A cross-cultural examination of the relationship between materialism and individual values

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between openness, self-transcendence and self-enhancement values [Schwartz, S. H., & Sagiv, L. (1995). Identifying culture-specifics in the content and structure of values. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 26 (1), 92–116] and attitudes toward consumption as measured by the Richins and Dawson materialism scale [Richins M. L., & Dawson, S. (1992). A consumer values orientation for materialism and its measurement: Scale development and validation. Journal of Consumer Research, 19(December), 303–316]. The study encompassed three countries, Canada, Germany, and the US. The results indicated that both the materialism and value scales were invariant across countries and that the proposed causal model was invariant as well. The relationship between self-transcendence and materialism was negative, and the relationship between self-enhancement and materialism was positive.