1 INTRODUCTION
Materialism, understood as beliefs that link wealth and consumption with personal achievement and happiness (Richins & Dawson, 1992), has been extensively linked to lower levels of well-being (Dittmar et al., 2014; Moldes & Ku, 2020) and higher rates of compulsive buying (Dittmar, 2005; Mueller et al., 2011; Roberts et al., 2006). Research shows that the advocacy of materialistic values is influenced by higher media consumption (e.g., Kasser et al., 2004; Shrum et al., 2005), personal and social insecurities (e.g., Kasser et al., 2004; Pieters, 2013), and adverse emotions (e.g., Donnelly et al., 2016). Moreover, it has been suggested that in consumer-oriented societies, mortality reminders intensify materialistic orientations and desires (Arndt et al., 2004). Lockdown restrictions introduced in most countries to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus in early 2020 substantially altered these factors. For example, early figures suggest that people spent 20% more time watching broadcast TV and 27% more time on streaming platforms (GlobalWebIndex, 2020). Moreover, across different countries including the United Kingdom, there has been a substantial increase in reported rates of anxiety and depression (Commonwealth Fund, 2020), a rise in loneliness (Office for National Statistics [ONS], 2021a), and a decrease in well-being, happiness, and a sense of self-worth (Fujiwara et al., 2020). In addition, the COVID-19 outbreak has consistently featured in news headlines globally, with narratives around issues of “illness,” “death,” and “survival” making health and health-related behaviors a frequent topic of conversations. Consequently, people have more frequently encountered situations in which they have been reminded of their own mortality. Given this context, it is possible that the societal and behavioral changes that “stay-at-home” restrictions have brought about, and the recurrent mortality reminders may be boosting the endorsement of materialistic values. Recent research conducted in China suggests that the perception of COVID-19 as a life-threatening illness may facilitate the endorsement of materialistic beliefs (Song et al., 2020), and that materialism mediates the link between the severity of the health emergency and impulsive consumption tendencies (Li et al., 2020). However, no prior studies have looked at possible changes in materialistic values during the COVID-19 pandemic or have holistically looked at how behavioral and emotional changes experienced due to lockdown restrictions may be contributing to this possible rise in materialism.
Consequently, the present research aims to identify the role of different behavioral and affective changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic in the endorsement of materialism, and to examine possible changes in attitudes towards money and consumption. This study will increase our understanding of the impact that contextual effects have on value changes by examining how naturally occurring alterations in the causal factors identified in the literature will impact its advocacy. Therefore, the present work contributes to the marketing and psychology literature by deepening our understanding of the widely researched construct of materialism. Moreover, by identifying the effect and weight that changes in the causal factors of materialism have on its endorsement, this study elicits potential factors to prioritize in interventions aimed at reducing dysfunctional consumption and/or to enhance well-being.
1.1 What drives people towards materialism? Materialism, defined as “individual differences in people's long-term endorsement of values, goals, and associated beliefs that center on the importance of acquiring money and possessions that convey status” (Dittmar et al., 2014, p. 880) is thought to be facilitated by a multiplicity of factors. Beyond early socialization processes experienced in childhood (e.g., Banerjee & Dittmar, 2008; Richins & Chaplin, 2015), the literature has identified media consumption (e.g., Kasser et al., 2004; Shrum et al., 2005), individual and social psychological insecurities (e.g., Kasser et al., 2004), negative emotions (e.g., Donnelly et al., 2016), and mortality reminders (e.g., Kasser & Sheldon, 2000) as elements that contribute to the advocacy of materialistic values. In the following sections, we review each of these factors and their links to materialism.
1.2 Media consumption and materialism Implicit and explicit associations linking consumption and wealth with happiness and success, along with messages highlighting the importance of buying, are embedded not only in advertisements but also in a variety of media content, ranging from reality TV (e.g., The Real Housewives) and fictional movies (e.g., The Wolf of Wall-Street), to lifestyle magazines and social media fashion influencers. These “rags-to-riches” stories that often idealize wealthy, imaginary, and happy shoppers’ narratives have become embedded in the media and influence the worldview of millions of people. For example, a recent meta-analytic report showed that individuals exposed to materialistic messages, such as fashion and luxury advertisement or rags-to-riches stories, had a higher advocacy of materialistic values than control groups (Moldes & Ku, 2020). Indeed, TV consumption has been found to distort mental representations of the world as frequent television watchers were found to estimate a higher proportion of affluent people within a population (O'guinn & Shrum, 1997). These distortions on the perception of the distribution of wealth could also make individuals feel relatively worse off than others, a belief that has been found to boost the endorsement of materialistic values (Zhang et al., 2015). Moreover, the idealized lifestyles and “perfect” bodies depicted by the media (Dittmar, 2008) drive individuals to engage more often in upward social comparisons, which have also been found to increase materialistic attitudes and behaviors (Zheng, Baskin, & Peng, 2018). Therefore, given the link between media consumption and the advocacy of materialistic values previously found in the literature, we would expect that increases in media exposure due to lockdown restrictions will lead to an increase in materialistic values.
1.3 Individual and social insecurities and materialism Another key factor in the endorsement of materialism are individual and social insecurities (Kasser et al., 2004) that emerge in environments and through experiences that do not assist individuals in fulfilling their basic psychological needs of competence, relatedness, and autonomy (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Supporting this claim, experimental research has found that manipulations of self-doubt and self-esteem lead to higher levels of materialism (Chang & Arkin, 2002; Chaplin & John, 2007). Furthermore, materialism has been associated with higher social interaction anxiety (Kashdan & Breen, 2007), and with higher peer rejection in both children (Banerjee & Dittmar, 2008) and adult populations (Jiang et al., 2015). Along the same lines, longitudinal research suggests that loneliness leads to higher materialism, which ironically also results in higher loneliness (Pieters, 2013). Indeed, the link between materialism and loneliness has been found to be present in both Western (Pieters, 2013) and Eastern populations (Loh et al., 2021). Therefore, given the association between individual and social insecurities and materialism, we would expect that a rise in social isolation due to lockdown restrictions will lead to an increase in materialistic values.
1.4 Affective and cognitive well-being and materialism It has been suggested that materialism and consumption are endorsed by individuals as a coping mechanism, to lift one's mood and to escape negative moods (e.g., Atalay & Meloy, 2011; Donnelly et al., 2016). Extensive evidence suggests that materialism is associated with lower life satisfaction (e.g., Felix & Garza, 2012; Frost & Frost, 2000; Norris & Larsen, 2011; Wong et al., 2003), a higher negative affect (e.g., Hudders & Pandelaere, 2012; Kasser et al., 2004; Romero et al., 2012), and higher stress and anxiety levels (e.g., Burroughs & Rindfleisch, 2002; Niemiec et al., 2009). Therefore, given the negative relationship between a person's well-being and the endorsement of materialistic values, we would expect that a decline in mood and an increase in stress and anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to a rise in materialistic values.
1.5 Death anxiety and materialism Terror management theory (TMT) postulates that after encountering information that make one's mortality salient (MS), individuals are more likely to engage in behaviors to increase their self-esteem and protect their worldviews (Greenberg et al., 1997). Therefore, TMT hypothesizes two mechanisms that lead to materialism after a MS exposure: one through seeking self-enhancement and the other through the reinforcement of cultural worldviews, with both pathways thought to have been enabled by consumer culture (Arndt et al., 2004). Indeed, mortality reminders have been found to increase the value given to money (Zaleskiewicz et al., 2015), boost one's intentions to spend money (Fransen et al., 2008), and intensify behaviors that seek individual gains (Kasser & Sheldon, 2000). Moreover, death-anxiety and fear have been both linked to materialistic attitudes (Jin & Ryu, 2021; Longmire et al., 2021). In addition, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent study found a small to medium correlation between materialism and a composite measure looking at the perceived risk of contracting the virus, fear about the virus, and perceived social isolation (Song et al., 2020), suggesting that perceived self-threat of the virus and social isolation during the COVID-19 outbreak are associated with higher materialism. However, the distinct effect that each predictor had on materialism was not examined. Given the link between death anxiety and the endorsement of materialistic values found by prior literature, we would expect that higher perception of COVID-19 as a life threat will be associated with higher materialism.