Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
3-2012
Abstract
Correlational evidence indicates that materialistic individuals experience relatively low levels of well-being. Across four experiments, we found that situational cuing can also trigger materialistic mind-sets, with similarly negative personal and social consequences. Merely viewing desirable consumer goods resulted in increases in materialistic concerns and led to heightened negative affect and reduced social involvement (Experiment 1). Framing a computer task as a “Consumer Reaction Study” led to a stronger automatic bias toward values reflecting self-enhancement, compared with framing the same task as a “Citizen Reaction Study” (Experiment 2). Consumer cues also increased competitiveness (Experiment 3) and selfishness in a water-conservation dilemma (Experiment 4). Thus, the costs of materialism are not localized only in particularly materialistic people, but can also be found in individuals who happen to be exposed to environmental cues that activate consumerism—cues that are commonplace in contemporary society.
Keywords
Consumerism, materialism, situationism, social engagement, well-being, personal values
Discipline
Marketing
Research Areas
Marketing
Publication
Psychological Science
Volume
23
Issue
5
First Page
517
Last Page
523
ISSN
0956-7976
Identifier
10.1177/0956797611429579
Publisher
Association for Psychological Science
Citation
BAUER, Monika A.; WILKIE, James E. B.; KIM, Jung K.; and BODENHAUSEN, Galen V..
Cuing consumerism: Situational materialism undermines personal and social well-bein. (2012). Psychological Science. 23, (5), 517-523.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/4946
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611429579