Material values are largely in the family: A twin study of genetic and environmental contributions to materialism

Abstract

Research on materialism has been conducted from numerous theoretical perspectives. Of particular interest has been an examination of environmental factors and situational paradigms that promote materialistic values. Conversely, empirical behavior genetic studies exploring possible genetic contributions to materialism are nonexistent in the literature. The purpose of this study was to examine genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in materialism using the material values scale [ Richins, 2004]. A twin study paradigm employing 240 pairs of same-sex adult twins was used. Previous research has suggested a 40–45% heritable component for a wide variety of personality traits, with similar results reported for attitudes [ Olson, Vernon, Harris, & Jang, 2001]. Unexpectedly, in the current study, individual differences in overall materialism and two of its three components were found to be entirely attributable to environmental factors shared and unshared between siblings. Only materialistic-happiness showed any genetic influence. It is proposed that future research focus on trying to identify those environmental factors that contribute to materialistic values.