The Materialistic Consumer

Understanding predictors of consumerism, particularly those reflective of how individuals believe society functions, is an emerging, yet understudied, area of research. Recent findings have shown a link between perceived social mobility and materialism. However, it remains unclear how the perceived causes of socioeconomic status (SES) attainment predict consumerism. The current study ( N = 171) showed that believing SES was attained through individual merit was positively associated with consumer acquisitiveness while believing SES was attained through opportunity was positively associated with consumer dissatisfaction. These findings suggest that different causal beliefs about SES attainment have unique implications for consumer perceptions and values.