Power distance, as the first national cultural dimension proposed by Hofstede, has drawn much attention in the fields of sociology, psychology, organizational behavior, and consumer behavior. In the past, the research on power distance basically took the country or region as the unit. However, as the research on power distance gradually deepened, scholars found that within a culture, individuals often have different views on power disparity. In response to this, a novel academic construct “power distance belief” was born, which provides a new perspective for scholars to understand consumer behavior. In recent years, power distance belief has received more and more attention from the field of marketing, but these research findings have not been systematically and completely reviewed. In view of this, this paper systematically sorts out the relevant literature.

Power distance belief specifically refers to the individual’s tolerance for the unequal distribution of social power. High power distance belief tends to promote the view that power disparity within a culture is normal, while low power distance belief believes that social power should be distributed equally, and it is normal for everyone to be equal. In general, people with high power distance belief are more likely to believe in inequality and are more accustomed to accommodating it than those with low power distance belief. The manipulation of power distance belief mainly includes sentence combination task, argument writing task and nationality manipulation. At the same time, a total of five different scales have been developed by scholars to measure power distance belief. The items and measurement of each scale are different.

The impact of power distance belief on consumer behavior can be explained by four theories, such as system justification theory, compensatory control theory, cognitive dissonance theory and symbolic self-completion theory. In addition, power distance belief has multiple impacts on different stages of consumers’ purchasing decisions and prosocial behaviors. Specifically, power distance belief affects consumers’ information search stage, choice evaluation stage, purchase behavior stage and post-purchase behavior stage. At the same time, power distance belief can affect consumers’ charitable behavior, green consumption and moral-related behavior.

This paper clarifies the conceptual connotation of power distance belief, summarizes the manipulation and measurement of power distance belief, and reviews the impact and theoretical explanation of power distance belief on consumer behavior. Overall, this paper aims to offer a better guide for future research and provide a theoretical basis for marketing practice.