Boycotting, Buycotting, and the Psychology of Political Consumerism

Political consumerism refers to the intentional avoidance or purchase of products because of political, social, or ethical concerns. The intentional avoidance (boycotting) and the intentional purchase (buycotting) of products constitute a growing form of political behavior. In this article, we offer a conceptual framework for understanding and disentangling boycotting and buycotting, based on a psychological framework of avoidance and approach, respectively. We conduct three original survey experiments to identify the differential effects of negative and positive information in stimulating boycotting and buycotting behaviors. In all three studies, we find that negative information is far more powerful in inducing boycotting than positive information is in inducing buycotting.