The Safety of Objects: Materialism, Existential Insecurity, and Brand Connection
研究物质主义如何通过存在不安全感影响消费者与品牌的连接，基于恐惧管理理论，通过全国调查和实验验证了物质主义者在死亡恐惧下会与品牌建立更强连接。
Over the past 2 decades, a large body of research has examined how materialism is formed and how this value influences well-being. Although these studies have substantially contributed to our understanding of materialism, they shed little light on this value's relationship to consumer behavior. Our research seeks to address this gap by examining the influence of materialism on self- and communal-brand connections. We ground our conceptualization in terror management theory and suggest that materialistic individuals form strong connections to their brands as a response to existential insecurity. We test this premise by conducting a national survey among 314 adults as well as an experiment among 125 college students. Our results provide broad support for our thesis and suggest that the fear of death encourages materialistic individuals to form strong connections with their brands.