Using data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, we compare the trends of materialism over the last quarter of century among the US and six major European countries: France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Sweden. We use the definition of materialism adopted by positive psychologists. We find that the trends in Europe and in the US diverged. In the US materialism increased, while in Europe it decreased. However, some mixed patterns arise. In particular, Great Britain, Spain and Sweden showed some symptoms of an increase of materialistic values, although they were far less pronounced compared to the American ones. As far as the levels of materialism are concerned, it is interesting that, according to most of our measures, Americans were relatively less materialistic at the beginning of our period of observation. Yet, towards the end of the period they scored very high in the ranking of materialism in our sample of countries.

Bartolini, S., Sarracino, F. (2016). Twenty-five years of materialism: do the US and Europe diverge?. SOCIAL INDICATORS RESEARCH, 133, 787-817 [10.1007/s11205-016-1381-7].

Twenty-five years of materialism: do the US and Europe diverge?

Bartolini, Stefano;
2016-01-01

Abstract

Using data from the World Values Survey and the European Values Study, we compare the trends of materialism over the last quarter of century among the US and six major European countries: France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Sweden. We use the definition of materialism adopted by positive psychologists. We find that the trends in Europe and in the US diverged. In the US materialism increased, while in Europe it decreased. However, some mixed patterns arise. In particular, Great Britain, Spain and Sweden showed some symptoms of an increase of materialistic values, although they were far less pronounced compared to the American ones. As far as the levels of materialism are concerned, it is interesting that, according to most of our measures, Americans were relatively less materialistic at the beginning of our period of observation. Yet, towards the end of the period they scored very high in the ranking of materialism in our sample of countries.
2016
Bartolini, S., Sarracino, F. (2016). Twenty-five years of materialism: do the US and Europe diverge?. SOCIAL INDICATORS RESEARCH, 133, 787-817 [10.1007/s11205-016-1381-7].
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Bartolini Sarracino.pdf

non disponibili

Tipologia: PDF editoriale
Licenza: NON PUBBLICO - Accesso privato/ristretto
Dimensione 816.44 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
816.44 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia
TRENDS OF MATERIALISM 2 PP .pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Post-print
Licenza: Creative commons
Dimensione 297 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
297 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11365/1011195