Miguel Abellán wins the Michael Schuhen Prize
2024-11-01 In 2024, the Michael Schuhen Prize for young consumer researchers is awarded to Miguel Abellán. In his research, he addresses the negative influence of replacement logic on consumers' social responsibility.
The schnitzel that is so cheap that you know the cow led an unhappy life, the T-shirt for 7.99 euros that you'd rather just cut out the label for, or the car that's been souped up so much you could do a Formula 1 race with it: Why do consumers make problematic purchasing decisions against their better judgement? In his study, Miguel Abellan was able to show that customers make morally questionable purchases if they assume that someone else will make the same purchase decision anyway. For this, he has now been awarded the Michael Schuhen Prize.
‘In consumer research,‘ explains Abellán, “it has long been assumed that people either buy what has the best value for money or what most closely matches their identity and values. In my study, I tried to show that the ”what are others doing?’ factor can play a crucial role – people orient themselves towards what they believe, rightly or wrongly, that others are doing as well.’
At the ‘Workshop for Young Researchers in Consumer Research’, which took place in Berlin on 16 October 2024, seventeen researchers from nine disciplines and four European countries presented their work, discussed it together and shared their perspectives.
The award ceremony took place at the annual conference of the German National Consumer Research Network on 17 October at the BMUV in Berlin.