Price, Prestige, and Purity: How Wine Bottle Attributes Shape Perceptions of Consumer Status and Morality

• In Event: Sustainability, Climate, and the Politics of Consumption

Abstract

How does wine, as a cultural object, shape perceptions of consumer status? This study examines how price, prestige, and organic certification shape social evaluations of wine buyers. Using a nationally distributed factorial survey experiment, respondents were randomly assigned to evaluate a hypothetical wine purchaser based on variations in bottle price ($10 vs. $75), award recognition, and organic certification. Outcomes include perceived social rank, sophistication, ethical commitment, and environmentalism. Results indicate that economic and moral signals operate in domain-specific ways. Higher price strongly increases perceptions of social rank and sophistication, while organic certification overwhelmingly drives perceptions of ethical and environmental commitment. However, these signals do not accumulate additively. The positive effect of organic certification on status-related evaluations is attenuated when paired with a high price, suggesting that respondents interpret expensive organic consumption as potentially status-seeking rather than purely moral. Contrary to expectations, stacking aesthetic and moral signals does not significantly elevate perceptions of sophistication beyond their independent effects. Together, the findings suggest that citizens interpret consumption cues hierarchically rather than cumulatively, relying on distinct evaluative schemas when forming judgments about status and virtue.

Author

• Carly Samira Hamdon, University of British Columbia