Sadness, identity, and plastic in over-shopping: The interplay of materialism, poor credit management, and emotional buying motives in predicting compulsive buying

A comprehensive study is currently lacking to explain why material values strongly influence compulsive buying. The goal of the current study is to test if money management, buying motivations for improving mood and identity, and self-transformation expectations mediate the link from material values to compulsive buying. In one sample (N = 1077) we find, as expected, that materialism correlates positively with compulsive buying and that a lack of money management mediates the path from materialism to compulsive buying. In a second sample (N = 650) we find that, specifically, it is the poor credit management of materialists that most strongly mediates this relation. Further, emotional buying motives (i.e., shopping in order to improve one's mood) and transformation expectations also mediate the relationship between materialism and compulsive buying. Thus, the tendency of materialists to (a) not manage their credit, (b) believe that their purchases will transform their lives, and (c) make purchases for emotional reasons completely explains their greater frequency of compulsive buying.