Psychological Drivers of Consumer Behaviour: A Comparative Analysis of Ethnocentrism, Materialism, and Compulsive Buying Across Gender and Education Levels

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate three psychological tendencies relevant to consumer behaviour – consumer ethnocentrism, materialism, and compulsive buying – and to examine their variation across gender and educational levels. The analytical sample represented in the descriptive tables consisted of 173 respondents, including 92 women and 81 men; 97 respondents had secondary education and 76 had tertiary education. Three established instruments were used: the Consumer Ethnocentrism Tendency Scale (CETSCALE), the Material Values Scale, and the Compulsive Buying Scale. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20 through descriptive and comparative procedures. No statistically significant main effects of gender or education were observed for consumer ethnocentrism or materialism. For compulsive buying, significant effects of education (p = 0.029), gender (p = 0.031), and the Education × Gender interaction (p = 0.001) were identified. A significant Education × Gender interaction was also found for materialism (p = 0.028). Women with secondary education reported higher compulsive buying scores than women with tertiary education, whereas the corresponding educational difference among men was small. The findings should be interpreted as evidence from the analysed sample rather than as population estimates for Slovak consumers.