Money priming affects consumers’ need for uniqueness

We conducted 3 studies to investigate the effect of money priming on consumers’ need for uniqueness. In Study 1, we found that when choosing products, consumers who were primed with money had a stronger need for counterconformity, compared to those who were not. In Study 2, we found that the meaning of money linked to the amount of money moderated the effect of money concept on consumers’ choice of innovative products, and that the likelihood that individuals primed with a large amount of money would choose unique products was significantly higher than that of both those primed with a small amount of money and the non- money-primed control group. In Study 3, we found that social distance mediated the influence of money concept on the consumers’ need for uniqueness. Overall, the results showed that consumers who are primed with money perceive greater social distance and have a stronger need for uniqueness.