Lifestyle of the Tight and Frugal: Theory and Measurement

Abstract

Who has not known a tightwad? Yet this pervasive consumer trait--being frugal--has been ignored in the scholarly consumer behavior literature. This research articulates the nature of this overlooked consumer trait and then develops, evaluates, and empirically applies a multi-item scale of frugality. The results from a six-study program of empirical research are reported. These studies describe (1) the psychometric properties of a frugality measure, (2) demonstrations of how frugality assists the empirical study of consumer usage and acquisition behaviors, and (3) frugality scale norms from a probability sample of the general adult population. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.