Aric Rindfleisch’s research delves into reducing materialism in younger consumers

Early in August, The Journal of Positive Psychology published a paper co-authored by Aric Rindfleisch, Professor of Business Administration and John M. Jones Professor of Marketing at Gies College of Business. The paper, titled “The impact of gratitude on adolescent materialism and generosity,” came from research conducted by Rindfleisch and three others.

The results presented, according to the paper’s abstract, strategies for reducing materialism in younger consumers. The inspiration for this research led to two studies among 900 adolescents that produced “a promising strategy for decreasing materialism: fostering gratitude.” In the first study, a nationally representative study proved that “children and adolescents with a grateful disposition were less materialistic.”

In the second study, experimental evidence showed that an intervention that increases gratitude – such as a gratitude journal – “significantly reduced materialism among adolescents and also attenuated materialism’s negative effect on generosity.” This work strikes at one of Rindfleisch’s core concepts for research: consumer values.   Read the full article here »