Investigating the Demographics and Behavioural Characteristics Associated with Voluntary Simplicity Lifestyles in a Developed and a Developing Country: A Comparison between US and Turkish Simplifiers

Abstract

This study aims to compare the demographics and behavioural characteristics of consumers who adopt voluntary simplicity as a daily lifestyle process, focusing on one developed country and one developing country. Data were accordingly collected from 589 US and Turkish consumers who define themselves as voluntary simplifiers. Although other studies found that voluntary simplifiers have same demographic characteristics, our results indicate that Turkish and US simplifiers do not vary statistically in terms of demographic variables such as income class, marital status, number of children and gender but do vary statistically in terms of education, age and working hours. They also vary in terms of the deliberate shortening of working hours. The results reveal that several behavioural and demographic characteristics of consumers who adopt the same lifestyle philosophy may vary based on their culture and the conditions of their country. Findings in the discussion section are aligned with previous studies in the literature and with socioeconomic and demographic indicators of the two countries.