While consumer ethnocentrism has been widely examined, little is known about how consumers manage the persistent gap between ethnocentric attitudes and everyday purchasing behavior. Drawing on balance theory (Heider 1958), this study conceptualizes consumer ethnocentrism as a situationally activated balancing process rather than a stable disposition. Using two qualitative studies (22 shopping diaries and 25 in-depth interviews with Czech Millennials), we examine how consumers restore equilibrium when tensions arise between the Perceiver-Object-Benefit triad. The findings identify three recurring sources of imbalance in ethnocentric consumption, namely benefit trade-off tensions, identity tensions, and brand evaluation tensions. Consumers restore balance through two higher-order regulatory logics. Tension-attenuation mechanisms allow consumers to distance themselves from identity conflict without structurally correcting behavior, whereas norm-reinforcement mechanisms strengthen identity-consistent standards and guide behavioral alignment.
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