Materialism and Advertising: The Role of Anxiety in Ad Elaboration Among Materialistic Consumers

Abstract：

This research examines the relationship between materialism and ad elaboration, or the extent to which consumers scrutinize the validity of advertising claims. In five studies, higher levels of materialism predicted (1) spending less time reviewing an ad, (2) poorer recall of the advertised product’s attributes, and (3) reduced sensitivity to the strength of advertising claims. Importantly, evidence for the role of state-anxiety in producing these results is also offered. First, the anxious feelings reported immediately after reviewing an ad mediated the relationship between materialism and lower ad elaboration. Then, alleviating anxieties with interventions producing positive affect (i.e., reliving a satisfying product experience and exposure to a luxury product) eliminated the lower ad elaboration among those high in materialism. The possibility that the hypothesized effect is driven by the lack of interest in the products used is ruled out, as controlling for the perceived personal relevance of the products does not change the results and those for whom the products are also of low personal relevance do elaborate. Theoretical, managerial, and public policy implications are discuss.

Speaker Biography：

Jung Kyun Kim is an expert on consumer behavior. He studies consumer value, brand strategy, materialism and prosocial behavior etc.. His work has been published in the top journal – Psychology Science and widely reported by media.