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The effect of materialistic social models on teenagers’ materialistic aspirations: Results from priming experiments

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Abstract

The aim of the present research was to examine the influence of situational priming of materialistic social models on adolescents’ materialistic and non-materialistic life aspirations. Three experimental studies were conducted on students aged 13-16 years. Each study used a different means of cuing materialism (scrambled sentences, questions concerning events, and images with materialistic themes) and tested the effects of four distinct social models (mother, father, peer, and media). Life aspirations were measured with the Aspiration Index. The results indicated that activation of materialistic social models increases the importance that adolescents place on financial success (Studies 1, 2, 3) and image (Study 3) aspirations, but does not generally affect popularity or non-materialistic aspirations (Studies 1, 2, 3). Effects were typically of the same magnitude across the four social models examined. A meta-analysis of the three studies confirmed these conclusions.

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Notes

  1. The sample was sufficient to perform EFA on the aspirations tested. The analysis (principal component method, rotation: oblimin) identified 4 areas of goals: 1) financial success, image and popularity (one cross-loading did occur between popularity and affiliation however), 2) affiliation, 3) community feeling, 4) self acceptance. In addition, the alphas ranged similarly in previous studies: from .50/.58/.54 for self-acceptance to .71/.82 for financial success/ or .71 for community feeling (cf. Kasser and Ryan 1993).

  2. The sample was sufficient to carry out EFA. The analysis (main component method, rotation: oblimin) identified 4 factors: 1) popularity and image, 3) financial succes, 2) affiliation and community feelings and 4) self-acceptance (one cross-loading did occur between self-acceptance and financial success however). In addition, reliability for self-acceptance in previous studies also obtained the lowest values in relation to other areas (cf. Kasser and Ryan 1993).

  3. The sample was sufficient to carry out EFA. The analysis (main component method, rotation: oblimin) identified 4 factors: 1) popularity and image, 2) financial success (one cross-loading did occur between financial success and self-acceptance however), 3) affiliation and community feeling and 4) self-acceptance (one cross-loading did occur between self-acceptance and affiliation however). In addition, the alphas ranged similarly in previous studies: from .50/.58/.54 for self-acceptance to .71/.82 for financial success/ or .71 for community feeling (cf. Kasser and Ryan 1993).

  4. The analysis of the Cochran Q indicator was abandoned because it is unreliable with a small number of studies. Hoever, I2 index together with its 95% CI are not affected by the number of studies and thus better describe heterogeneity (cf. Higgins et al. 2009).

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  1. Institute of Psychology, University of Gdansk, ul. Bażynskiego 4, 80-309, Gdansk, Poland

    Anna Maria Zawadzka, Judyta Borchet, Magdalena Iwanowska & Aleksandra Lewandowska-Walter

  2. Knox College, 2 East South Street, Galesburg, IL, 61401, USA

    Tim Kasser

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Zawadzka, A.M., Kasser, T., Borchet, J. et al. The effect of materialistic social models on teenagers’ materialistic aspirations: Results from priming experiments. Curr Psychol 40, 5958–5971 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00531-3

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