Fear of losing face and desire to gain face: The effect of face consciousness on materialism

Abstract Materialism can have numerous negative effects on college students’ psychology and behaviour. Previous research has theoretically predicted that face consciousness leads to materialism. Therefore, this study examined the strong predictive association between face consciousness and materialism using experimental evidence. Moreover, this study explored the effect of face message framing on materialism to determine the relative importance of fear of losing face and desire to gain face. Experiment 1 examined the impact of trait and state face consciousness on materialism among undergraduate students in the mainland of China using a questionnaire survey and a behavioural experiment. The results indicated that face consciousness predicted materialism. Building on this, Experiment 2 from the perspectives of trait and state face consciousness explored the effect of face message framing on materialism among undergraduate students in the mainland of China using a questionnaire survey and a behavioural experiment. The results revealed that fear of losing face had a stronger influence on materialistic values than desire to gain face. Our study enriches the psychological mechanisms from the motivational perspective of college students’ materialism and provide experimental evidence for developing targeted interventions to reduce materialism among college students by addressing face consciousness.