Dressing in white, a true brazilian tradition: social influence, values, and symbolic consumption

Vestir-se de branco, uma verdadeira tradição brasileira: influência social, valores e consumo simbólico

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What should I wear? Perhaps that is the doubt that people have in Brazil when thinking about how to dress to a New Year’s Eve party. In that time of the year, it is common to observe that the retail stores are prepared to receive the consumer, and, most times, the windows are structured with artifacts that represent that moment of the year, full of symbolic icons related to the syncretism Brazilian culture. The white clothing, for example, is one of the symbols of this period that has a positive meaning such as spiritual peace, new things in the New Year; other than the influence of religious syncretism of Catholicism and African creeds brought to the country by slaves.

The fact that New Year’s Eve is a free manifestation and of universal character, people’s consumption behaviors, is exposed through the clothes they wear in social parties that night. That occurs because individuals have the necessity of socialization due to their nature. In the social environment, they usually are part of groups and attempt to please others, following indications of how to behave from the observation of those around them (COHEN; GOLDEN, 1971; COSKAN, 2010). The desire that some people have to adjust or identify themselves with individuals or groups is the first motivation to many of their purchases and activities. There are those who do everything to please the members of a group whose acceptance interests them (COHEN; GOLDEN, 1971; BURNKRANT; COUSINEAU, 1975), both because of the self-presentation concerns and for fear of negative evaluations (ROBERTS; MANOLIS; PULLIG, 2014).

According to Belk (1988), possession of goods and services may represent the extended self of an individual. This author adds that the comprehension of consumer behavior requires the understanding of the meaning people attribute to the possessions. In this study, the interest lies in possession of white clothing in a particular special date: the last day of the year, as a sign of peace and positive energy for the year to come, when individual performs rituals full of symbolic meaning. Furthermore, in the Brazilian context, there is a particular social judgment, both positive and negative, depending on the religion and its practices, on wearing white on that day (especially when it is associated with afro Brazilian religions). In addition to that, it is questioned whether personal values and the interpretation of information from other people’s social judgment may explain, somehow, the act of dressing in white, something thus far not investigated in the literature. This is our theoretical gap. After reviewing the literature, and considering the specific Brazilian cultural context, we believe we can enrich the literature with a unique consumer cultural context, and how this impact apparel sales to be worn in New Year eve celebration.

Despite author´s effort to try to find studies analyzing the influence of values and social judgment on the adherence of fashion products associated with customs and culture, it is understood that these characteristics strongly observed in the Brazilian culture. It constitutes a specific reality; which requires an investigation that is relevant both to the knowledge of consumer behavior (consumer culture) and to the practices of the fashion retail market. Empirically it is possible to observe that in December, clothing store windows are ‘dressed in white.’ We believe that understanding this phenomenon it is relevant for the development of actions that can better activate individuals for consumption, on the retailer side, taking into account the meanings of clothing colors and Social representativeness.

Hereupon, this article purpose is to verify how the individual interpretation of social influence from social groups relates to symbolical consumption of white clothing in the New Year’s Eve festivities.

The motivation for this research is twofold: first, being Brazilians, the authors have experienced themselves the process of buying and wearing brand new white clothes during New Year´s Eve celebration. Also, family members and friends tend to follow this tradition, this way, a personal interest in the theme to be scientifically investigated after a theoretical gap was found, it was our first motivation. Secondly, empirically, we have observed that during December, apparel store windows portrait white clothes all over Brazil, offering different options for consumers that want to follow this cultural tradition. So, we believe that our finds can also help retailers to understand better and take advantage of the knowledge here presented, to reinforce this tradition and take advantage on increasing sale numbers in the month of December.

Having presented the research goal, it follows with the review of the literature over the thematic and method of investigation used. Later, the analysis and discussions are described, ending with conclusion and references used for theoretical articulation.

The emotions, thoughts, and motives of an individual, act as forces to put to motion the psychological activities of others. All social relations – cooperation, suspicion, and aversion – and all combined actions, such as collective festivities, are the product of the interaction. In addition to that, all subsequent relations between groups or between a person and a group, are based on the primary events that occur between one person and another (ASCH, 1977). Griskevicius and Cialdini (2010) consider social life to be one of the most critical prerequisites for human survival and their main rules include, at least, cooperation and coordination. Those simple prerequisites also reveal that, for being evolved, people can influence and be influenced by others. With that, they define social influence as the manner in which people are affected by real and imaginary pressure from others. The process of influence occurs when an individual’s attitudes, cognitions and behaviors are altered by the influence of another individual or reference group (GRISKEVICIUS; CIALDINI, 2010; HSU; LIN, 2016).

The most subtle ways to modify thoughts and behaviors of others during the social interactions have been the object of empirical works and the development of the theory in the scientific study of social influence (COHEN; GOLDEN, 1971; ROBERTS; MANOLIS; PULLIG, 2014). As reported by Sherif (1936 apud Coskan, 2010), people use the behavior of others to establish possible behaviors standards (as a reference scheme). That mere tendency is sufficient to the creation of norms and a consensus in groups of people.

In the literature of consumer behavior, it is notorious the influence of groups over the individual behaviors, especially of the reference groups, which, according to Solomon (2013, p. 406) are related “to the individual or groups that are significantly relevant in the evaluations, aspirations or individual behavior.” That influence leads the individual to pay attention to the behavior of others and to self-monitor in situations of socially visible consumption.

Lennox and Wolfe (1984) indicate that people who adopt the self-monitoring stance have two distinct objectives, one is regarding the management of their presentation, in order to obtain power or status, and the other is a way to avoid social disapproval, the “belonging”. The individual is mainly concerned with what other people think of about him, and in what others wear and purchase; aspects that influence their decisions when purchasing goods or services.

In this articles’ context, it is known that the year-end festivities are celebrated with friends and/or family, where there is group interaction. The “normal” behavior is to be accompanied by others during that period. It is possible to exist, a greater concern with the information coming from social judgment. That positioning reinforces the importance of investigating how far the choice of clothes and/or color of clothing items in rituals of New Year’s Eve celebrations are influenced more by individual values or by the information of social judgment captured by the individual. A rather peculiar aspect of Brazilian culture, the tradition or superstition of wearing white at the new year’s eve, heats retail and the storefronts throughout the country exhibit white garments of different designs and prices that cater to different social classes. Thereby, there is an opportunity for research with potential theoretical and practical implications in this context.

Human values are personal characteristics composed of elements originated from the cultural, behavioral and emotional features of the individual. Personal values may vary between people with the same cultural characteristics or even raise by the same family, however, they transcend situations or events and are more durable for being more central in the personality structure (BLACKWELL; MINIARD; ENGEL, 2005). According to Schwartz (1996), values represent three universal requirements of human existence: biological necessities, the requirement of coordinated social interactions and demands for the survival and functioning of the group (SCHWARTS, 1996; BURGESS; STEENKAMP, 1998).

Consumers frequently modify their behavior regarding consumption, and their preferences and choices may vary according to their values. That is, values guide consumer behavior and influence decision making (ZASUWA, 2016, SHARMA, JHA, 2017). Even in corporate markets, where the products and services are allegedly more homogeneous, consumers express diversified preferences and a less predictable buying behavior than assumed; especially when they care about the comparison in groups (KAHLE; KENNEDY, 1989).

Value is a belief that guides actions and judgments employing goals and specific occasions, other than the immediate goals for deeper final states of existence. When internalized, consciously or not, they become a pattern of criteria that guides human action developing and sustaining attitudes towards objects and situations, in order to justify personal and others’ motivations, judge oneself and the others morally, to make comparisons to others and try to influence the others. People use the values learned culturally to create and utilize conditions of morality and competence, to provide social interaction and support the rationalization of behavior, attitudes, and beliefs where those values would be hierarchically structured composing an individual’s system of values (ROKEACH, 1968; KAHLE; KENNEDY, 1989). Recent research is based on these ideas (PISCICELLI; COOPER; FISHER, 2015; ABDOLLAH; ABDULLAH; VOON, 2016). Accordingly, it is believed that the understanding and identification of personal values of a group of individuals are relevant to understand aspects regarding social comparison and symbolic consumption.

Consumption has two great perspectives, utilitarian and symbolic (FERLA; SILVEIRA, 2008; LUNA-CORTES (2017). The first considers the utilitarian character and commercial value of products, as the second one believes that consumption goods have significance beyond such attributes (McCRAKEN, 2007). When purchasing a product, one also considers its symbolic attributes. In other words, what it represents to him and for others of the social or reference group. The consumer perceives, in this dimension, the benefit of the product as a symbol, as a representation of something to himself and/or to others (RUCKER; GALINSKY, 2008).

The symbolic aspects of consumption have raised greater interest in scholars of consumer behavior around the 50’s, after the seminal article ‘Symbols for sale’ – by Sidney Levy, considered a pioneer in reinforcing the importance of symbolism in consumption (MICK, 1986). To Levy (1959) the consumer ceased to be economical and rational to become ‘uneconomical’, and as well as consider the traditional values of products and services such as price, quality, and durability, began to recognize that other elements affect and influence their choices, of emotional and aesthetic character, with a substantial symbolic burden, that sometimes becomes an extension of self.

Corroborating this idea, Schmitt (1999) considers consumer to be a rational and emotional human being, increasingly interested in performing pleasurable experiences, for a while that makes rational choices, is driven by emotional factors (SCHMITT, 1999). The subjective experience transmitted by consumption contributes substantially to the structuring of the consumer's social reality, their self-concept, and behavior (SOLOMON, 1983). The referred author observes that consumer often depends on social significance inherent to products as a guide to performing their social parts, especially when these are new.

The symbolic character consumption offers an individual the opportunity to build, maintain and communicate social identity and meanings (ELLIOT, 1997). This is because the relationship between consumers and objects or events occur based on the symbolic meaning given by society, the purchase of a given product may occur not for its essential functions, but by what it represents and means to the individual (LEVY, 1959; LEIGH; GABEL, 1992). Elliot (1997) emphasizes that the individual is an active agent in the construction of meanings. In that context, it must also be considered that the meanings attributed to products are a social construction, and in that process, the individual may concern, at a greater or lesser intensity, with the social judgment in the purchase and use of goods, due to the symbolic burden it is associated with.

The New Year is characterized for being a ritual full of symbolisms (ROOK, 1985; PETTIGREW; RYAN; OGILVIE, 2001) and marked by traditions, beliefs, customs, and superstitions. The ritual is considered an “expressive and symbolic sort of activity built by multiple behaviors that occur in a steady and episodic sequence and that tends to repeat itself over time” (ROOK, 1985, p.252). According to the author, this definition interprets the ritual as a positive and significant aspect, both in everyday human experience, as in the extraordinary. Superstitions, on the other hand, are beliefs that contrary rational thought, they may have personal or cultural nature and are performed to bring good fortune or to repel bad luck (BLOCK; KRAMER, 2009).

The ritual, to Rook (1985), is based in four components: artifacts, script, exercised part, and audience. The artifacts, when utilized in a ritualistic context, frequently communicate specific symbolic messages that are essential to the meaning of the experience as a whole. Clothing artifacts, for example, convey different meanings to both consumers and observers. Some meanings may be broadly shared by the group, while others may be inherent in the individual's identity (MILLAN, REYNOLDS, 2014). The script identifies not only the artifacts to be used but its behavioral sequence and by whom they shall be used. The exercised part corresponds to the individual's functions in the ritual, and the audience involves the greater public to whom the ritual may be destined to. The New Year’s ritual can be celebrated with a series of artifacts, such as fireworks, confetti poppers, and champagne, leading to the familiar countdown to New Year’s Eve (ROOK, 1985). However, that ritual is characterized for having a certain degree of uncertainty about the script and representation of parts, since it may be performed at home or in a public venue, and some people may choose not to participate in the New Year’s Eve festivities, but to celebrate the following day with close friends and family (ROOK, 1985). Despite the alluded evolution of customs and popular culture, and the rational emphasis of post-industrialized cultures, people still tend to believe in superstitions and often appear to be strongly motivated by its practices. That occurs because, as an example, Christmas, New Year’s Eve and Epiphany are the fundamental dates of the Christmas Cycle, and they have been, according to Debret (1949), festive occasions marked by the exchange of gifts (mainly edible), the renewal of the slaves clothing and the distribution of donations to the subordinates. The exchange of gifts and traditional food are still frequent in these festive periods.

When it comes to superstition, since the turn of the year is an event that marks the entrance of a new life, people have similar and distinct beliefs to that moment (ROOK, 1985). Those who are more superstitious tend to believe that adding things that are not common to their daily lives might bring positive energy, and make possible the accomplishment of dreams in the year to come. Superstitious and symbolic rituals are usually associated with food (for example, to consume lentils, pomegranate, grape berries, pork meat, nuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts and dates), apparel (new intimate apparel, white clothing – which in Brazil, is a relatively recent habit, established after the popularization of African religions, representing light, world peace, purity, kindness – yellow clothing items, money inside the shoes, among others) and, at midnight, rituals such as throw coins inside the house, jumping seven waves at the sea, among others, are practices performed by many people.

Although white prevails, other colors have been suggested and worn in that period, each one with a unique meaning, and so people may wear several colors on the occasion. These colors and their meanings in apparel are considered relevant in this festive period, and they are part of the imaginary and culture the authors live. One learns in the socialization process the assigned meanings that can vary from one location to another. In the social context of the authors of this article, these are the representations of colors in the festivities of the holiday season.

The research developed in this study has assumed a stance of quantitative and qualitative nature. Authors believed this approach would enrich the understanding of the phenomenon and reduce the bias of an exclusively quantitative or qualitative approach. Both methods are recommended to understand the recent phenomenon, explore opinions, behaviors, and attributes (MORGAN; SMIRCICH, 1980; GODOY, 1995), primarily when they are used together.

On that basis, it was first held personal interviews with a semi-structured script, with questions pre-established by the researchers, along with ten informants. The saturation criterion was adopted to established the number of interviews to be performed. Close to the 8th interview, we realized that the comments of the informants did not bring new perspectives to the topic, and this way, we finished the interview process when we achieved the 10th respondent. The average length of the interviews was about 55 minutes. In the script, there were questions about: the usage of white on New Year’s Eve, the meaning of white to the occasion and/or if other colors are used, it the clothes should be new if the informant had any superstitious practice and items of identification and demographic characteristics. To choose the informants, it was considered accessibility, as well as some criteria the researchers found relevant, such as religion, gender (so there would not be a concentration of people of only one religion or same gender). The filter to participate in the interview was to have celebrated the New Year’s Eve of 2013 to 2014, with that stage begun in early January 2014. The authors held the interview themselves.

For the implementation of the survey it was used a structured questionnaire composed of three blocks: the first one measured the social influence of the consumer from their attention to social comparison, based on the scale “Attention to Social Comparison Information” (ATSCI), proposed by Lennox and Wolfe (1984). The second block measured the personal values of the individuals from the “List of Values” (LOV) of Kahle (1983), and the third block had the respondents’ demographic items. It was also included a question regarding the use of white clothes in the holiday season. The scales translation was done by a researcher with knowledge of the English language, and later, another professor with English proficiency did the reverse translation from Portuguese to English. There was no compromising discrepancy in the meaning of the words and sentences, and so, the questionnaire was ready to be applied. The questionnaire was pre-tested along to a group of ten respondents, with no adjustments needs before we started the survey.

For the data collection two strategies were used: attendance application by the researcher with students of a public university and by the internet, using of “Survey Monkey”, with a link in the researchers’ social network, inviting their friends to participate in the survey, as well as soliciting its divulgation in a “snowball” type strategy. Thereby, the universe of respondents here considered comprehended all the people who like and somehow celebrate New Year’s Eve. The investigated target audience had the following characteristic: people with a habit of celebrating New Year’s Eve, of both genders, with age equal or superior to 18 years old. Following parameters for sample definition, according to Hair, et al. (2006) and Malhorta (2006), for the use of varied and multivariate analysis, minimal sample of 50 respondents is needed. Thus, given this parameter, 176 questionnaires were collected in January 2014, however, in the data treatment phase, it was verified that 12 formularies should be excluded from the analysis, remaining then, 164 valid for the statistical treatment, adequate amount for the kind of statistical analysis applied to the data. From that total, 69 were collected in person and 95 by the internet. We did not find any significant difference between the two means of data collection.

For the analysis of qualitative data, we performed the transcription and used thematic analysis that consists in discovering the centers of sense which compose the interviewees’ speech. This technique privileges the content of the reports, these being confronted with theory. For a better apprehension and posterior analysis of data, it has been made a pre-analysis, the exploration of the material and treatment of the results and interpretation (BARDIN, 2006). Since the results present exploratory characteristics, and the analysis evidenced the content, it has been considered that results could generate only hypothesis and not definitive conclusions to complete the survey.

For the analysis of quantitative data, the adopted procedures to prepare the data were adherence and reliability tests. There were also performed normality tests and calculating the Cronbach’s Alpha (AAKER; KUMAR; DAY, 2001). The results were generated from descriptive statistics, correlations, and logistic regression templates. The goal of logistic regression was to find the best relationship between the response variable (dependent) and a group of predictive variables (independent), is the final template the one with the best mathematical adjustment, and the most appropriate variables to explain the phenomenon (HOSMER; LEMESHOW, 200). For the evaluation of validity, it was performed a theoretical confrontation with the findings, seeking to identify the convergent or divergent validity from what other results indicate (COOPER; SCHINDLER, 2003), in both collection procedure.

The results and analysis of the qualitative and quantitative stages will be presented in a group, according to their characteristics, to perform confrontations between the findings and the theory analyzed in a unified manner, without defined order of presentation.

Out of ten informants interviewed, five are male gender, and five are female gender. Ages range from 25 and 49 years old. Three are attending college, three concluded, and four are post-graduated (specialization and master degrees). Concerning religion, five are Catholics, two are of Candomblé, one evangelical, one spiritualist and one agnostic, also having a family income at a monthly average of R$ 6.000,00.

Analysis of Sample Distribution, Correlation, and Factors

According to data of Table 1, the item of greatest accordance among the participants was ‘V4: When I am not sure how to behave in a social situation, I observe the behavior of others as clues to such’ (µ = 4,05). In another extreme, the item with the lowest average agreement (µ = 2, 23) and higher standard deviation (α = 1,271) was ‘V1: If everyone in a group behaves in a certain way, I feel that this must be the appropriate way to behave’. Although the highest level of responses from the participants has indicated that in case of doubts about the way to behave in a social situation they try to get clues from the behavior of others, there was low agreement regarding how to behave from the way in which a group behaves.

Table 1
Descriptive analysis of the construct consumer social influence and personal values

Ave = average; sd. = standard deviation; n = 164; adapted scale of 1 to 5; (R) = reverse; K = Kurtosis

Table 2 represents the degree of importance the research participants attributed to each value in the LOV list. Although the data represent strong positive inclination in the answers, the values that received higher frequency of total accordance were ‘sense of accomplishing’ with 79, 3 % self-realization with 75%, distributed to all ages. However, people older than 50 years old also demonstrated to appreciate ‘security’ and ‘self-respect’.