When Does Psychological Fit Matter? The Moderating Role of Price on Self-Brand Congruity

People prefer brands whose perceived image reflects their own psychological profile, a finding referred to as the self-brand congruity effect. For the first time, we test this effect in the field by utilizing over 17,000 real bank transaction records (Study 1, N = 405). We demonstrate that the strength of self-brand congruity is related to the financial resources a person must spend to acquire the brand, such that the effect holds only when the brand being purchased has a high (vs. low) price. We conceptually replicate the effect (Study 2, N = 354) and provide causal evidence through an experiment (Study 3, N = 404), manipulating price and brand personality while holding other brand attributes constant. We also provide evidence for one psychological mechanism underlying why price moderates self-brand congruity, finding personality-matched brands elicit fewer concerns about postpurchase regret, a bigger risk for high-price brands (Study 4, N = 300).