The red sneakers effect: inferring status and competence from signals of nonconformity
Bellezza and colleagues examine how observers react to nonconforming behaviours, such as entering a luxury boutique in gym clothes rather than an elegant outfit, or wearing red sneakers in a professional setting. The argument is that nonconforming behaviours, being both costly and visible signals, work as a particular form of conspicuous consumption, and so can lead to positive inferences of status and competence in the eyes of others. Across a series of studies, people conferred higher status and competence on nonconforming individuals than on conforming ones. The effect was mediated by perceived autonomy and moderated by individual differences in the observer's own need for uniqueness. The authors also map the boundary conditions, and these matter as much as the headline. The positive inferences disappeared when the observer was unfamiliar with the environment, when the nonconforming behaviour was depicted as unintentional, and where there were no expected norms and no shared standards of formal conduct in the first place.
Bellezza and colleagues examine how observers react to nonconforming behaviours, such as entering a luxury boutique in gym clothes rather than an elegant outfit, or wearing red sneakers in a professional setting. The argument is that nonconforming behaviours, being both costly and visible signals, work as a particular form of conspicuous consumption, and so can lead to positive inferences of status and competence in the eyes of others. Across a series of studies, people conferred higher status and competence on nonconforming individuals than on conforming ones. The effect was mediated by perceived autonomy and moderated by individual differences in the observer's own need for uniqueness. The authors also map the boundary conditions, and these matter as much as the headline. The positive inferences disappeared when the observer was unfamiliar with the environment, when the nonconforming behaviour was depicted as unintentional, and where there were no expected norms and no shared standards of formal conduct in the first place.
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Verified at Crossref 2026-10-01, issued online 18 December 2013 in the 2014 volume. doi:10.1086/674870
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- What the Luxury Label Actually Buys, Why We Crave
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Bellezza, S., Gino, F., & Keinan, A. (2014). 'The red sneakers effect: inferring status and competence from signals of nonconformity.' Journal of Consumer Research, 41(1), 35-54. Verified at Crossref 2026-10-01, issued online 18 December 2013 in the 2014 volume. doi:10.1086/674870