Bidirectional Dynamics of Materialism and Loneliness: Not Just a Vicious Cycle

Abstract

This research is the first to test the hypothesis that consumers face a "material trap" in which materialism fosters social isolation which in turn reinforces materialism. It provides evidence that materialism and loneliness are engaged in bidirectional relationships over time. Importantly, it finds that loneliness contributes more to materialism than the other way around. Moreover, it finds that materialism's contribution to loneliness is not uniformly vicious but critically differs between specific subtypes of materialism. That is, valuing possessions as a happiness medicine or as a success measure increased loneliness, and these subtypes also increased most due to loneliness. Yet seeking possessions for material mirth decreased loneliness and was unaffected by it. These findings are based on longitudinal data from over 2,500 consumers across 6 years and a new latent growth model. They reveal how materialism and loneliness form a self-perpetuating vicious and virtuous cycle depending on the materialism subtype.

Does a money‐is‐all attitude cause alienation? A cross‐cultural comparison of Korea, the US and Sweden

“…According to Pieters (2013), materialism disconnects social relationship and increases loneliness. Then, people pursue money and material objects to cope with alienation , forming a vicious circle between materialism and alienation.…”

Materialism and well-being: the role of consumption

“…Anxious attachment often causes people to become lonely, which in turn leads them to pursue material goals, perhaps as a substitute for the security offered by healthy social relationships [21]. Taken together, this research suggests that materialistic people may be less willing or able to connect with other people, in which case experiential consumption may not serve the purpose of relating to other people all that much.…”

“…At the same time, materialistic consumption is frowned upon [37] and people find conspicuous consumers of luxury brands less likeable [34,35,38]. This may partly explain why material consumption may fail to improve one's relations with others, why materialism can cause loneliness [21], and why materialists are sometimes dissatisfied with their status products [39].…”

“…The often-used Material Values Scale [1] measures three different aspects of materialism. Research that uses this scale typically aggregates across these aspects; little research has focused on the individual aspects, and their potentially distinct relations to other variables [21,[41][42][43][44]. Most relevant for the present topic, the belief that wealth and possessions are a road to happiness is negatively related to well-being but the belief that they signal success is not [41,45,46].…”

Asia’s materialists: Reconciling collectivism and materialism

“…Materialists are frequently stigmatized as selfish individuals who ''crowd out'' social relationships in favor of a lifestyle led by the acquisition of money, material possessions, and status (Dittmar, Bond, Hurst, & Kasser, 2014;Pieters, 2013). Such self-oriented view of materialism, however, risks oversimplification in assuming that highly materialistic consumers are inherently uninterested in collective and prosocial goals.…”