This paper explores the relationship between the dispersion of group income and conspicuous consumption levels of individuals in multi-group settings. Consistent with existing finding we find a negative relationship between income dispersion and conspicuous consumption. Further, using South African data, we find evidence that increasing the income distribution has precisely the reverse of the hypothesized effect: as the dispersion of income within a group increases, rich households in the group tend to reduce spending on visible goods, while the poor tend to increase spending on visible goods.