Money Attitudes, Personality and Chronic Impulse Buying

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of the relationship between demographic, personality, and attitudinal variables and impulsive buying (a consumer's tendency to buy spontaneously, unreflectively, and immediately); using secondary analysis of data from common participants in two large national surveys of British adults: one survey contributing data on impulsive buying, demographics, and money attitudes; and the second, a Big Five personality trait measure. In particular, we focus on the attitudes characterized by the extent to which individuals associate money with security, freedom, power, and love. Younger females and those with higher household income were more likely to engage in impulsive buying. Correlational and regression analysis showed that those high on Neuroticism and Extraversion and those low on Conscientiousness were more likely to be impulse buyers. All four money attitudes were related to impulsive buying (Money as Security most strongly). A hierarchical regression indicated that demographic variables accounted for 3 percent, personality a further 9 percent, and money attitudes a further 13 percent of the variance, showing that these three sets of variables accounted for around a quarter of the variance. Implications are considered for educational and therapeutic interventions in reducing maladaptive impulsive buying.

Exploring food waste during the COVID-19 pandemic among Malaysian consumers: The effect of social media, neuroticism, and impulse buying on food waste

“…A feeling of being deprived by not buying something is even more challenging to deal with if a product may not meet their needs ( Parsad et al., 2019 ). Although some studies ( Fenton-O'Creevy and Furnham, 2020 ; Olsen et al., 2016 ; Parsad et al., 2019 ) showed that neuroticism was a positive predictor of impulse buying, Turkyilmaza et al. (2015) found a negative relationship between neuroticism and online impulse buying.…”

Do buyer–seller personality similarities impact compulsive buying behaviour?

“…We also found a significant positive association with compulsive buying for extraverted buyers, consistent with George (2002), who found it to be related to compulsively buying lottery tickets and scratch‐card. In the current context, as extraverted individuals rate higher on impulsiveness (Fenton‐O'Creevy & Furnham, 2019), they would be more tempted to improve their social image and status by engaging in beautification and remodelling (Elliott, 1994).…”

“…Compulsive buying is a growing worldwide problem among young generations, particularly in females (Zheng et al, 2020), and has been researched in both developed countries, such as the US, Germany, the UK, and Netherlands (Fenton‐O'Creevy & Furnham, 2019; Horváth & Adıgüzel, 2018) and emerging economies, such as Brazil, China, Pakistan, and India (He et al, 2018; Japutra & Song, 2020). The findings unanimously suggest that compulsive buyers are associated with low levels of self‐esteem, and high levels of depression and anxiety, leading them to seek seclusion in shopping environments.…”

A facet measure of money madness: A preliminary analyses of a new questionnaire

“…Together they have moved the literature forward by demonstrating stable individual differences in attitudes to money and their many correlates. This study reports on a new test designed to measure specific facets of four different "money associations" identified by early researchers in the field and which have been used in many subsequent measures (Fenton-O'Creevy & Furnham, 2020a;Fenton-O'Creevy & Furnham, 2020b;Fenton-O'Creevy & Furnham, 2021;Furnham, 2014;von Stumm et al, 2013).…”