Naughty or nice, merchandise is often chosen by shoppers based on how much they believe in social equality, reveals a study by three Texas marketing professors. Customers may be more impulsive depending on their core values, says Texas A&M University marketing professor Karen Page Winterich.

People who believe in parity and don’t accept or respect differences in power are more likely to buy on impulse and more likely to purchase “vice goods” such as chocolate bars and chips rather than “virtue goods” such as fruit and granola bars, Winterich says.

To conduct research for the study, measurements were taken of the participants’ power-distance belief (PDB) – a measure of how much one accepts or values differences in power. The higher the PDB, the more a person accepts disparity and expects power inequality.

“They (those with low PDB) tend to have less self-control,” she explains. “They are not going to try to restrain themselves. And we found people with low power distance not only buy impulsive items, but they also buy more of them.”

Winterich co-authored the study, “Power-Distance Belief and Impulsive Buying,” with two colleagues, Vikas Mittal of Rice University and Yinlong Zhang of the University of Texas, San Antonio. The study has been accepted for publication in the "Journal of Marketing Research," Winterich notes.

The differences in beliefs are culturally based, Winterich says. For instance, people in the U.S., Germany and Austria tend to focus on equality, so they would likely buy more vice goods. The opposite would be true of people in countries like China and India.

The impulsive shoppers spent more money than those in the other group – up to one-and-a-half times more – Winterich says. And the findings may carry over to more expensive categories, such as perfume and clothes, the researchers say.

For marketers, the study provides insight into how to display their wares most effectively. Companies that deal with multicultural markets could adapt their advertising, promotions and displays according to the PDB levels, though the findings aren’t universal within each country, the researchers say.

“The marketers can position the ‘good’ items to seem to be more of an impulse item, thus making them more appealing to these particular shoppers,” Winterich says.

Other questions the study could help answer include how using figures of authority in ads could help or hinder a brand, and how consumers may limit their impulsive buying.