Vanity and public self‐consciousness: a comparison of fashion consumer groups and gender

The purpose of this study was to compare vanity and public self‐consciousness between fashion consumer groups (fashion change agents, fashion followers) and genders. Vanity has four dimensions: concern for physical appearance, a positive (perhaps inflated) view of physical appearance, concern for achievement and a positive (perhaps inflated) view of achievement. Participants (284 women; 116 men; mean age = 21.16) completed scales measuring consumer vanity, public self‐consciousness and fashion innovativeness and opinion leadership. Women scored higher on vanity physical concern, vanity achievement concern, vanity achievement view and public self‐consciousness than men. Fashion change agents scored higher on vanity physical concern, vanity physical view and public self‐consciousness than fashion followers.