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 journalArticlepeer-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 languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)775-782
Number of pages8
JournalSocial Psychological and Personality Science
Volume10
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 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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