All of the people who were contacted agreed to participate in the research. Respondents were contacted by the author and asked if they would be willing to assist in research on love for the purposes of a doctoral dissertation. However, this research could easily take the form of a short paper and pencil measure and need not replicate the extensive interview techniques used to generate the initial picture of the love prototype. To investigate the generality of this prototype, it will therefore be necessary to conduct further research on a random sample.
At the same time the non random nature of this sample leaves open the possibility that the love prototype uncovered by this investigation may be specific to the educated urban subculture from which the sample was drawn. In fact, the 100% response rate suggests that this may have been the ca.
This method was chosen over a random sample because it was felt that the ability of the interviewer to introduce himself as being referred by a friend of the respondent would create rapport and more open self disclosure. This procedure resulted in a fairly homogeneous group of 69 respondents (Males = 36, Females = 33) ranging in age from 23 to 45 years of age (M= 32), who were well educated professionals (High school or less =5, college = 27, post college = 38). Upon completing the interview, respondents were asked for names of their friends or acquaintances that also might be willing to serve as respondents. Subjects were contacted through a snowball sampling procedure that began by the author asking personal contacts in a variety of setting for lists of friends that would be willing to serve as respondents. Specifically, this paper investigates the following research questions.ġ) Do people really love things other than people? And if so, what?Ģ) What do people mean when they say they love a product or activity?ģ) Is the love of products and consumption activities synonymous with materialism, and if so is it likely to be associated with negative outcomes? This paper investigates materialism by bringing together the consumer behavior and psychological literatures to directly explore people's love of products and consumption activities. Similarly, the psychological literature on love deals overwhelmingly with interpersonal relationships and almost never recognizes that the "love object' can sometimes literally be an object. involvement, brand loyalty, impulse buying, favorite objects, and collecting), little consumer research has investigated love directly. While many areas of consumer research like materialism touch on consumers' love of products (e.g. Therefore, one natural place to start investigating materialism is to look more closely at people's love of products and consumption activities. Many people view materialism as nothing more than the love of money and the things that money can buy. 'The love of money is the root of all evil" Meaning, Measure, and Morality of Materialism, 1992 Pages 188-198įOR THE LOVE OF MONEY: MATERIALISM AND PRODUCT LOVEĪaron Ahuvia, School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan Rudmin and Marsha Richins, Provo, UT : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 188-198. Aaron Ahuvia (1992) ,"For the Love of Money: Materialism and Product Love", in SV - Meaning, Measure, and Morality of Materialism, eds.