Materialism and Immorality: More Urban than Rural?

Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn ()
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Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn: Department of Public Policy and Administration/Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Camden, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden, NJ 08102, USA

Societies, 2022, vol. 12, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: Metropolitan areas tend to be materialistic/consumerist, and materialism/consumerism is usually considered immoral. Some literature argues that in cities, in general, there is more vice and immorality. In this study, we empirically explore the relationship between urbanness and materialism/immorality using 1972–2018 US General Social Survey. We find much support for a hypothesis that urbanness is associated with higher materialism and immorality. Seven out of eight measures show some evidence of more materialism/immorality in large cities, and four measures remain significant even in the most oversaturated models. However, we caution, as it is one of the first quantitative studies in the area, that the evidence is provisional. While there is a lot of theory, more empirical quantitative research is needed. The study is associative, not causal, and results may not generalize outside of the US.

Keywords: urbanism; urbanness; cities; urban–rural; deviance; morality; corruption; greed; money; love of money (LOM); (US) General Social Survey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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