Experience and Identity-driven Consumer Choice: Evidence from China's Cultural Revolution

Abstract

Consumers use brands to express who they are, yet it remains unclear how the cultural identities that drive brand choices are formed and under what conditions these identities are activated in the marketplace. We address both questions using China's Cultural Revolution (CR, 1966--1976) as a natural experiment in identity formation and the 2012 China--Japan territorial conflict as an identity activation event. Drawing on social identity theory and identity salience theory, we propose and test a two-stage framework: the CR forged a latent national identity schema during individuals' impressionable years, and the 2012 conflict activated this dormant identity to influence consumer brand choices. Using a generalized difference-in-differences design that exploits cohort and spatial variation in CR exposure, we analyze over 10 million individual vehicle purchases (2012--2013) in China. We find that consumers with more intense CR exposure are more likely to choose Chinese brands, but only after the 2012 China--Japan conflict activated their dormant national identity. This activation effect persists for over 15 months and is stronger for culturally symbolic brands and higher-priced vehicles, where self-expressive motives are most salient. We rule out alternative mechanisms, including social norm compliance and targeted boycott. Our findings provide evidence on how formative political experiences create durable identity schemas and how contemporary geopolitical events activate these identities to shape consumer brand choices.

Keywords: Consumer Identity, Brand Choice, Cultural Experience, Identity Activation, Nationalism

JEL Classification: F52, L10, M30, N45, P26