Consumerism and religion

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes 4 Shares The last half-century has seen a shift, not from religion to no religion but from one type of religion to another. So if you had religion on your mind while you were choosing between Ralph Lauren sunglasses and Target sunglasses, you chose Target.

The researchers then did a series of experimental manipulations where they reminded subjects of religious concepts and measured the degree to which this affected their consumer choices.

International in scope, the book combines empirical and theoretical work in its attempt to interrogate the traditional opposition of spiritual and materialistic values, and to explore the interplay of religious and consuming passions in contemporary cultures.

The results showed that subjects who wrote about religion were significantly less likely to choose the prestigious national brand. Branding has become a must for political parties, hospitals, NGOs and even people. Consumerism is an abhorrent ideology. About the author.

It is fascinating that scholars of religion have all but ignored the obvious: the incredible rise of economics as a dominant and structuring social force in the beginning of the s. The researchers open with a rough but suggestive field observation: In geographical regions dense in religious congregations and high in self-reported church attendance, the frequency of brand-name stores such as Apple, Macy's or Gap is relatively low.

This consumption becomes consumerism when an individual purchases and displays these signs to others with the unconscious intent of procuring social recognition that grounds his or her personal significance in a community and thereby transcends his or her individual mortality.

Religious consumerism sociology

The results were as expected: subjects asked to think about religion in terms of self-worth were significantly less likely to choose name brands. If we understand religion as theologian Paul Tillich does—as whatever individuals use to answer the question of existential meaning for their lives—then the political dysfunction of the United States has its roots in the religious dysfunction of consumerism. Identities, collective and personal, become an important stake. So if you had religion on your mind while you were choosing between Ralph Lauren sunglasses and Target sunglasses, you chose Target. Money is a cruel god. Rather than providing the basis for the progressive dislocation of religion, it recomposes it and gives way to novel expressions. An individual freed from the need to construct and ensure his or her own significance can be directed to the well-being of all, not just the self. CVS brand batteries. It was not only an economic phenomenon: it was a cultural and social revolution. Rittenhouse June 18, American consumer spending growth has been unusually slow since the Great Recession of The researchers open with a rough but suggestive field observation: In geographical regions dense in religious congregations and high in self-reported church attendance, the frequency of brand-name stores such as Apple, Macy's or Gap is relatively low. De-territorialised, voluntary communities replace territory-bound, inherited ones. Furthermore, the products represented either self-expressive ones such as sunglasses or purely functional ones Energizer vs. Download