Abstract: With the rapid development of economy and people’s purchasing power, luxury consumption is becoming more and more popular. Previous studies found that materialists were more likely to buy luxury. However, the reason why materialism lead to luxury consumption was still unclear. In general, there were two important dimensions of luxuries’ value: functional value and social symbolic value, which influenced consumers’ purchase intention. Materialist preferred the status and prestige and paid more attention on the brand information. Thus, the current study hypothesized that compared with functional value, materialistic individuals were more likely to buy luxury with high social symbolic value. Meanwhile, we also suggested that public self-consciousness could mediated the relationship between materialism and the social symbolic value of luxury. Above all, 2 studies were conducted to test our hypotheses. In Study 1, 66 undergraduates were collected. Participants were asked to read several product advertisements about quality (functional value) or symbol and instructed to get as much useful information as possible within the limited time. At the same time, eye-tracking technology was used to assess the fix time of both symbolic and quality information. After reading the advertisements’ information, participants completed the Material Values Scale. The results found that, compared with low materialists, high materialists paid more attention on the information about symbolic rather than quality. In Study 2, 351 participants were assigned randomly to one of two conditions: high social symbolic condition (n = 175) and low social symbolic condition (n = 176). Firstly, they were asked to complete the Material Value Scale. Then, they read a brand introduction about David Yurman (a luxury brand). In high social symbolic condition, the introduction describable the brand has been well known and recognized by Chinese consumers. While, in low social symbolic condition, the introduction describable Chinese consumers are still unfamiliar with the brand. Finally, all participants rated their purchase intention of the product, and completed the Public Self-consciousness Scale. The results found that, high materialists would like to purchase luxury with high symbolic meaning value. Meanwhile, public self-consciousness played the mediating role between materialism and purchase intension of luxury with high symbolic meaning value. The results of the current study indicated that materialists have higher public self-consciousness, thus they were more likely to buy luxury with high symbolic value. Moreover, this study provided strategic implication for advertisement in boosting the social value of the product in order to attract consumers.

Key words: materialism, luxury, social symbolic value, functional value, public self-consciousness

摘要： 本研究通过眼动和情境实验相结合的方式，探讨了物质主义与奢侈品社会符号价值的关系，以及公众自我意识在上述关系中的中介作用。结果发现，相比功能价值信息，高物质主义者更加关注奢侈品的社会符号价值信息(研究1)；对于高社会符号价值的奢侈品具有更强的购买意愿，公众自我意识起着中介作用(研究2)。研究表明，高物质主义者具有较高的公众自我意识，因而在购买奢侈品时更加重视其社会符号价值。

关键词: 物质主义, 奢侈品, 社会符号价值, 功能价值, 公众自我意识