Dark triad of consumption: A study on the effect of greed, materialism, and consumer arrogance on life satisfaction in Hatay

In recent years consumption has begun to be examined as a social process that satisfies the psychological needs such as creating and presenting the self, identifying the status or social class, building relationships with others, influencing people in the environment or admiring oneself and proving themselves. In this context greed, materialism, and arrogance are considered as a dark personality trait of consumers' which in turn effect their life satisfaction. While materialism and greed decrease life satisfaction, consumer arrogance has mixed effects on life satisfaction with a positive or a negative direction. This study aims to examine the direct effects of greed on materialism, consumer arrogance, and life satisfaction as well as the mediating role of consumer arrogance on the relationship between materialism and life satisfaction. The study is conducted with quantitative methods. The data were collected from 500 households who live in Hatay/Turkey by using area sampling method and face to face interview technique. The hypotheses of the study were tested with path analysis using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that greed influence directly and positively to materialism and consumer arrogance. It is also found that materialism has negative effect on life satisfaction whereas greed and consumer arrogance have positive. In addition, the mediating analysis shows that consumer arrogance has an inconsistent mediated effect on the relationship between materialism and life satisfaction. Within this inconsistent mediation model, while the direct effect of materialism on life satisfaction is negative, the mediated effect of consumer arrogance turns these directions into positive. Therefore, consumer arrogance not only increased life satisfaction but also caused materialism effect to be positive. These findings have been discussed and suggestions are provided for future research.