Consumption Attitudes and Behaviors and Consumer Wellbeing

In the current chapter, we explore the attitudes and behaviors that either increase or decrease consumer wellbeing. Specifically, we explore broader patterns of consumer attitudes and behaviors, since it is these much broader patterns that impact a consumer’s long-term wellbeing and not just their temporary happiness or mood. We specifically explore widely contrasting patterns of behavior (simplifying versus hoarding) and attitudes (anti-consumption vs. materialism). From reviewing the research in these areas, we conclude that very general rules do exist about how broad patterns of attitudes and behavior can impact consumer wellbeing, but there are also huge exceptions to these general rules. This leads to the conclusion that the relationship between broad attitudinal/behavioral patterns and consumer behavior is quite complicated. We posit that this complexity emerges from how consumers differ in their effectiveness at developing and employing strategies to improve their wellbeing. We end our discussion by arguing that policy makers should focus on enabling consumers to develop and employ effective strategies that improve wellbeing. We also discuss how these policies may need to consider the role that marketers play in undermining consumers’ ability to develop and implement wellbeing-enhancing strategies.