Judging by the wristwatch: Salespersons’ responses to status signals and stereotypes of luxury clients

This paper investigates how the activation of a customer stereotype affects salespersons’ interpersonal orientation in the context of luxury car purchases. The results of three complementary studies (observation in-situ, survey among luxury car clients, lab-experiment among apprentice-salespeople) indicate that status trumps gender; Gender-stereotypes are activated only when status is not, indicating the expectancy-based nature of sales...