How consumer ethnocentrism modulates neural processing of domestic and foreign products: A neuroimaging study

Abstract

Consumer services literature offers substantial evidence that ethnocentric consumers tend to prefer domestic over foreign products. Yet no research to date has delved into the question how consumer ethnocentrism (CE) modulates the neural processing of products. This is the first study resorting to neuroimaging to explore to what extent CE levels affect the processing of domestic (Spain) and foreign (USA and China) products. The brain data yielded by neuroimaging reveal that highly ethnocentric consumers experience a greater degree of activation in brain regions linked to self-reference and reward when processing domestic products and a greater activation in brain regions related to risk in the case of foreign products.