Postmaterialism

The Postmaterialism Thesis

The thesis is based on two hypotheses. First, the “scarcity hypothesis” suggests that a person's priorities reflect their socioeconomic environment. In general, greatest subjective value is placed on things in short supply. So in times of economic deprivation people focus on immediate needs such as food, money, and shelter. In times of prosperity, other, nonmaterial needs take precedence. This is similar to Abraham Maslow's concept of a hierarchy of needs. Second, the “socialization hypothesis” suggests that this relationship is not an immediate adjustment; rather, a person's basic values reflect the conditions prevailing during their formative, preadult years.

Increased security and improvements in the standard of living since the two world wars have led to decreased anxiety over basic needs. The postmaterialism thesis suggests that this new environment changes how people evaluate their own well-being. As perceived security increases, the materialist emphasis on economic and physical security decreases, and people increasingly emphasize postmaterialist priorities, such as freedom, self-expression, and quality of life. Proponents of the thesis suggest that advanced industrial societies have been undergoing a gradual transition from a materialistic to a postmaterialistic value orientation since World War II.

Measuring Postmaterialism

Since the thesis was first proposed, Inglehart and others have been developing ways to measure support for postmaterialist values among individuals and populations. The thesis was first tested in surveys conducted in 1970 in Great Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Investigators presented participants with four social goals, of which two reflected materialist priorities (limiting inflation and maintaining order) and two reflected postmaterialist priorities (increasing the public role in decision making and protecting freedom of speech). Participants were asked to select the two goals they considered most important. Participants selecting the two materialist goals were classified as materialist, those selecting the two postmaterialist goals were classified as postmaterialist, and those choosing any other combination were classified as mixed. For some later studies, this scale was expanded, and participants were asked to select 6 of 12 possible goals. Indexes of this kind have been included in several large-scale surveys, including the World Values Survey and Eurobarometer. Respondents' answers are sometimes aggregated by country to make cross-national comparisons.

Using these indexes, Inglehart has accumulated a body of findings, based on surveys of more than 60 countries, that suggests that Western societies have become increasingly postmaterialist since World War II. Similar trends have also been identified in some middle-and low-income countries. The postmaterialism thesis suggests that this is a result of new generations replacing old ones. Some studies have found that young people tend to be more postmaterialist than older people, as the thesis would suggest. However, other studies have challenged this relationship. The 2000 World Values Survey shows the highest proportion of postmaterialists in Australia (35 percent), followed by Austria (30 percent), Canada (29 percent), Italy (28 percent), Argentina (25 percent), and the United States (25 percent). The lowest proportions of postmaterialists are found in Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Tanzania, India, and Hungary, which all have 2 percent or less. (These data are drawn from a 2004 sourcebook by Ronald Inglehart and others.)

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