Dr. Christian Martin, Lecturer in Marketing at the School of Business has co-authored a journal paper "Age-related changes in materialism in adults – A self-uncertainty perspective" together with Sandor Czellar (University of Lausanne, Switzerland) and Mario Pandelaere (Virginia Tech, USA & Ghent University, Belgium). The paper was published in the Journal of Research in Personality, which is one of the leading journals in personality psychology.
The paper addresses a gap in our understanding of consumers' materialism - the importance ascribed to the ownership and acquisition of possessions. While recent research indicates that materialism decreases with age during adulthood, little is known about the processes that cause these age-related changes. We show that changes in materialism, as people grow older, can be explained by changes in uncertainty about the self (e.g., doubt about one’s abilities). This research has implications for social marketers and policy makers who wish to reduce materialism in society.
More information on the research can be found here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092656618303003?via%3Dihub