Clarifying the Relationship Between Political Consumerism and Political Persuasion Over Time

• Published date: 01 December 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129241266823
• Author: Rebecca Scheffauer,Lana Medina,Homero Gil de Zúñiga
• Date: 01 December 2024

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2024, Vol. 77(4) 1246–1261

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129241266823

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Clarifying the Relationship Between

Political Consumerism and Political

Persuasion Over Time

Rebecca Scheffauer

1

, Lana Medina

1,2

,andHomeroGildeZ ´

uñiga

1,2,3



Abstract

Political consumerism has emerged as a popular form of participation among lay citizen s. For the most part, research has

delved into the main antecedents that explain this type of consumption. However, research has generally neglected to

consider political consumerism as an independent variable, and its role inf‌luencing and ignitingother forms of political

behavior. This study theoretically argues that politically motivated consumerism will incite people to generally seek to

persuade others of political issues. Using causal order tests and Random Intercept Cross-laggedPanelStructural Equa tion

Models from a two-wave panel survey from the United States, the study shows robust empirical evidence that this is

the case.

Keywords

political consumerism, political persuasion, cross-lagged panel structural equation model, off‌line persuasion, RI-CLPM

Introduction

In the past two decades political consumerism has

emerged as a new form of participation, allowing cit-

izens to use their purchasing power to convey them-

selves politically (Bardhi and Eckhardt 2012). By

deliberately boycotting and buycotting products based

on their social or political values, citizens have the

power to inf‌luence public processes via private political

behavior (Nøjgaard 2023). This type of participation

has proven to be effective on numerous occasions with

companies adapting their practices and even legal as

well as legislative changes being brought about (Adams

2002;Emmelhainz and Adams 1999;Stolle, Hooghe,

and Micheletti 2005).

This type of consumerism is strongly associated with

political communication as an avenue for individuals to

communicate their political beliefs through consumption

choices. Political communication can inf‌luence con-

sumerism to such an extent that those consumption

choices may shift to ref‌lect the company’s actions, such as

how buycotters of Black Rif‌le Coffee company became

boycotters after the company’s owners spread messages of

anti-extremism in an attempt to distance itself from the

far-right MAGA crowd following the January 6th in-

surrection (Zengerle 2021).

Political consumerism can also manifest in further

political behavior. A nationwide buycott of Florida orange

juice—effectuated when the Florida Citrus Commission

supported the anti-LGBT rhetoric of theirspokeswoman,

Anita Bryant—indicates this effect of political consum-

erism. The initial buycott generated communication be-

tween LGBT rights activists, nationalhuman rights

advocates, and political progressives (Hayes 2013).

Media reports associated the orange juice buycott with the

Boston Tea Party, attempting to appeal to reader’s pa-

triotism, and a Pennsylvania group distributed f‌lyers

rallying against Florida oranges, as well as a proposed

ordinance that would outlaw LGBT discrimination in the

1

Democracy Research Unit, Political Science, College of Law & Public

Administration, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

2

Media Effects Research Lab Film Production & Media Studies

Department Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications,

Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

3

Facultad de Comunicación y Letras Universidad Diego Portales,

Santiago, Chile

Corresponding Author:

Rebecca Scheffauer, Democracy Research Unit, Political Science,

College of Law & Public Administration, University of Salamanca,

Salamanca 37008, Spain.

Emails: Rebecca.Scheffauer@gmx.at,r.scheffauer@usal.es

workplace in Dade County, Florida (Dickson College

Archives 2020;Hayes 2013). This indicates the strong

effect political consumerism can have on attempts to

persuade others.

The importance of this new mode of engagement has

been ref‌lected in research with dozens of publications

focusing on antecedents of consumerism (see Copeland

and Boulianne 2022). What has, however, largely been

neglected by scholarship thus far, is the potential inf‌luence

political consumerism can have on other modes of po-

litical participation.

By only analyzing the antecedents of political con-

sumerism, scholarship ignores the effect it could have to

stimulate discussion and inf‌luence other political be-

havior, in both online and off‌line participation. In this

paper, we explore one of these effects and propose that

political consumerism can incite people’s attempts to

persuade others politically in an off‌line setting.

Outside the political realm, researchers have long since

made a connection between purchasing behavior and

inf‌luencing others. Traditional word of mouth referral is

well established in marketing and economics with com-

panies partially relying on their consumers to ignite sales

by telling others about products (Buttle 1998). In this

paper, we argue that for politically motivated consum-

erism, people will similarly talk about the products and

companies they deem important or disapprove of.

Some studies suggest that persuasion is rather an an-

tecedent or even a dimension of political consumerism.

This study seeks to clarify this association and to explore

the directionality of these effects, thus f‌illing an important

research gap.

In order to test for these relations, we employ two-wave

panel survey data from the United States. Cross-sectional,

lagged and autoregressive regression analyses show a

positive and statistically signif‌icant direct path from po-

litical consumerism to attempting to persuade others

politically. Furthermore, the study also seeks to clarify the

association of political consumerism and persuasion with

a random intercept cross-lagged structural equation panel

model (RI-CLPM), allowing us to probe whether the two

inf‌luence each other over time. Results show that there is

indeed a reciprocal relationship at work, however, po-

litical consumerism exerts a stronger inf‌luence on off‌line

attempts to persuade others politically, thus underlining

the profound impact of consumerism. The results of this

model were further substantiated when testing for the

inf‌luence of politically persuading others off‌line over

political consumerism in regression analyses. The causal

autoregressive model shows that trying to persuade others

politically is not a statistically signif‌icant predictor of

political consumerism behavior. Thus, results suggest that

it is in fact political consumerism that substantially in-

creases people’s attempts to persuade others politically.

What is Political Consumerism?

Initially, political consumerism was def‌ined as “market-

oriented engagements emerging from societal concerns

associated with production and consumption”(Bostr¨

om,

Micheletti, and Oosterveer 2019,2;Micheletti 2003),

encompassing three aspects: attitudinal support for, taking

part in, and frequency of taking part in political con-

sumerism (Stolle, Hooghe, and Micheletti 2003). In other

words, political consumerism is the intentional use of

purchasing power to portray political viewpoints and

inf‌luence change in the market place, often through the

deliberate boycott (avoiding buying a certain product) or

“buycott”(support of certain products by buying them) of

products (Copeland and Boulianne 2022;Micheletti

2003). Bridging out from this def‌inition of political

consumerism, some researchers have advocated adding

more types of behavior to this concept, including talking

about issues related to politically consuming (Michele and

Stolle 2011;Micheletti et al. 2005) or making drastic

lifestyle changes due to political reasons (Micheletti and

Stolle 2012;Stolle and Micheletti 2013) with others even

highlighting nuances within the two initial key elements

boycotting and buycotting (Ackermann and Gundelach

2022;Scheffauer, Durotoye, and Gil de Z´

uñiga 2023).

While many researchers have devoted time to investigate

what might spark political consumerism, the inf‌luence this

type of behavior might in turn have on other (political)

activities has, thus far, been neglected. In this paper, we

focus on the core components of political consumerism:

boycotting and buycotting, instead of other newly pro-

posed communication or discussion dimensions of the

variable. Tapping into the behavioral measures of political

consumerism will allow us to best pinpoint the inf‌luence

this variable poses on other political activities such as

persuasion.

Even though only few studies focused on consumerism

as an independent variable, many have highlighted con-

nections with a variety of (political) behaviors. Past

research has linked political consumers with being more

likely to engage in civic and political activities (Wicks

et al. 2014), with other research indicating a similar

connection between off‌line political engagement and

political consumerism (Gotlieb and Wells 2012). More

specif‌ically, some scholars have even hinted at a direc-

tional relationship, with increased political consumerism

leading to increased political activity and participation

(Gotlieb and Wells 2012;Swarm 2022). Other research

found political consumerism mediated the relationship

between family communication and political activity,

indicating further directional evidence (Swarm 2022).

Ward and de Vreese (2011) found that socially conscious

consumption behaviors (i.e., purchasing products with

green packages, not harming animals or the environment,

Scheffauer et al.1247