Male–Male Status Signaling through Favoring Organic Foods: Is the Signaler Perceived and Treated as a Friend or a Foe?
研究男性通过偏爱有机食品传递地位信号时，其他男性如何感知和对待他，发现城市环境中信号发送者被认为更受尊重、利他和富裕，并获得更多慈善捐款。
ABSTRACT Even though consumers’ status signaling is a heavily researched topic, empirical contributions from two important research areas—the mundane food context and prosocial status signaling between male consumers—to signaling literature are still scarce. Thus, this study empirically investigates how a male signaling about his status through favoring organic foods is perceived and treated by other males in two different sociocultural settings (urban vs. rural). In an urban area—but not in a rural—the pro‐organic signaler was perceived as more respected, altruistic, and affluent than a male who did not signal about this (he also received statistically more money in a charity donation task). This may indicate that signaling about this tendency—because it can be viewed as use of one's own resources for the benefit of others—is not only a way to attain status, but can also make others behave more positively toward the signaler.