for the lack of feeling (Li et al., 2017). Thus, individuals who lack cognitive self-uncertainty, moral self-uncertainty, or interpersonal self-uncertainty will compensate for different uncertain social contexts through conspicuous consumption (Mazzocco et al., 2012; Ma et al., 2019; Sun et al., 2021).

Furthermore, experiment 4 investigated the moderating role of tolerance of uncertainty in the effect of self-uncertainty on conspicuous consumption. The results showed that individuals with a high tolerance of uncertainty were significantly less inclined to conspicuous consumption than the control group, even when they were in a state of high self-uncertainty (experimental group). Perhaps, this is because individuals with a high tolerance of uncertainty are better able to accept uncertainty in the face of uncertainty contexts, and they are able to suppress the negative emotions caused by self-uncertainty to a certain extent, thus reducing compensatory behavior (Bredemeier and Berenbaum, 2008; Di Trani et al., 2021). Individuals with a low tolerance of uncertainty are more likely to experience worry and anxiety in uncertain contexts (McEvoy and Mahoney, 2012; Boelen et al., 2014) and are more sensitive to uncertainty and intolerant of it (Ladouceur et al., 1997, 2000). Therefore, some means of alleviating self-uncertainty are necessary. On this basis, there is some reason to hypothesize that tolerance of uncertainty is a key factor influencing individuals’ behavioral decisions in uncertain contexts.

The findings of this study are also consistent with the uncertainty theory proposed by previous studies. Uncertainty-identity theory views self-uncertainty as a feeling of doubt about the self, the world view and the environment in which one lives (Van den Bos, 2001), causing disgust and discomfort (Hogg, 2007) and thus a loss of control and certainty over one’s environment (Van den Bos, 2007). When individuals are in a state of self-uncertainty, feelings of discomfort and disgust drive individuals’ motivation to reduce self-uncertainty (Van den Bos, 2001; Van den Bos, 2009). In turn, to protect the self from uncertainty, individuals turn to material objects for alleviation, resulting in a state of self-stability and coherence (Chang and Arkin, 2002; Rucker and Galinsky, 2008; Gao et al., 2009). As a result, subjects showed more propensity to conspicuous consumption in order to remove uncertainty. Both the Uncertainty Management Model and the Uncertain Response Convergence Motivation Theory emphasize that in order to alleviate self-uncertainty, people will generate and pursue needs in other areas in order to reduce uncertainty (Van den Bos and Lind, 2002; McGregor et al., 2010). Conspicuous consumption is a way of showing off one’s uniqueness and distinguishing oneself, so people use it to counteract the uncertainty of uncertain situations (Bell and Dittmar, 2011; Koles et al., 2018). The findings also suggest that conspicuous consumption may have a compensatory effect and that it also has some positive effects on people’s daily lives, especially in uncertain contexts. Despite its negative perception, conspicuous consumption can go some way to curbing the worry and anxiety caused by self-uncertainty, helping people to tolerate the aversion caused by uncertain contexts and adapt better to this age of information explosion (Bredemeier and Berenbaum, 2008; Luhmann et al., 2011; Carleton, 2012). Furthermore, the results of this study also suggest that compensatory behavior may be the main means by which people cope with uncertainty, with conspicuous consumption being only one way of doing so (Hammad and El-Bassiouny, 2018; Zheng et al., 2018; Oh, 2021). In uncertain contexts, compensating for one’s inner needs may be a common behavioral norm (McGregor et al., 2001; McGregor and Jordan, 2007; Smith et al., 2007; Wagoner and Hogg, 2017). Future research could explore the psychological mechanisms of people’s compensatory behavior in uncertain contexts.

This study innovatively proposes three types of self-uncertainty, focuses on the impact of different types of situations on individuals, and explores in depth the behavioral tendencies of individuals in different uncertain situations. Future research can pay more attention to the differences in individuals’ behavioral decisions under different uncertain social situations. In addition, this study verifies the positive effect of conspicuous consumption, which provides some reference for understanding individual behavior in uncertain situations and contributes to people’s view of their true inner needs. Of course, this study also has certain limitations. First, in exploring the moderating role, this study used only interpersonal self-uncertainty and did not explore in more detail the role played by moral uncertainty and cognitive uncertainty in this pathway. Subsequent research could explore whether there are significant differences between these two aspects of self-uncertainty in the regulation mechanism. Second, this study only explored the moderating mechanisms by which self-uncertainty influences conspicuous consumption, without engaging in a discussion of mediating effects. For example, among the concepts that are highly correlated with self-uncertainty, self-esteem is a variable that has received keen attention, and future research could explore it more deeply in relation to state self-esteem.

The study explored the effects of self-uncertainty and tolerance of uncertainty on conspicuous consumption through a moral dilemma, a recall paradigm, and a picture quiz task written by E-Prime software. It was found that (1) both moral self-uncertainty and cognitive self-uncertainty made individuals more inclined to conspicuous consumption; (2) individuals’ conspicuous consumption increased when interpersonal self-uncertainty was activated; and (3) tolerance of uncertainty moderated the effect of self-uncertainty on conspicuous consumption, as individuals with low tolerance of uncertainty showed a greater tendency for conspicuous consumption when their self-uncertainty was activated compared to those with higher tolerance of uncertainty.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Qufu Normal University. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

XMW for variables, methods, and article writing. CQS for providing materials of the four experiments and assistance with data collection. HJZ and QYZ for revision assistance. XXW for helpful suggestions about the experimental design. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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