Assessing the role of nationalistic feelings in consumers’ willingness to take action against foreign products: An exploratory study in Brazil

This study draws on the social dominance theory and the intergroup relations theory to explore the impact of nationalistic feelings on consumers’ willingness to take action against foreign products. This exploratory study was conducted in Brazil, using two countries as treatment conditions: Paraguay and the USA. Consistent with expectations, the mere existence of a commercial conflict involving the home country and a foreign nation seems to be sufficient to raise nationalistic feelings (a “them” against “us” feeling). The results also show that consumers’ willingness to take action against products of the adversary country prompted by these nationalistic feelings might be mediated by their perception of group (nation) economic power (dominance).