Abstract
We examine the extent to which income inequality is associated with materialistic values and behavior in Europe and the United States (US). In the US, existing research on materialistic behavior is largely focused on the study of shopping behavior and shows that, when income inequality is higher, individuals search for and buy products that are more luxury. In Europe, the evidence for this phenomenon is mainly based on survey questions on people’s values, and results are mixed. To determine whether these conflicting findings are rooted in methodology or reflect structural differences between the situation of Americans and Europeans, we measure materialistic behavior and values in both the US and Europe. Different types of data are used to test our arguments. In study 1, we use information on materialistic values from the European Social Survey (ESS) and the World Values Survey (WVS) to study the relationship between income inequality and materialistic values, examining the same research question in the contexts of Europe and the United States. In study 2, we use information from Google Trends to examine the relationship between income inequality and internet searching behavior both in Europe and in the United States. Hybrid multilevel models analyzing the variation in these relationships both over time and across regions show that in Europe as well as in the US, income inequality is not associated with materialistic values. However, in the US, materialistic behavior is greatly enhanced when income inequality is high. In contrast, in Europe, increasing income inequality is associated with decreasing materialistic behavior.
Highlights
Materialism is typically defined as the belief that it is important to pursue financial success, to have expensive and luxury possessions, and to have a high income and social status (Kasser et al, 2004)
Before we present the results of our multilevel analysis, we describe the association between income inequality and materialistic values
There is more variation within the materialistic values of Europe than within those of the United States, probably because European countries are culturally more diverse than US states. In both continents, we find a positive association between inequality and materialism: the higher the level of income inequality is, the higher the level of materialistic values is as well. This correlation is even higher in Europe (r = 0.427) than it is in the United States (r = 0.286)
Summary
Materialism is typically defined as the belief that it is important to pursue financial success, to have expensive and luxury possessions, and to have a high income and social status (Kasser et al, 2004). We compare the measurements of materialistic values as well as those of behavior and examine their relationship with income inequality in Europe and the United States. Europeans may not share this concept of ‘keeping up’ and might think that social mobility is not possible (e.g., Alesina, DiTella, & MacCulloch 2004; Bjørnskov et al, 2013, Paskov, Gerxhani, & Van de Werfhorst 2017) Because of this way of thinking, Europeans may not become more materialistic when the income differences among them widen, which would explain the weaker and mixed effects of the previously mentioned relationship among this population. In study 2, we use information from Google Trends to examine the relationship between income inequality and internet searching behavior both in Europe and in the United States. Hybrid multilevel models are used to identify the between- and within-country effects (e.g., Allison, 2009; Schröder, 2016)
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