Abstract: Busyness has been an identity signal. This paper examined how the subjective perceptions of busyness impact consumers' face-related product consumption.  According to the data from the 2010 National Household Appliance Product Consumption Questionnaire, this paper has found that consumer’ perception of busyness could increase their face product preference. From the perspective of social identity theory, this paper found that the perception of busyness can improve consumers' social identity motivation, and then promote busy consumers to choose face-related products to support their“busy as success" identity image.  In addition, this paper has found that consumes’perceived economic mobility moderats our main effect: compared with consumers with low economic mobility, the impact of perception of busyness on face product preference for consumers with high economic mobility would be strengthened.

Key words: busyness, face product preference, social identity motivation, perceived economic mobility