Grey matter volume and amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations predicts consumer ethnocentrism tendency

Consumer ethnocentrism tendency (CET) refers to consumers' belief about the appropriateness and morality of buying foreign products, and this concept characterizes consumers' tendency to differentiate in-group and out-group commercial products and to avoid imported products for nationalistic reasons. In order to identify the neural correlates of individual differences in CET, we conducted a combined voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and resting-state fMRI study with 228 healthy adults from mainland China, and examined the associations between self-reported CET scores and gray matter volume (GMV), as well as fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF). The VBM and fALFF results consistently associated consumer ethnocentrism with the middle temporal gyrus, and the fALFF results further revealed the roles of the anterior cingulate gyrus and anterior insula in CET. Collectively, these findings provide converging evidence about the neural correlates for dispositional attitudes toward domestic and foreign products.