Personality and values based materialism: Their relationship and origins

This research investigates the developmental processes by which consumers become more or less materialistic. It begins with a review of Inglehart's work in this area, and then applies his theories to explain conceptions of materialism developed by Richins and Belk. Inglehart predicts that the subjective experience of economic deprivation and insecurity during one's formative years leads to adult materialism. Early subjective experiences of deprivation and insecurity strongly predict materialism as conceptualized by Belk, but are not related to materialism as conceptualized by Richins. Inglehart also allows for the social influence of family and peers to shape materialistic orientations. Findings indicate that the formative social influence of family and peers predicts both Belk's and Richins's materialism. This difference between Belk's and Richins's materialism is explained on the grounds that Belk's materialism reflects personality whereas Richins's reflects personal values.