Tightwad-Spendthrift Scale

Rick, Scott, Cynthia Cryder, and George Loewenstein (2008), "Tightwads and Spendthrifts," Journal of Consumer Research, 34 (6), 767-782
https://scottrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/TightwadSpendthrift.pdf



Table of Contents


Description


History of Use


References


Description:

Purpose

The Tightwad-Spendthrift scale is designed to assess the extent to which people find the prospect of spending money painful. Tightwads tend to experience a high pain of paying and spend less than they would ideally like to spend, whereas spendthrifts tend to experience insufficient pain and spend more than they would ideally like to spend.
Questions

4 items using either 1-11 or 1-5 ratings
Sub-scales

NA
Domain

Decision Approach
Psychometrics


Sample items

Some people have trouble limiting their spending: they often spend money--for example on clothes, meals, vacations, phone calls--when they would do better not to.

Other people have trouble spending money. Perhaps because spending money makes them anxious, they often don't spend money on things they should spend it on.

How well does the first description fit you? That is, do you have trouble limiting your spending? (1-5 scale, where 1=Never and 5=Always)

How well does the second description fit you? That is, do you have trouble spending money? (1-5 scale, where 1=Never and 5=Always)


References:

Scale:
Rick, Scott, Cynthia Cryder, and George Loewenstein (2008), "Tightwads and Spendthrifts," Journal of Consumer Research, 34 (6), 767-782
https://scottrick.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/TightwadSpendthrift.pdf

Uses:
Frederick, Shane, Nathan Novemsky, Jing Wang, Ravi Dhar, and Stephen Nowlis (2009),"Opportunity Cost Neglect," Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (4), 553-561

Haws, Kelly L. and Cait Poynor (2008), "Seize the Day! Encouraging Indulgence for the Hyperopic Consumer," Journal of Consumer Research, 35 (4), 680-691

Lynch, John G., Richard G. Netemeyer, Stephen A. Spiller, and Alessandra Zammit (2010), "A Generalizable Scale of Propensity to Plan: The Long and the Short of Planning for Time and for Money," Journal of Consumer Research, 37 (1), 108-128

Raghubir, Priya and Joydeep Srivastava (2009), "The Denomination Effect," Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (4), 701-713

Rick, Scott, Deborah Small, and Eli Finkel (2011), "Fatal (Fiscal) Attraction: Spendthrifts and Tightwads in Marriage," Journal of Marketing Research, 48 (2), 228-237

Thomas, Manoj, Kalpesh K. Desai, and Satheeshkumar Seenivasan (2011), "How Credit Card Payments Increase Unhealthy Food Purchases: Visceral Regulation of Vices," Journal of Consumer Research, 38 (1), 126-139
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