Thought-Provoking Thursday: The Price of Embarrassment
Think back to the last embarrassing product you had to buy: maybe it was a box of tampons for your wife, or gas medicine for a gastrointestinal problem. Were you so embarrassed to be seen with these items that you bought extra stuff to compensate for or hide the so-called “embarrassing” product from prying shoppers’ eyes? According to new research, you’re not alone.
In a forthcoming study in the Journal of Consumer Research, Kellogg School of Management Ph.D candidate Sean Blair and co-author Neal Roese found that 81 percent of consumers in a test group said they’d feel more comfortable buying an embarrassing product (like gas medicine) if they also bought an additional product (like a t-shirt). However, in an interesting twist, Blair and Roese found that the additional products don’t alleviate embarrassment because they physically hiding the offending object in your basket; instead, they can help because they can change the overall impression of your shopping cart.
“It can paint you in the better light,” Blair said, noting that in one experiment, they asked people to buy an embarrassing book (“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Improving Your IQ”). People were embarrassed to buy the book by itself, but when they paired the book with a Rubix cube and an issue of Scientific American, the effect of the book was cancelled out.
“People were less embarrassed, but not because they thought [the other products] would hide the book. Shoppers were reinterpreting what they mean together. These are things for mental stimulation, things that can help you be smarter,” Blair said, noting that ultimately, people became proud to buy all three items together — including the “Idiot’s Guide.”
While he didn’t measure exactly how much people are spending in order to avoid check-out counter embarrassment, Blair said that there is a “very real cost” of these extra items. He pointed to one experiment in which test subjects refused to buy lotion and tissues alongside condoms because of the impression that all three items create together. The subjects weren’t using their own money, so they were essentially turning down $5 to $10 worth of free products because they didn’t want to be embarrassed at the cash register. While refusing a free item worth $5 might not seem like a big deal, Blair noted that $5 here and $10 here can add up — and ultimately, people don’t care about your purchases all that much.
“It’s probably not as bad as you think. People don’t pay as much attention to you as you think they do,” Blair said. “Even if they do, it’s only momentary. It’s a minute [at the register] and you’re out. Try to keep things in perspective.”
Blair also said that it’s important to consider why a certain item is embarrassing you. If gas medicine reveals something about your medical history that you don’t want others knowing, it might be harder to compensate for than an item that reveals something about your identity (like “Stock Market for Dummies” or ten copies of the National Enquirer) that can be corrected.
“If you know that you will be embarrassed because of an identity impression, that’s an opportunity to cancel [the purchase] out. Like when buying that “Idiot” book, you can pair it up with something that will make you look smart,” he said. “Gas medicine, if you’re embarrassed… that’s not an identity thing, there’s no exact opposite of gas medicine. Your best bet there: pair it up with anything.”
