A Consumer Values Orientation for Materialism and Its Measurement: Scale Development and Validation

This article reviews the construct and measurement of materialism and concludes that materialism is appropriately conceptualized as a consumer value. The devel-opment of a values-oriented materialism scale with three components-acquisition centrality, acquisition as the pursuit of happiness, and possession-defined success-is described. In validation tests high scorers (compared with low scorers) desired a higher level of income, placed greater emphasis on financial security and less on interpersonal relationships, preferred to spend more on themselves and less on others, engaged in fewer voluntary simplicity behaviors, and were less satisfied with their lives. A merica is a consumer society, and many treatises have described the dominance of consumption motives among Americans (see, e.g., Bredemeier and Toby 1960; de Tocqueville 1835 1954; Wachtel 1983). In such discussions of consumption and materialism, authors tend to speak of consumers as an undifferen-tiated group, acting individually, perhaps, but guided equally by the same consuming desire for goods. Hence, Cushman (1990, p. 600) describes the post-World War II consumer as yearning to acquire and consume, Fox and Lears (1983, p. xii) see Americans as engaged in a ceaseless pursuit of the good life through con-sumption, and Fromm (1967, p. 179) notes that con-temporary man has an unlimited hunger for more and more goods. While consumer goods do play an important role in American culture, these analyses obscure differences among individuals. For some, possessions are essential to their lives and identities. For example, Lisa Labnon, a 30-year-old New Hampshire woman, became home-less when she lost her job and her condominium was repossessed. She refused to sell her Mercedes and mink coat, however, because the loss in image and self-esteem Marsha L. Richins is associate professor of marketing, University