Materialism and Its Relationship to Individual Values

The nature of materialism has been of interest to scholars for many years. Of particular recent interest have been the correlates of materialism and their relationship to each other. This study examined the relationship between individual values, demographics, and materialism. Both self-enhancement and self-transcendence values were examined using data from a telephone survey with a random sample of 303 U.S. respondents. It was hypothesized that self-enhancement is positively related to materialism and self-transcendence is negatively related. The results suggest that the relationship between values and materialism is more complex than believed previously. Analysis of variance revealed several interactions that were of potential importance for both public policy and marketing strategy. Of particular interest was the interaction between self-enhancement and self-transcendence. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.