This research provides empirical support to the understanding of the consumers’ public self-consciousness and its impact on the luxury brand attachment. A self-administered survey questionnaire was distributed to an online consumer panel in Australia. The results show that both actual and ideal self-congruity positively influence the consumers’ luxury brand attachment. The impact of actual self-congruence on luxury brand attachment is stronger than that of the ideal self-congruence for privately consumed luxury products. The impact is non-significant for publicly consumed luxury products. Moreover, highly attached consumers tend to advocate the luxury brands to other consumers. The research also reveals that public self-consciousness does not moderate the relationship between consumers’ perceived self-congruence and luxury brand attachment. The results suggest that luxury brand advertisers should incorporate the consumers’ actual and ideal self into the advertising message to strengthen the attachment. Future research may validate the hypothesised relationships within different luxury product and service category to enhance the generalisability of the findings.

The purpose of this study is to identify the influences of psychological variables and fashion-related psychological variables on purchasing fashion items on the Internet. Boredom proneness and public self-consciousness were selected as psychological variables, and dressing style was selected as a fashion-related psychological variable. It was hypothesized that boredom proneness and public self-consciousness not only influence the purchasing frequency of fashion items on the Internet directly, but also indirectly through dressing style. Data were gathered by surveying university students in Seoul using convenience sampling. Two hundred and eighty-six questionnaires were used in the statistical analysis. SPSS was used for exploratory factor analysis, and AMOS was used for hypothesized relationship testing. The factor analysis of boredom proneness revealed five dimensions, “helplessness,” “affective response,” “lack of internal stimulation,” “lack of external stimulation,” and “perception of time.” The factor analysis of public self-consciousness revealed two dimensions, “appearance-consciousness” and “styleconsciousness,” and the factor analysis of dressing style revealed one dimension. The overall fit of the hypothesized model suggests that the model fits the data well. The hypothesized relationship test proved that boredom proneness and public self-consciousness influence the purchasing frequency of fashion items on the Internet indirectly through dressing style. The results implicate effective strategies for Internet shopping malls and suggestions for future study.

연예인들은 항상 대중들에게 젊고 아름다운 외모와 모습을 보여야 한다는 스트레스를 경험하며, 이러한 스트레스는 불안과 우울을 거쳐 자살생각에 영향을 미친다. 연예인의 직업적 특성과 심리과정을 설명할 수 있는 것이 공적 자의식이다. 공적 자의식은 남에게 보이는 외적 자기에 집중하는 것으로, 대인 불안에 영향을 주고, 내적으로 자신을 과도하게 억압시켜 부정적인 정서를 높인다. 이와 같은 측면에서 공적 자의식은 항상 좋은 모습을 보이기 위한 연예인의 정서 및 심리과정을 보여준다고 할 수 있다. 이에 본 연구는 문헌연구와 사례분석을 통해 연예인들의 외모관리 행동을 공적 자의식이라는 심리적 기제를 통해 살펴보고, 이를 통해 연예인들의 불안과 스트레스, 자살생각을 이해하고 예방할 수 있는 방향을 모색하였다.