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Young Adults’ Consumption Desires, Feelings of Financial Scarcity and Borrowing

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Indebtedness in Early Adulthood

Abstract

Young adults use credit cards and store installments to borrow to consumption that improves their material life-style, for instance purchases of new models of smartphones, computers or other electronic gadgets, weekend travel or vacations in distant foreign countries. Over-borrowing is a potential problem. One determinant is present-biased temporal discounting which in young adults may result from desires to purchase attractive consumer products that are not affordable. Research is reviewed that both supports and does not support this claim. Other determinants are a positive attitude toward borrowing for purchases of consumer products or low financial involvement and knowledge. Empirical evidence is reported that attitude is most important. A negative attitude may have the role of a heuristic that suppresses decisions to borrow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

    Amelie Gamble, Tommy Gärling & Patrik Michaelsen

Authors
  1. Amelie Gamble
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  2. Tommy Gärling
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  3. Patrik Michaelsen
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Correspondence to Amelie Gamble .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

    Jeanette Carlsson Hauff

  2. School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

    Tommy Gärling

  3. School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden

    Ted Lindblom

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Gamble, A., Gärling, T., Michaelsen, P. (2019). Young Adults’ Consumption Desires, Feelings of Financial Scarcity and Borrowing. In: Hauff, J., Gärling, T., Lindblom, T. (eds) Indebtedness in Early Adulthood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13996-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13996-4_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-13995-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-13996-4

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