“Stigmatizing Materialism: on Stereotypes and Impressions of Materialistic Versus Experiential Consumers”

Five studies examined whether people stigmatize materialistic consumers by applying negative stereotypes to materialistic versus experiential consumers and inferring unfavorable underlying motives. Respondents were shown to harbor negative stereotypes of materialistic consumers as selfish, self-centered, and extrinsically motivated compared with experiential consumers (studies 1 and 2). These stereotypes led to less favorable impressions of consumers who were associated with prototypically materialistic versus experiential purchases (study 3), even following face-to-face conversations (study 4). Participants reported less favorable impressions of consumers with extrinsic than consumers with intrinsic motivations for purchases, both when the purchases were material and experiential (study 5).

Citation:

Leaf Van Boven, Margaret Campbell, and Thomas Gilovich (2009) ,"“Stigmatizing Materialism: on Stereotypes and Impressions of Materialistic Versus Experiential Consumers”", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 12-15.