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With social media increasing the ability of tourists to conspicuously consume travel experiences, tourism marketers need tools to better understand the motivations behind why tourist post travel pictures for status. This paper uses Optimal Distinctiveness Theory to develop the Conspicuous Consumption Posting Scale (CCPS). Results demonstrate the construct validity of the scale with four unique motivations for posting travel pictures for status: pure conspicuous consumption focused on the desire to signal wealth, bandwagon motivations focused on using travel photography to fit in, and snob motivations focused on using travel photography and travel destinations to stand out from one's peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives The factors that encourage participation in ‘traditional’ exercise pursuits are relatively well understood; less is known, however, about the psychological motives that encourage female participation in forms of physical activity that are stigmatized. Using pole dancing as an exemplar of such an activity, the aim of this study was to identify females' participation motives for this activity. Design Guided by an interpretivist approach, a qualitative method was adopted to allow a group of female pole dancers to describe their reasons for participation. Method Semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted with 38 recreational through to regularly competitive adult female pole dancers ( M age  = 31.24, SD  = 8.41). Data were content analyzed using inductive thematic principles. Results Stigma-related issues emerged as a driver of participation. Participants also described motives pertaining to themes of relatedness, autonomy, competence, and intrinsic motivation, as well as new stimuli and mental and physical wellbeing. Conclusion Despite the stigma and negative stereotypes associated with participation in activities such as pole dancing, participants described how this perception contributed to a heightened sense of community that, in part, drove continued participation. Accordingly, these findings make a novel contribution to established bodies of literature grounded in stigma and optimal distinctiveness theory. Given the rise in popularity of some female-predominant stigmatized exercise pursuits (e.g., belly dancing, roller derby, lingerie football), research that examines this network of motives in other settings would be valuable in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study explored the utility of Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) and Optimal Distinctiveness Theory (ODT; Brewer, 1991, 1993) in predicting motivational, cognitive, and affective responses to group-based exercise. Female exercise class participants (N = 260) of White (W; 38%), Asian/Asian British (A/AB; 33%), and Black/Black British (B/BB; 29%) ethnic origin completed measures of group exercise-specific psychological need satisfaction, motivational regulations, cognitions, and affect. Supporting SDT and ODT, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that psychological need satisfaction and autonomous motivation predicted exercise-related outcomes for W and B/BB participants but not for A/AB participants. Partial support was provided for the propositions of SDT and ODT for W and B/BB female exercise class participants. Further research is needed to delineate the psychological determinants of exercise-related motivation, cognitions, and affect for A/AB exercisers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The goal of the current study is to investigate how the augmented visual similarity and individuation can influence group identification process in computer-mediated groups. In investigating this topic, this study relies on the assumption that human beings need to meet two competing motivations – assimilation motivation and uniqueness motivation – at the same time. An experiment using virtual self-representations showed that uniform virtual appearance, whatever form it may take, encouraged group identification. However, uniform appearance did not increase assimilation within computer-mediated groups all the time, because uniform appearance made individuals perceive a strong threat to their uniqueness and became less willing to agree with others as a way to restore their uniqueness. On the contrary, people might have pandered to their uniqueness motivation from being represented by excessively idiosyncratic visual cues. As a way to boost up the other motivation, assimilation motivation, they tried to find any cue that can bond themselves with others even amongst differences in their visual representations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]