Correspondence address
Dr. Helga Dittmar
Sociology and Social Psychology Group
School of Social Sciences, Arts E
University of Sussex
Brighton, Falmer, BN1 9QN
East Sussex, England
Tel: +44-273-606755 Fax: +44-273-678466 E-mail: H.E.DITTMAR@SUSSEX.AC.UK
Running head: Gender identity and material symbols
Acknowledgements
The study reported in this paper was supported in part by grant No. L122251012 from the Economic and
Social Research Council, as part of the Economic Beliefs and Behaviour Programme. We are grateful to
George Loewenstein, Folke ™lander and Russ Belk for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this
paper, and to Ella Squires and Rebecca Reddy for their help in contacting respondents and collecting data
for the study reported.
Abstract
We present a new model of impulse buying, based on a social constructionist theory, which addresses some
of the short-comings of previous models from economics, consumer behaviour, and psychology. Our
model predicts that products are impulsively bought to reflect self-identity. Thus gender, as a major social
category, should influence both the products bought impulsively and the buying considerations employed.
We investigate these aspects of impulse buying in a mature student population through individual
interviews employing a mixture of quantitative and open-ended measures. As predicted, men tend to
impulsively buy instrumental and leisure items projecting independence and activity, while women tend
to buy symbolic and self-expressive goods concerned with appearance and emotional aspects of self.
Finally, we consider the implications of our findings, and discuss possible extensions of the research to
the area of compulsive buying.
Go to the text of the paper
Return to List of
Projects
Return to Main Page