"Image Considerations in Second-Hand Adoption: A Vignette Experiment" by Luca Congiu

Topic

Despite growing recognition that image considerations underlie adoption of second-hand goods, research in this domain has conflated two fundamentally distinct channels: self-image (private self-evaluation) and social image (evaluation by others). Using a vignette experiment on a nationally representative Italian sample (N = 10,496), this paper disentangles the effects of these two perspectives across four main dimensions of second-hand adoption: financial, social, environmental, and hygiene. Contrary to findings in other social domains, self-image emerges as the stronger predictor of intention to adopt. In addition, the experiment elicits beliefs about others’ self-image (second-order self-image) to investigate whether second-hand adoption is subject to pluralistic ignorance, that is, the tendency to underestimate how widely others share one’s private values. Participants systematically underestimate how positively others view second-hand adoption and this, in turn, lowers their intention to adopt.