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Social comparison, personal relative deprivation, and materialism
Author(s) -
Kim Hyunji,
Callan Mitchell J.,
Gheorghiu Ana I.,
Matthews William J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12176
Subject(s) - psychology , relative deprivation , social psychology , materialism , socioeconomic status , social comparison theory , resentment , power (physics) , sociology , demography , population , philosophy , physics , epistemology , quantum mechanics , politics , political science , law
Across five studies, we found consistent evidence for the idea that personal relative deprivation ( PRD ), which refers to resentment stemming from the belief that one is deprived of deserved outcomes compared to others, uniquely contributes to materialism. In Study 1, self‐reports of PRD positively predicted materialistic values over and above socioeconomic status, personal power, self‐esteem, and emotional uncertainty. The experience of PRD starts with social comparison, and Studies 2 and 3 found that PRD mediated the positive relation between a tendency to make social comparisons of abilities and materialism. In Study 4, participants who learned that they had less (vs. similar) discretionary income than people like them reported a stronger desire for more money relative to donating more to charity. In Study 5, during a windfall‐spending task, participants higher in PRD spent more on things they wanted relative to other spending categories (e.g., paying off debts).