The Consumer Culture of Poverty: Behavioral Research Findings and Their Implications in an Ethnographic Context

How Financial Constraints Influence Consumer Behavior: An Integrative Framework

“…Over the long term, the unfavorable social comparisons triggered by financial constraints can have a debilitating effect on consumers’ self‐esteem, especially when financial constraints are accompanied by other factors such as minority status (Bone et al., ). In turn, lower self‐esteem is related to the development of materialistic values (Braun & Wicklund, ; Hill & Gaines, ; Richins & Dawson, ). Materialism refers to “the importance a person places on possessions and their acquisition as a necessary or desirable form of conduct to reach desired end states including happiness” (Richins & Dawson, , p. 307).…”

Poverty in consumer culture: towards a transformative social representation

“…Within the context of poverty, there is very little research that directly examines the idea of contentment. That said, studies conducted with vulnerable groups, including homeless, welfare recipients, poor children, and their families show that when consumers cannot rise above their circumstances, long-term consequences, including frustration, humiliation, and inferiority, which collectively refer to 'ill-being', are likely to occur (Hill & Gaines, 2007;Hill & Stephens, 1997). Thus, for many experiencing poverty, contentment in life seems out of one's grasp.…”

“…Furthermore, responses to social exclusion vary and the resources people bring to manage exclusion are diverse and rich, ranging from getting-by strategies such as minimising expenditures (Hill, 2001;Hill & Gaines, 2007;Lister, 2004) to more active and organised forms of resistance as in the case of Appalachian coal miners protesting their working conditions (Gaventa, 1980). Subscribing to the negative representations of poverty and the moral underclass discourse (Levitas, 1998), other impoverished people choose to engage in more passive psychological tactics.…”

“…On the one hand, poor consumers are assumed not to be able to afford and experience pleasure. In a culture which emphasises pleasure through consumption, poor people are more likely to experience frustration and temptation, as well as feelings of stigmatisation and unhappiness from this privation of pleasure (Hill, 2002b(Hill, , 2007Hjort & Ekström, 2006). On the other hand, when they consume in a way that could be associated with forms of pleasure (and therefore beyond their 'basic' needs), they are condemned and perceived as amoral.…”

Absolute and Relative Restriction and Consumer Behavior: Implications for Understanding Global Consumption

“…Zagorski, Kelley, and Evans (2007) suggest that these goods and services may be viewed as serving primary needs, which are similar across persons and associated with basic survival, and status desires, which denote social standing and orient us relative to other people. These comparisons have a lengthy history across times and places as consumer culture has developed and matured (Hill and Gaines 2007; Veblen 1934), culminating in feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction depending upon the final result (Steward 2006).…”