The Impact of Childhood Socioeconomic Status on Liquid Consumption
(A2025-126115)

AUTHORS

Anni Cheng, RMIT University; Hean Tat Keh, Monash University; Jiemiao Chen, Monash University

ABSTRACT

Modern consumption habits have gradually shifted away from traditional solid consumption to liquid consumption, characterized by access-based, transient services and experiences (Bardhi & Eckhardt, 2017). The antecedents of liquid consumption remain understudied. We explore a key element that may affect a consumer's inclination towards liquid consumption: their childhood socioeconomic status (SES). Childhood SES represents the extent to which an individual was raised in an environment abundant or scarce in resources (Griskevicius et al., 2011). With four experiments, we establish that individuals from high Childhood SES backgrounds are more likely to engage in liquid consumption. Need for uniqueness (NFU) mediates the relationship between childhood SES and propensity to liquid consumption. The paper is the first to establish the impact of childhood SES on liquid consumption. Moreover, the paper contributes to uniqueness theory and reveals the mediating impact of NFU.