How political ideology drives anti-consumption manifestations

This article examines the role of political ideology as a motivation for general and targeted anti-consumption. Using data from a cross-sectional online survey conducted in the United Kingdom, we provide a unified model of the ways in which the economic and the sociocultural dimensions of political ideology are associated with anti-consumption manifestations (i.e., suspicion of marketing and intention to boycott) at the individual level. We show that 1) both kinds of manifestations of anti-consumption are found among politically extreme— versus moderate—individuals, 2) pro-market attitudes and authoritarianism have opposite effects on the likelihood of evincing anti-consumption attitudes and behaviours, and 3) authoritarianism moderates the overall negative effect of pro-market attitudes on anti-consumption manifestations. Our findings have implications for the persuasiveness of anti-consumption campaigns.