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Impact of material vs. experiential purchase types on happiness: The moderating role of self‐discrepancy
Author(s) -
Yu Ying,
Jing Fengjie,
Su Chen Ting,
Zhou Nan,
Nguyen Bang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of consumer behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.811
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1479-1838
pISSN - 1472-0817
DOI - 10.1002/cb.1598
Subject(s) - happiness , experiential learning , premise , psychology , consumption (sociology) , social psychology , ideal (ethics) , sociology , epistemology , social science , philosophy , mathematics education
Most literature suggests that consumers are happier when they spend their money on experience, rather than material purchases, on the premise that consumers may evaluate material possessions largely on the basis of their functional utility and ability to fulfill basic human needs; experiential consumption reportedly fulfills mainly psychological needs. The present research addresses material purchases that fulfill not only functional but also psychological needs (e.g., status purchase). The results reveal that consumers with high self‐discrepancy are more apt to derive happiness from material status purchases than those with low self‐discrepancy (Experiments 1 and 2); this effect is mediated by the motives for goal pursuit (Experiment 3), as triggered by the desire to narrow the gap between the actual self and an ideal self. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.