Product Scarcity by Need for Uniqueness Interaction: A Consumer Catch-22 Carousel?

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Abstract
According to uniqueness theory (Snyder & Fromkin, 1980), persons are motivated to maintain a sense of specialness as they define themselves on various important self-related dimensions relative to others. The need for uniqueness may vary across differing situations and persons; as such, a high need for uniqueness may be related to (a) forces in a given situation that promote an extreme sense of high similarity and (b) dispositional factors that influence the high need for uniqueness across a variety of situations. Because commodities are an important source for defining one's sense of self in Western culture, it is reasoned that scarce products provide a vehicle for establishing one's specialness when the need for uniqueness is activated. In support of this contention, studies in which product scarcity (low vs. high) is crossed with need for uniqueness (low vs. high) have typically produced an interaction such that the high-need for uniqueness persons are especially attracted to scarce product s (Lynn, 19...

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