What if the rival drives a Porsche? Male conspicuous consumption as a costly signal in intrasexual competition

Research shows that men engage in conspicuous consumption to attract a mate, while women conspicuously spend money on luxuries to retain a mate or to deter female rivals. However, research in the field of evolutionary consumer psychology has neglected to investigate male conspicuous consumption as a means to deter same-sex competitors. As intersexual and intrasexual signaling are closely related processes and both shaped by sexual selection, we expected that men would also display conspicuous consumption in an intrasexual competition context aiming at the deterrence of a rival (H1). We further assumed that men would perceive another man who displays conspicuous consumption rather as a rival and less as a friend (H2)