Materialism

I can get no satisfaction…

There is something perverse about more than enough. When we have more, it is never enough. It is always somewhere out there, just out of reach. The more we acquire, the more elusive enough becomes.

вЂ"Unknown.

Materialism is today’s religion. We always value ourselves by what we wear, what we drive or how much we can spend. Brands are taking over the world very fast and today a 3 year old child is more likely to recognize and remember McDonalds than to know his last name. (Lynas, 2007)

As the quantity and variety of brands and products grow, so does our need to have it all, apparently we can get no satisfaction. But what is materialism and why is it spreading so quickly around the world?

The two most important definitions of materialism include those of Belk (1984,1985) and Richins and Dawson (1992). Belk describes materialism as “believing the acquisition and possession of thing is the ultimate source of happiness”. Richins and Dawson define materialism as a "set of centrally held beliefs about the importance of possessions in one's life."

The people who follow this trend are the perfect consumers, willing to buy anything the industry convinces will make them feel better. They are easy prey for advertisement and follow it without further thinking. When buying they are low involved and not pay attention to the product characteristics.

But why do people focus so much on their possessions and turn into materialists?

Researchers have found that family communication is a decisive factor when determining if a person will become materialistic or not. Families where parents do not fulfill the children’s needs, adolescents who do not have good communication with their parents and who make social comparisons with their friends are found to be more materialistic than families where there is good communication and parenting style. (Kara Chan and Gerard Prendergast, 2007)

Children are now aware of their clothes and their possessions and are starting to associate happiness with money and with material things at a very young age. Marketers now calls them “tweens”, children between 9 and 15 years olds, and spend millions of dollars trying to get their attentions and their money.

(Goldberg, Peracchio and Bamossy, 2003) In a study conducted by James A. Roberts, Chris Manolis, and John F. Tanner in 2003 children of divorced parents where found to be more materialistic, to fall into compulsive buying and to associate success with material possessions.

Social pressure and unrealistic ideals also contribute to materialism. People tend to compare themselves with highly idealized media images and advertisement, these people create unrealistically high expectations which are not able to fulfill, leaving the subject with a feeling of sadness and discontent.

According to Chan and Prendergast (2007), people who compare their own possessions with the possessions of friends and media celebrities come to believe that possessions are related to success and happiness, and that possessions occupy a central position in life.

Other researchers have also found that materialism “is a coping mechanism for consumers to deal with feelings of uncertainty about the self or about uncertainty regarding norms in the society” (Chang and Arkin 2002). Materialism can be seen as a way to deal with problems, such as divorced parents, social pressure, depression or low self esteem. Like any addiction, shopping becomes a way of feeling temporarily good. Once the good is acquired, pleasure is derived from the communicative aspect of the good, which is telling others about their new acquisition and how great it is.

Envy, non generosity, greed, possessiveness, feelings of inferiority and low self esteem have been found to have a positive relation with materialism, and are often found in these persons. (Richins and Dawson 1992 ; Belk 1987)

They also lack of collective oriented values such as religion, family or moral values. Consequently, materialistics tend more to go on shopping sprees, to make quick and low involvement decisions when buying and to give great importance to income and wealth.

All this activities are commonly oriented towards the prestige and social status that they think material things will give them. Materialists see possessions as image and status enhancers. Studies suggest that for materialists, possessions signal accomplishment and have important social meanings. When making the decision to buy a product, they are also deciding to acquire the social meaning of that product. “They are constantly working to project certain image, and by purchasing things they communicate their power and status to others”. (Fitzmaurice and Comegys, 2006) Materialists acquire goods in order to add further visible evidence that they are indeed successful or part of an elite rank in society.

The sad part is that what started as a journey to find happiness and reach certain level of satisfaction ends with a feeling of emptiness and general discontent. According to Richins (1987), Materialists not only have greater expectations with their purchases and acquisitions but also tend to experience high and recurrent levels of negative emotions after the purchase, these later cause a dissatisfaction with life in general and a diminished feeling of well being. Because the acquisition