In this segment, you will learn what materialism is, how it affects consumption in China, and the reason for the popularity of materialism in China. Materialism affects consumer choices, but so do other values. For example, individualism and its attendant emphasis on self-expression are regarded as core values in capitalist economies. Popularity of individualist values in a country is an indicator of how much the country has accepted capitalist practices. To illustrate how a characteristic value in China can affect Chinese consumers' choices, in this segment I will focus on materialism. As mentioned in the previous segment, we will use scientific findings from the consumer research we carried out at The Chinese University of Hong Kong to address these issues, instead of relying on our commonsense. We, at the I.C.E Lab, have carried out a cross-national survey on consumption behaviors. The participants in this survey are over 600 consumers from the US and China. They completed standardized measures of consumer values and experiences. These measures have been shown to be reliable and valid in published research. Our respondents also reported their consumption habits and attitudes towards luxury brands, counterfeit products, and mixing of cultures in consumer products. What is materialism? Materialism refers to the extent to which an individual places material possessions at the center of their life and regards these possessions as the key to their happiness. Often times, highly materialistic people will evaluate themselves and others based on their material possessions. Therefore, it is not surprising that more materialistic individuals are more inclined to purchase luxury brands. Commercial advertisements often appeal to the vanity motives of the consumers. They present their customers as elitists in the society. People who embrace materialistic values will find these commercial message particularly appealing. In the West, materialism has been linked to psychological insecurity and the lack of self-esteem. For example, consumers who have low self-esteem tend to endorse materialistic values. This is the case because materialistic possessions may help low self-esteem consumers to feel good about the self because they own some valuable commodities that others don’t. Materialism drives conspicuous consumption. Conspicuous consumption refers to spending a lot of money on luxury goods and service in order to show off one’s wealth. Are contemporary Chinese consumers more materialistic than American consumers? As mentioned earlier, we at the I.C.E lab have collected data from over 600 consumers in China and in the US. To measure how materialistic Chinese and US consumers are, we invited the participants to fill out the widely used standardized survey of materialism. The survey was designed by Professor Richins and Professor Dawson. It consists of statements like “I admire people who own expensive homes, cars, and clothes”. The participants indicated how much they agreed with each of these statements. The results show that Chinese respondents are indeed more materialistic than their US counterparts. We also measured the participants’ attitude towards conspicuous consumption, a consumption habit that has been assumed to be strongly associated with materialism. As shown in this figure, more materialistic consumers favor conspicuous consumption more. Not surprisingly, Chinese consumers also have more favorable attitudes towards conspicuous consumption than do American consumers. Do Chinese and American consumers embrace materialism for different reasons? As mentioned earlier, past research in the US show that individuals with low self-esteem are more materialistic because they feel that they can use materialistic possession to bolster their self-esteem. However, in China, there is no connection between self-esteem and materialism. That is, among Chinese consumers, those who endorse materialism more do not necessarily have lower self-esteem. In China, self-esteem is not related to the preference for conspicuous consumption either. If the Chinese consumers do not use materialistic possession or conspicuous consumption to bolster their self-esteem, why do so many Chinese consumers endorse materialism and conspicuous consumption? We will turn to this question in the next segment.
