Who Are the Scrooges? Personality Predictors of Holiday Spending

Sara J. Weston; Joe J. Gladstone; Eileen K. Graham; Daniel K. Mroczek; David M. Condon

doi:10.1177/1948550618792883

Who Are the Scrooges? Personality Predictors of Holiday Spending

Sara J. Weston^*, Joe J. Gladstone, Eileen K. Graham, Daniel K. Mroczek, David M. Condon

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

The sharp increase in consumption over the holiday season has important economic implications, yet the psychology underlying this phenomenon has received limited attention. Here, we evaluate the role of individual differences in holiday spending patterns. Using 2 million transactions across 2,133 individuals, we investigate the relationship between the Big 5 personality traits on spending at Christmas. Zero-order correlations suggest holiday spending is associated with conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion; the relationship with neuroticism persists after accounting for possible confounders including income and demographics. These results improve our understanding of how different personality traits predict how people respond to the environmental demands of the holiday season and have broader implications for how personality relates to consumer behavior.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	775-782
Number of pages	8
Journal	Social Psychological and Personality Science
Volume	10
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550618792883
State	Published - Aug 1 2019

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported, in part, by the National Institute on Aging grants P01-AG043362, awarded to Daniel K. Mroczek, Co-Investigator and Project Leader and R01-AG018436, awarded to Daniel K. Mroczek, Principal Investigator.

Keywords

Big 5 personality
consumer psychology
holiday season
spending

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Clinical Psychology

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10.1177/1948550618792883

Cite this

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abstract = "The sharp increase in consumption over the holiday season has important economic implications, yet the psychology underlying this phenomenon has received limited attention. Here, we evaluate the role of individual differences in holiday spending patterns. Using 2 million transactions across 2,133 individuals, we investigate the relationship between the Big 5 personality traits on spending at Christmas. Zero-order correlations suggest holiday spending is associated with conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion; the relationship with neuroticism persists after accounting for possible confounders including income and demographics. These results improve our understanding of how different personality traits predict how people respond to the environmental demands of the holiday season and have broader implications for how personality relates to consumer behavior.",

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Who Are the Scrooges? Personality Predictors of Holiday Spending

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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