Website review: Conspicuous Consumption: Shallow Ma...
cirrostratus discovered this in Science/Tech
•1 reviews since Nov 27, 2007
science
•consumerist.com/consumer/conspicuous-consumpt...
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cirrostratus discovered 8 months ago- A new study in the Journal of Consumer Research says that there may be an actual causal relationship between materialism and low self-esteem in teenagers. The study's authors, Lan Nguyen Chaplin from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Deborah Roedder John of the University of Minnesota, "studied children of different age groups and found that, generally, self-esteem increases from middle childhood (8-9 years) to early adolescence (12-13 years), but then declines during adolescence until the end of high school (16-18 years). This mirrors patterns in materialism, which increases in early adolescence but decreases in late adolescence during the transition into young adulthood," says a press release about the study. They also found that even a small boost in self esteem made materialism drop. "By the time children reach early adolescence, and experience a decline in self-esteem, the stage is set for the use of material possessions as a coping strategy for feelings of low self-worth." "Our results indicate that simple actions to raise self-esteem among young consumers can have a dramatic impact on expressions of materialism," Chaplin and John write. "By priming high self-esteem, we reversed the large drop in self-esteem experienced by early adolescents, thereby reducing the steep rise in materialism among this group." ****** This research indicates you should expect large scale assaults on your self-esteem by advertisers attempting to manipulate you into consuming more rather than less.
