When a better self is only a button click away : Associations between materialistic values, emotional and identity-related buying motives, and compulsive buying tendency online

By H. Dittmar, Karen Long, R. Bond. 2007

333 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Compulsive buying of consumer goods increasingly occurs in conventional shops and stores, but has also started to emerge when people buy online. Extending previous research (e.g., Dittmar, 2005a, b), a model of vulnerability factors is proposed whereby the endorsement of materialistic values predicts individuals' seeking to enhance their emotions and identity when they buy goods, which, in turn, predicts tendencies toward compulsive buying. This model is tested with respect to the Internet, a fast-growing alternative to conventional buying. A preliminary survey (n = 110) confirmed emotional enhancement and identity gains (in addition to economic concerns and efficiency) as distinct online buying dimensions. The findings of the main survey (n = 126) provided good initial support for the proposed model, showing that materialistic individuals who seek to enhance their emotions and identity when buying goods online reported the strongest tendencies toward compulsive buying on the Internet. Implications for intervention are discussed.

Subfields: Marketing, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/eeb4d489db25b0bda9c8f41b87c4fdaa0b409323

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Citations in the corpus

The Silver Lining of Materialism: The Impact of Luxury Consumption on Subjective Well-Being (2012, background): “In addition, materialism is related to negative and risky consumption behaviors, such as compulsive buying (Dittmar 2005; Dittmar et al. 2007; Rindfleisch et al. 1997; Roberts 2000), smoking (Williams et al. 2000) and substance abuse (Vansteenkiste et al. 2006).”
Feeling The Urge: Affect in Impulsive and Compulsive Buying (2012, background): “This idea that buying serves a “psychological purpose” has been deemed “the self-medication hypothesis” by Dittmar, Long, and Bond (2007) and is consistent across the majority of accounts of CBT (Faber and Vohs 2004; Kellett and Bolton 2009; Miltenberger et al. 2003).”
Heavy social networking and online compulsive buying: the mediating role of financial social comparison and materialism (2021, background): “Therefore, the inclination toward compulsive buying is becoming more pronounced as the possession of material wealth often leads to perceptions of enhanced image, status, and happiness (Dittmar, 2004; Dittmar et al., 2007; Islam et al., 2018; Kasser & Kanner, 2004).”
Technological addictions and social connectedness: predictor effect of internet addiction, social media addiction, digital game addiction and smartphone addiction on social connectedness (2017, background): “In addition to internet addiction, social media addiction, digital game addiction and smart phone addiction, TV addiction (67), phubbing (68), online pornography addiction (69), online shopping addiction (70), and online sex addiction (71) are considered within the scope of technological addictions ”
The Costs of Consumer Culture and the “Cage Within”: The Impact of the Material “Good Life” and “Body Perfect” Ideals on Individuals” Identity and Well-Being (2007, background): “…tendency toward compulsive buying, not only in the “bricks” of conventional shops and stores, but also in the “clicks” on the Internet that, in developed societies, is fast becoming a serious alternative environment in which to browse and shop (Dittmar, 2005a; Dittmar, Long, and Bond, 2007).”
Self-congruence, brand attachment and compulsive buying (2017, background): “4 buying, extant research largely examines the impact of ideal self-concept motivation, not the actual self-concept (e.g. Dittmar, 2005a; Dittmar et al., 2007).”
A social mindfulness approach to understanding experienced customer mistreatment: A within-person field experiment (2017, background): “Dittmar, Long, and Bond (2007) investigated the motivation behind online shopping, and found that mood enhancement was a key driver of people’s personal shopping behavior.”
Will materialism lead to happiness? A longitudinal analysis of the mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction (2017, background): “…have shown clearly that materialism brings many problematic outcomes: it is detrimental for individuals' financial and consumption behaviors (Dittmar, Long, and Bond, 2007), interpersonal relationships (Pieters, 2013), work and educational motivations (Ku, Dittmar, and Banerjee, 2012), and…”
Buying to Blunt Negative Feelings: Materialistic Escape from the Self (2016, background): “Christopher, Drummond, Jones, Marek, & Therriault, 2006; Dittmar, 2005a; Dittmar et al., 2007; Richins, 2011; Rindfleisch, Burroughs, & Wong, 2009; Zhang & Kim, 2013).”