— In addition to its already well-documented negative
direct effects on a person's well-being, materialism also wields an
indirect negative effect by making bad events even worse, according to a
paper co-written by a University of Illinois expert in consumption
values.
Business professor Aric Rindfleisch says not only is materialism
antithetical to individual welfare, it also has a secondary effect of
amplifying traumatic events -- everything ranging from terrorism to car
accidents and life-threatening illness -- to make them seem that much
worse.
"If you're a materialistic individual and life suddenly takes a wrong
turn, you're going to have a tougher time recovering from that setback
than someone who is less materialistic," said Rindfleisch, the John M.
Jones Professor of Marketing in the College of Business. "The research
is novel in that an event that's unrelated to materialism will have a
stronger impact on someone because of their materialistic values. In
other words, materialism has a multiplier effect. It's a finding that I
think is especially interesting given our consumer-driven economy."
The research, conducted by Rindfleisch and co-authors Ayalla Ruvio,
of Michigan State University, and Eli Somer, of the University of Haifa,
studied the experience of traumatic stress and maladaptive consumption
through an Israeli field study and a U.S. national survey.
When faced with a mortal threat from a terrorist attack, the
researchers found that highly materialistic individuals in Israel
reported higher levels of post-traumatic stress, compulsive consumption
and impulsive buying than their less-materialistic peers.
"Materialistic people cope with bad events through materialistic
mechanisms," said Rindfleisch, who also is the head of the business
administration department at Illinois. "When there's a terrorist attack
in Israel, people who are materialistic suffer higher levels of distress
and are more likely to compensate for that through higher levels of
compulsive and impulsive purchasing."
The results of the U.S.-based portion of the study indicate that
these effects are likely due to materialistic individuals exhibiting
lower levels of self-esteem, which lessens an individual's ability to
cope with traumatic events, according to the paper.
"You can think of terrorist attacks as a mortal threat to your life,"
Rindfleisch said. "To replicate the study in the U.S., as a corollary,
we asked people to tell us about their level of death anxiety. Those who
had more anxiety toward death were very similar to the groups who were
under terrorist attacks in Israel."
Both components of the study provide converging evidence that in
times of extreme stress, highly materialistic individuals seek comfort
in compulsive and impulsive consumption, Rindfleisch said.
"At its core, materialism is a value-based response to insecurity in
one's life," he said. "Our research more broadly suggests that it's also
about existential insecurity. This idea that we're all aware of our
mortality and focusing on that can be almost debilitating."
And traumatic experiences need not only be confined to terrorism-related events, Rindfleisch said.
"It could be about a broad range of stressful life events, including
serious illness, an automobile accident or a natural disaster," he said.
"So the scope is broader than a terrorist attack. It's more like a
traumatic event that leads to this insecure sense of self. Thus, our
research uncovers a hidden yet potentially quite expansive domain of
consequences that have largely gone unnoticed in prior research."
According to Rindfleisch, it's a cautionary tale before the holiday shopping season kicks into high gear.
"In times of stress, people often seek solace through shopping," he
said. "The idea here is that we need some form of a cultural-based
coping mechanism, because the research suggests that there is actually a
short-term fix with retail therapy. Soon after purchasing something,
there is a reduction of anxiety. But it doesn't last very long. It's
fleeting. Materialists seek that as one of their coping mechanisms. And
Black Friday and the holiday shopping season play into that."
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131125125534.htm
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