Love of variety? An experimental study of heterogeneous responses to foreign brands in the marketplace

Do everyday encounters with foreign brands shape political attitudes? We argue that brand origin cues activate national identities, producing different responses among nationalists and cosmopolitans. In an online shopping experiment, U.S. participants were randomly assigned to compare American (control), European, or Asian (treatment) sport utility vehicles without explicit mention of brand origin. Exposure to foreign brands increased opposition to trade and immigration and support for Donald Trump among nationalists. Cosmopolitans generally showed little change. These effects are not reducible to partisanship, revealing within-coalition divides among Republicans and among Democrats and Independents. Our findings show that subtle consumer experiences spill over into politics, creating a bottom-up channel of polarization that links nationalism and populism to support for neomercantilist and nativist policies.