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Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47 (2011) 672675

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Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

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Genuineness matters: Using cheaper, generic products induces

detrimental self-evaluations
Wen-Bin Chiou , Ying-Hsien Chao
Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-Sen University, 70 Lien-Hai Rd., Kaohsiung, 80424, Taiwan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 17 September 2010
Revised 29 November 2010
Available online 7 January 2011
Keywords:
Generic products
Priming
Self-evaluations
Self-worth

a b s t r a c t
People purchase generic products in an attempt to reduce costs. In this article, we showed that using generic
products primes a devalued sense of self-worth manifested by increasing the likelihood of lower self-evaluations.
In Experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to use generic or genuine computer peripherals to make
personal vitas for an upcoming recruitment orientation. Those using generic peripherals expected to earn a lower
salary per month than the participants using original peripherals. Experiment 2 showed that the effect of using
generic accessories extended to the context of interpersonal relations, inuencing how participants thought others
judged them in a get-acquainted task. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that the feelings of devalued self-worth
primed by using compatible mobile-phone batteries mediated the effect of generic products on self-estimated
attractiveness. Together these ndings suggested that, even incidentally used cheaper, generic products may
prime people for a lowered sense of self-worth, which would then produce disadvantageous self-evaluations.
2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction
People tend to use generic or equivalent products (e.g., replacement
batteries, aftermarket parts, printer ink, toner cartridge, etc.) for saving
money while trading off quality. Belk (1988) gathered a large body of
literature to support the thesis that consumers use possessions to
extend, expand, and strengthen their sense of self. The desired signals of
using generic products may be I am a savvy consumer. However, using
a cheaper generic product may also convey signals of having less wealth
or being cheap. We conducted two experimental studies examining
the effect of generic products on self-evaluations to ll a gap in the
research literature resulting from the exclusive use of a bidirectional
personthing framework (e.g., Ahuvia, 2005; Kleine, Kleine, &
Brunswick, 2009; Tian & Belk, 2005) to understand consumer behavior
since the notion of an extended self was rst posited (Belk, 1988).
In addition to discussing the role of self-expression in formation of
the extended self, Belk (1988) also used the personthingperson
framework to address the transformative impact of possessions on the
self. In principle, a person's (actual and desired) characteristics guide
the products he or she chooses (e.g., He & Mukherjee, 2007; Paulssen
& Bagozzi, 2005). Exploration of whether the opposite effect would
emerge, even with incidental products, represents an interesting area
for further research. Similar to other research exploring the inuence
of signaling conicts, such as those between public and private signals
(Kuran, 1995), this study examined whether using generic products

Corresponding author. Fax: +886 7 5250133.

E-mail address: wbchiou@mail.nsysu.edu.tw (W.-B. Chiou).
0022-1031/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.01.002

inuenced the signals one sends to oneself and attempted to

determine the likely consequences of such effects. Investigating the
impact of generic products on the self involves a particular case in
which desired signals (I feel smart) may conict with primed signals
(I feel less valued). Although using generic products to save money
can afrm people as smart, savvy, or thrifty, cheaper generic products
can also send a negative signal to the self. According to the active-self
account of exemplar prime-to-behavior effects (Wheeler, DeMarree,
& Petty, 2007), primes can inuence peoples behavior by creating
changes in the active self-concept. Based on recent advancements in
the behavioral priming literature, we suggest that use of cheaper
generic products risks signaling the unworthiness of the self and
thereby generating a feeling of devalued self that leads users to
devalue their self-worth. The effects of primes on behavior (e.g., the
mere presence of objects inuencing behavior; Berger & Fitzsimons,
2008; Berkowitz & LePage, 1967) have been well-documented. For
example, a subliminal prime of the Apple logo can activate a creative
goal that leads participants to perform more creatively than they do
following a prime of the IBM logo (Fitzsimons, Chartrand, &
Fitzsimons, 2008). Recently, Gino, Norton, and Ariely (2010) showed
that counterfeit products can make individuals feel less authentic and
increase their likelihood of both behaving dishonestly and judging
others as unethical. Mere exposure to fast-food symbols reduced
people's willingness to save and led them to prefer immediate gain
over greater future return, ultimately harming their economic interest
(Zhong & DeVoe, 2010).
Given that cost savings are the primary motivation for the
purchase of generic products, individuals may believe that they are
simply getting similar products for less money; however, they may be

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W.-B. Chiou, Y.-H. Chao / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47 (2011) 672675

paying a price in terms of their self-worth. In the present research, we

contend that generic products may prime users for a devalued self and
cause them to generate less positive self-evaluations. In short, we
suggest that using generic products is likely to have a negative impact
on self-evaluations.
Experiment 1
In the rst study, we examined whether using a generic keyboard
and mouse for MAC desktops would lead to lower levels of expected
salary, as compared to using original peripherals.
Method
Participants
Participants were 68 seniors (mean age = 22.7 years; 32 females
and 36 males) from universities in southern Taiwan. They volunteered
to participate in this experiment and were recruited through yers
posted on the board of the Career Development Divisions.
Materials and procedure
The research was disguised as a resume composition study.
Participants were told that their autobiographies would be evaluated
and that they would receive editing comments within one week. After
participants signed the consent forms, they were asked to complete a
two-page vita form, which would be requested in an upcoming joint
recruitment orientation at the National Sun Yat-Sen University. All
participants completed their resumes with the Word processor on an
Apple iMAC desktop. Participants were randomly assigned to one of
two experimental conditions, generic accessories and genuine
accessories. The experimenter told participants that the lab had just
replaced the keyboards and mouses with new ones for the purpose of
conducting this research. Under the generic-accessories condition,
participants were further told that the new peripherals were generic
products purchased for a budget-constraint reason. Under the
genuine-accessories condition, participants were told that the new
peripherals were genuine brand-name products. The dependent
measure was the expected salary per month (M = US $1024,
SD = 133) that each participant's resume would elicit.
After participants completed the resume task, they used a Likert
scale ranging from 1 (not at all effective) to 7 (very effective) to rate
the effectiveness of the accessories for creating personal vitas. The
experimenter then asked participants to help with a marketing survey
by evaluating the relative product quality of generic and genuine
products on a 7-point scale with three anchors: In general, the
generic products are worse than the genuine products in product
quality; In general, these two kinds of products are equivalent in
product quality; and In general, the generic products are better than
the genuine products in product quality. At the end of the
experiment, participants lled out a demographic questionnaire as
well as a manipulation check that asked participants to provide their
estimate of the retail price of the two accessories. At the end of the
study, participants were fully debriefed verbally. None of participants
in the generic-accessories condition complained that they felt
themselves unworthy of using genuine brand-name products.
Results and discussion
Participants under both study conditions correctly identied the
keyboard and mouse they used to create personal vitas as either
generic or genuine products. Participants' estimates of the retail prices
indicated that the manipulation was successful. The estimated retail
price of the keyboard was higher under the genuine-accessories
condition (M = US $47.06, SD = 12.92) than under the genericaccessories condition (M = US $24.62, SD = 11.74), t(66) = 7.50,
p b 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.82. A similar pattern was observed for the
estimated price of the mouse (genuine-accessories condition: M = US

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$26.32, SD = 6.28; generic-accessories condition: M = US $18.42,

SD = 5.38), t(66) = 5.57, p b 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.35. In addition, the
estimated retail prices of both accessories (keyboard: r = 0.17,
p = 0.17; mouse: r = 0.16 p = 0.20) were not related to the expected
salaries (i.e., the dependent measure).
Participants primed with generic products (M = 5.47, SD = 0.86)
judged the accessories used in the resume task as less effective than
did those under the genuine-accessories condition (M = 5.91,
SD = 0.79), t(66) = 2.19, p = 0.03, Cohen's d = 0.53. However, perceived effectiveness was not associated with expected salary, r = 0.17,
p = 0.17. As expected, participants under the generic-accessories
condition (M = US $976, SD = 120) expected a lower monthly salary
than did participants under the genuine-accessories condition
(M = US $1071, SD = 129), F(1, 66) = 9.68, p = 0.003, 2p = 0.128 (see
Table 1). Additionally, the priming effect was not contingent on
gender, F(1, 64) = 1.72, p = 0.20, 2p = 0.025, or on students' school
(science, engineering, social science, and business), F(3, 60) = 0.21,
p = 0.88, 2p = 0.010. In the ostensible marketing survey, participants
generally reported that the generic products (M = 2.21, SD = 0.84)
were lower in quality than the genuine products when ratings for both
were compared with the midpoint ( = 4.0) of the scale, t(67) = 17.34,
p b 0.001, Cohen's d = 2.13, and perceived relative quality did not differ
according to study condition, t(66) = 0.32, p = 0.75. Relative quality
was not associated with expected salary, r = 0.15, p = 0.21. Thus, these
ndings suggest that the use of generic accessories tended to induce a
lower level of self-worth, as reected in participants' expected salaries.
Using generic products to save money may afrm people as smart
and savvy. If that were the case in this experiment, the perceived
quality of generic products would have been equivalent or superior to
that of genuine products. However, participants generally perceived
the generic products to be of lower quality than the genuine products.
The accessories used under the generic-accessories condition were
judged as less effective than those used under the genuine-accessories
condition. Neither perceived effectiveness nor estimated price was
related to expected salary. Hence, perceived price and product
effectiveness (or quality) did not play a mediating role in the
observed priming effect. Moreover, participants in this study seemed
to associate lower prices and quality with generic products. The next
study examined the possible mechanisms underpinning these results
in a different context.

Experiment 2
In this experiment, we investigated the impact of generic products
in a social interaction context. We examined whether participants
using a mobile phone with a replacement battery would consider
themselves to be less attractive to a partner in a get-acquainted task
compared with control participants. One important change was made
in this experiment. We added a measure of self-worth, using a state
self-esteem questionnaire (which also included some bogus questions) to further examine the psychological mechanism behind this
effect, as self-worth was our proposed mediator.

Table 1
Participants' mean estimates and condence intervals for each condition in the two
experiments.
Experiment

Prime condition

Control condition

Dependent variable

Experiment 1

976 40

1071 43

Experiment 2

3.70 0.43

4.56 0.37

Experiment 2

2.71 0.22

3.28 0.20

Expected salary per

month (US Dollar)
Self-estimated
attractiveness (1-7)
State self-worth (15)

Note. Condence intervals were set at 95%. Units of the dependent measure are
presented in parentheses. In Experiment 1, each study condition consisted of 37
participants, whereas each study condition in Experiment 2 consisted of 48 participants.

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W.-B. Chiou, Y.-H. Chao / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47 (2011) 672675

Method
Participants
Ninety-six male students (mean age = 21.8 years, SD = 2.6) who
were not in a romantic relationship participated in the study. They
were recruited through yers posted on the Counseling Center board
at our university.
Materials and procedure
The study was described as the follow-up study of our previous
research on nding romantic partners (Wu & Chiou, 2009; Yang &
Chiou, 2010) for which the participants had been recruited. Each
participant was asked to complete a questionnaire concerning the
desirable characteristics of his ideal partner in terms of 16 conditions
(e.g., height, weight, major, smoking habits, drinking habits, religion,
astrological sign, blood type, appearance, personality, interests, travel
preferences, and cuisine preferences). We told participants that they
would engage in a get-acquainted task in which they could choose a
highly-matching subject as a target partner from the database of our
prior studies. They were further told that the main task was to
introduce themselves to the target partner within 5 min and that they
would receive professional suggestions about their self-introduction.
Unbeknownst to the participants, the target partner was a study
confederate. After the ostensible matching process, we provided each
participant with the phone number of the target partner and a mobile
phone (iPhone 3GS). Participants were randomly assigned to one of
two conditions, generic-accessory and genuine-accessory. In the two
experimental conditions, the mobile phone that was provided
contained a dead battery. In the generic-accessory condition, the
experimenter offered a compatible battery as a replacement and
explained that this battery was used for a cost-cutting reason. In the
genuine-accessory condition, the experimenter offered a genuine
battery as a replacement. After completing the self-introduction, each
participant was asked to indicate to what extent the target partner
would have been impressed by him on a 7-point scale (1 = least
attractive, 7 = very attractive). At the end of the experiment,
participants lled out a questionnaire, which contained demographics, evaluations of the communication quality of the mobile phone,
self-worth items, and a manipulation check that asked them to
estimate the retail price of the battery. At the end of the study,
participants were fully debriefed verbally.
In this experiment, self-worth was assessed with a ve-item scale,
adapted from Rosenberg (1965) that measured global self-esteem. For
the purpose of this research, the scale was modied to measure state
self-esteem by asking the respondents to reect on their current
feelings. Participants indicated their agreement with the following
items using a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree):
I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with
others, I'm inclined to feel that I am a failure, On the whole, I am
satised with myself, I feel I do not have much to be proud of, and I
take a positive attitude toward myself. We recoded negatively
worded items to produce a single averaged score. The scale responses
proved to be internally consistent ( = 0.87). Higher scores on this
scale indicated higher levels of state self-esteem, and thus higher
levels of perceived self-worth.
Results
The manipulation was successful. The estimated retail price of the
battery was higher in the genuine-accessory condition (M = US
$46.04, SD = 12.50) than in the generic-accessory condition (M = US
$25.69, SD = 11.35), t(94) = 8.35, p b 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.70. As we
predicted, the generic accessory led to unfavorable evaluations of
one's interpersonal attractiveness: participants in the generic-accessory condition (M = 3.70, SD = 1.50) thought that the target partner
would consider them less attractive than did participants in the
genuine-accessory condition (M = 4.56, SD = 1.30), F(1, 94) = 9.06,

p = 0.005, 2p = 0.088 (see Table 1). Overall, this result provides

further support for the ndings of Experiment 1.
Participants' average self-worth ratings (ranged from 1 to 5)
varied between the conditions, F(1, 94) = 14.29, p b 0.001, 2p = 0.132.
Participants felt devalued self-worth (i.e., lower levels of state selfesteem) in the generic-accessory condition (M = 2.71, SD = 0.78), as
compared to the genuine-accessory condition (M = 3.28, SD = 0.68).
To examine whether self-worth mediated the effect of using generic
products on self-estimations in the get-acquainted task, we followed
the procedures recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986). We used
self-estimates of attractiveness as the dependent variable and used a
dummy variable for our manipulation (1 = the generic-accessory
condition). As expected, the effect of our generic-accessory manipulation on self-estimated attractiveness was reduced to insignicance
(from = 0.30, p = 0.003, to = 0.05, p = 0.53) when self-worth
was included in the equation, and self-worth was a signicant
predictor of self-estimated attractiveness ( = 0.68, p b 0.001). Including self-worth increased the variance signicantly (by 40%, from
R2 = 0.09 to R2 = 0.49), F(1, 93) = 44.31, p b 0.001; the Sobel test was
signicant, z = 3.52, p b 0.001, indicating that self-worth fully mediated the effect of using generic accessories on self-estimated
attractiveness (see Fig. 1). In short, these results demonstrated that
using generic accessories led people to feel lower self-worth and these
feelings of devalued self-esteem evoked detrimental self-evaluations.

General discussion
People tend to utilize generic products because of cost-saving
concerns. We suspected, however, that people might simply overlook
the possible negative consequences of utilizing generic products. Our
studies showed that even incidentally used cheaper, generic products
have the ironic consequence of harming one's self-image via a sense of
worthlessness, inducing a devalued sense of self. These ndings
supplement the literature on behavioral priming (Wheeler et al., 2007)
and the extended self (Belk, 1988) by demonstrating the link between
cheaper, generic products and self-worth. The current data suggest
that the messages sent by products steeped in sign value may be
integrated into the self. The metaphor of the self that is primed with
generic products tends to highlight self-transformation, but to obscure
self-expression and intrapsychic identity as a smart or savvy
consumer. Future research should explore the complex relationship
between self-expression and self-transformation.
Although the current studies collectively point in the direction of
our hypothesized relationship between use of generic products and
self-evaluations, we acknowledge that each of our designs was limited
to a dichotomized independent variable. Our ndings depended on
the immediate effects of two conditions in a laboratory setting, and
the chronic effects of primes are not well understood. Based on the
evidence adduced in the present research, it remains unclear whether
individuals with lower dispositional self-worth are more likely to use
cheaper, generic products. Additional research is needed to determine
whether individuals with varying levels of self-worth differ in their

Self-worth
-0.57*(0.15)

1.31*(0.14)

Use of the generic

accessory

Self-estimated
attractiveness
-0.87*(0.29)

Fig. 1. Mediation analysis in Experiment 2. Numbers outside parentheses are

unstandardized regression coefcients; numbers inside parentheses are standard
error of regression coefcients. An asterisk indicates a p value of less than 0.001.

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W.-B. Chiou, Y.-H. Chao / Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47 (2011) 672675

inclination to consume generic products. Converging research

methods, such as longitudinal research that examines changes in
self-worth among users with a preference for generic products, are
needed to appropriately address the association between generic
product use and personality, and controlled experiments that
manipulate changes in state self-worth or self-esteem and that access
differential preferences between generic and genuine products should
also prove useful. Additionally, participants in Experiment 1 consistently judged the generic products to be worse than the genuine
products in terms of quality. However, people may self-identify as
savvy consumers by purchasing less expensive generic products.
Future studies should investigate whether the opposite priming effect
exists for those people who perceive that the effectiveness (or
quality) of generic products is equivalent or superior to that of namebrand products. Moreover, participants were assigned to use generic
products in this research. It would be interesting to investigate
whether the priming effect would be stronger if participants chose the
product voluntarily. In Experiment 2, we focused primarily on the
mediating role of self-worth in the relationship between use of
generic products and participants' self-evaluations. Examination of
whether the priming effect would extend to interpersonal perceptions, as reected in impressions of the target partner as less
attractive, should also be pursued.
Our results have worrisome implications for many consumers who
buy generic goods in order to save money. Individuals who buy
compatible generics for themselves may believe that they are simply
getting similar products for less money but, in fact, they may be paying a
price in terms of their self-worth. This warrants future research on the
psychology of generic products and their potential costs. Perhaps most
troubling, our results from Experiment 2 demonstrated that the
negative impact of cheaper generic products extended more broadly
to the social context, suggesting that we should not overlook the
possible backlash of using generic products. As Miller (1998, p. 46)
noted, Relationships to brands certainly matter, but they are important
because of the way they express and mediate the relationship to other
people. In summary, That we are what we have is perhaps the most
basic and powerful fact of consumer behavior (Belk, 1988, p. 139). The
present ndings suggest that generic products tend to transmit
conicting signals. This phenomenon reafrms the fundamental nature
of the sign value that products send to the self, and then underscores the
possible self-transformative nature of what you have affects how you
think about who you are.

675

Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by the National Science
Council, Taiwan, ROC (Project No. NSC 95-2516-S-110-001-MY3). We
would like to thank the editor (Dr. Jim Sherman) and the anonymous
reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.
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