How materialism shapes the effectiveness of financial literacy messages: A cross‐cultural perspective

• Published in: Applied psychology Vol. 71; no. 4; pp. 1513 - 1534
• Main Author: Khenfer, Jamel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-10-2022; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Arab; Business administration; Consumers; cross‐cultural; Financial literacy; financial optimism; Humanities and Social Sciences; Literacy; Materialism; Middle East; non‐WEIRD population; Optimism; saving; Savings; United States > US; Middle East; saving; materialism; cross-cultural; non-WEIRD population; Arab; financial literacy; financial optimism
• ISSN: 0269-994X; 1464-0597
• DOI: 10.1111/apps.12370

This cross‐cultural experiment (N = 1000) shows that messages designed to promote financial literacy are differently effective among US and Arab consumers depending on the salience of materialistic thoughts at the time of exposure. Among US consumers, financial literacy messages increased savings intention by heightening the importance of saving when materialistic thoughts were salient but had no impact otherwise. This is consistent with existing research that has largely focused on WEIRD countries (Western, Educated, Industrial, Rich, Democratic; Henrich et al., 2010). However, among Arab consumers (data collected in the United Arab Emirates), we found that financial optimism was a key construct to explain savings behaviors. Specifically, our results show that financial literacy messages lower levels of financial optimism and, thus, increase savings intention at baseline levels. When materialistic thoughts are salient, our results suggest that Arab consumers prefer spending in the presence of financial literacy messages because having materialistic thoughts heightens financial optimism when one is assured that acquiring financial knowledge and skills guarantees one's financial success.