2006/01/01 by Dipankar Chakravarti · 180 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · #Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification #Consumer behaviour #Consumption (sociology) #Cultural Differences and Values #Economic growth #Economics #Government (linguistics) #Innovation and Socioeconomic Development #Political science #Poverty #Psychological intervention #Psychology #Public relations #Social psychology #Social science #Sociocultural evolution #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1207/s15327663jcp1604_8
published in Journal of Consumer Psychology 16(4), 363-376 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Many facets of contemporary global problems posed by poverty pertain to the deprivation of consumption capability and are within the consumer psychologist's expertise domain. This article (based on my 2004 Presidential Address to the Society for Consumer Psychology [SCP]) outlines how consumer psychology research can contribute an understanding of the cognitive, motivational, and sociocultural dimensions of poverty, and how poverty depletes and alters the human need and capacity to consume. Consumer psychology research can also help suggest the nature and function of material and psychological interventions that can help ameliorate these conditions, focusing their design and monitoring their effects. These are important research priorities for consumer psychologists and deserve more and sustained attention from our community. Apart from garnering voice in policy conversations in government, industry, and academe, such research eventually will enhance our field's substantive contribution to improving the contemporary human condition.