Cultural exploitation or cultural Exchange? The roles of perceived group status and others' psychological investment on reactions to consumption of traditional cultural products

When do people react negatively versus positively to other groups' adoption of their culture's traditional products? Extending research on social identity theory and cultural appropriation, we predicted that consumers would respond less positively to others' adoption of products from their culture when they felt their ingroup's status was relatively low. In Study 1, Indian participants induced to think of their country as low (vs. high) in status exhibited less positivity toward Westerners' consumption of traditional Indian clothing and evaluated such clothing more negatively themselves; these effects were mediated by reduced perceptions of consumers' psychological investment. In Study 2, we experimentally manipulated perceived psychological investment to further establish causality. Specifically, among racial/ethnic minority participants in the United States, the relationship between low perceived group status and feelings toward cultural appropriation (and, indirectly, evaluations of traditional cultural products) was attenuated when participants recalled instances of others being psychologically invested in the products.