An examination of the relationship among conspicuous consumption, social media addiction, narcissism, and empathy: a research on university students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between conspicuous consumption behaviour, social media addiction, narcissistic characteristics, and empathy for university students. Using a cross-sectional survey design, with a non-random sampling strategy, a total of 1,215 participants completed the online survey. Data were analysed through the structural equation modelling technique using the AMOS statistical analysis package to discover the relationship among variables. Findings indicated that social media addiction has a moderately positive relationship with conspicuous consumption, a weak negative relationship with empathy, and a moderately positive relationship with narcissism. As a result, both empathy and narcissism have an impact on conspicuous consumption, and social media addiction affects empathy. This study contributes to the literature in terms of exploring the relationship between empathy and conspicuous consumption together for young consumers.