Materialistic values, brand knowledge and the mass media: Hours spent on the internet predicts materialistic values and
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Materialistic values, brand knowledge and the mass media: Hours spent on the internet predicts materialistic values and brand knowledge Roshan Rai 1
&
Chandni Chauhan 1 & Mei-I Cheng 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract Materialism can be seen as the importance people attached to material goods, as well as the belief in the desirable symbolic importance goods have (e.g., to status, human happiness etc.). And the media has often been associated with materialistic values. The current study investigates the relationship between some traditional forms of mass media (television, newspapers and magazines), and a newer form of mass media: the Internet. Using self-report measures, 195 participants indicated how many hours a day they spent watching television, reading newspapers/magazines, and using the Internet. It was found that hours spent using the Internet was positively associated with materialistic values as measured by the Aspiration Index. Using a more concrete task, hours spent using the Internet and materialistic values were significantly predictors of participants’ ability to identify brand logos. This provides evidence that materialistic values, as well as specific knowledge of brands, can be associated to Internet usage. Perhaps surprisingly, however, television viewing was negatively associated with materialistic values. In the current research, the Internet (a newer form of mass media) was more strongly associated with greater materialistic values and the ability to identify brand logos than older forms of mass media. Keywords Materialism . Brand knowledge . Internet . Television . Mass media
Introduction Materialism has been traditionally defined as the importance people attach to worldly possessions (Belk 1984; Richins and Dawson 1992). Although other definitions attach materialism to a belief that materialistic activities define the self and are linked to desirable symbolic values (e.g., power, happiness etc.) (Manchiraju 2013; Shrum et al. 2013). Transnational companies are seen as preaching the virtues of money and possessions (Kasser 2002; Richins and Dawson 1992), which is claimed to help maintain consumer culture and capitalism (Kasser et al. 2007). However, materialism has a darker side, as materialism could underlie overspending and compulsive buying (Dittmar 2005; Mowen and Spears 1999). Materialism is also negatively related to life satisfaction scores, and positively related to various psychopathologies such as depression and anxiety (see Kasser 2002). And additionally there are clearly environmental costs * Roshan Rai [email protected] 1
Division of Psychology, De Montfort University, Leicester LE1 9BH, UK
associated with consumption: by the year 2000, consumption exceeded the biological carrying capacity of the Earth by 20% (Bond 2005). In reaction to the negative side of consumption, businesses have increasingly become concerned with the social, environmental, and economic impacts of consumption (Ferrell et al. 2010; Sheth et al. 2011), as well a
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