Why Do People Conceal Their Consumption Practice?:

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to conduct an interpretive analysis of the motives for keeping consumption secret, in order to shed light on the motives that existing studies have addressed, and to reconstruct the classification framework. Based on the findings of existing studies, this paper defined secret consumption as “consumption in which the consumer, for some reason or other, withholds the use of a product or service from a specific other person”. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 consumers, in order to understand the nuances of the motives for secret consumption. Qualitative coding of the verbatim (textual) data revealed two points. First, that secret consumption does not necessarily result from the motive of “avoiding negative consequences”, but that there is also a motive of “protecting the benefits derived from the secrets”, and second, that the products and services that may be treated as secret consumption are broader than those assumed in existing studies. In light of the above contributions, the paper concludes with a discussion of the development of future research.

Keywords

• secret consumption
• positive motives of secret consumption
• classification framework of secret consumption