EXISTENTIAL EMPTINESS AND COMPENSATORY CONSUMPTION THROUGH IDENTITY INSECURITY AND SELF-ESTEEM
Abstract: This study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying compensatory consumption in conditions of existential emptiness. The aim of the research is to analyse whether a deficit of perceived meaning in life acts as a structural antecedent of compensatory consumption through its impact on identity insecurity and self-esteem. The study integrates concepts from existential psychology, identity economics and consumer behaviour theory in order to construct and empirically test a sequential mediation model. Data were collected through a structured online survey conducted between October 2025 and January 2026 on a convenience (snowball) sample of 446 adult respondents in the Republic of Croatia. Validated measurement scales were adapted to operationalise existential emptiness, identity insecurity, self-esteem and compensatory consumption. Statistical analyses were performed using regression analysis and PROCESS macro (Model 6) with bootstrap estimation (5,000 samples) to test indirect effects. The results indicate that existential emptiness significantly predicts identity insecurity, which is in turn negatively associated with self-esteem, while lower self-esteem predicts higher compensatory consumption. A significant sequential indirect effect indicates that the relationship between existential emptiness and compensatory consumption is transmitted through identity insecurity and self-esteem; once the mediators are included, the direct association is no longer statistically significant, a pattern consistent with full sequential mediation. The findings suggest that compensatory consumption is not merely a situational reaction but the outcome of a broader identity-evaluative destabilisation process. The study contributes to consumer economics by introducing existential emptiness as a theoretically grounded antecedent of compensatory consumption; its implications for preference instability are advanced as a theoretical interpretation rather than as an empirically established finding.
Keywords: Existential emptiness; Identity insecurity; Self-esteem; Compensatory consumption; Consumer behaviour
