At the end of June, we had the pleasure of welcoming Keith Wilcox from Texas A&M University, which provided a fitting conclusion to a semester filled with insightful research talks.

Keith presented his recent work on contentment as a status signal. Contentment, defined as a low-arousal positive emotion, emerges when individuals assess their current circumstances and determine that their resources meet or exceed their needs. It is closely linked to happiness, particularly high life satisfaction, and is crucial for psychological well-being. Previous research has shown that contentment is associated with marketing-relevant outcomes, such as a reduced desire for material possessions and an increased appeal of products related to comfort.

Keith and his co-authors contribute to this body of literature by examining the effect of contentment signals on perceptions of social status. They demonstrate that social media posts expressing contentment—such as scenic mountain views, peaceful sunsets, tranquil lakes, or cozy spots with a good book and hot tea—are widespread. Their findings indicate that people who post images signaling high contentment are perceived as having higher social status compared to those who post images signaling low contentment. Furthermore, posts expressing high contentment enhance the perceived morality of the poster, which in turn elicits high status perceptions. However, this effect is weakened when a post contains conspicuous consumption cues, such as the display of goods and services intended to publicly showcase wealth.

We thank Keith for sharing his research and sparking insightful discussions.