Product Status Signalling

What it measures

Captures the extent to which a consumer believes that purchasing and using a specific product will enhance their perceived social standing. Items span anticipated improvements in social status, societal positioning, prestige, and status signalling to others. The authors referred to this as 'signaling effectiveness.' Administered with a temporal instruction ('at this moment'), indicating this is a state-level rather than trait-level assessment. Used in research examining how power distance beliefs and social comparisons shape status-driven consumption.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• Purchasing this product will improve my social status.
• Purchasing this product will help establish my position in society.
• Buying this product would confer prestige to me.
• Using this product would confer status to me.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Response anchors: strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). The 'at this moment' temporal instruction suggests a state-level measure. Authors referred to this as 'signaling effectiveness.' Alphas: .89 (Study 3) and .94 (Study 4).

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Gao, H., Winterich, K.P., & Zhang, Y. (2016). All that glitters is not gold: How others' status influences the effect of power distance belief on status consumption. Journal of Consumer Research, 43(2), 265–281.

Keywords