How social influence affects beliefs and behaviors

Social influence, such as attitude affects the different aspects of a person’s life. This is particularly true in attitude and how it affects a person’s home life. A study conducted by a professor at Brigham Young University proved that a couple’s attitude on money has a great impact on their marriage and home life. For the study, 600 couples of different backgrounds were recruited across the country. The families recruited represented different religious orientations, different social classes, different ethnicity and different economic groups.

The result of the study proved that attitude affects the behavior of the person; which then directly affects their home life. The study found that generally, when one of the couple is highly materialistic, they are 40% more likely to have problems financially than those couples who are not materialistic. Consequently, since they will have financial problems, it will eventually cause strain on their marriage. What is more surprising is that the study showed that regardless of their income level, these couples will have financial problem.

The attitude of one or both of the couples greatly affects the quality of home life they will have. A materialistic attitude will definitely decrease the satisfaction of one or both the couple about their marriage and home life. This is quite normal according to the study, since materialism will eventually cause a stretch in the finances of the couple. In worst cases, the couple, despite having high income, may even have debt problems later on in their lives. Moreover, they might end up having a home life revolving around money.

The researcher pointed out that in marriage, the attitude of one or both the couple towards money has almost the same effect as how they spend it. Often, financial problem is the result of the wrong attitude of either or both of the couples. As with the other important issues in marriage, the couple’s can greatly affect the quality of home life the couple makes for themselves. When one or both of the couples have the wrong attitude towards money, the researcher suggested that they should be careful when comparing themselves with others since it will only create more envy, which will result in more spending.

 

Reference

Twitchel, Jeremy. 2007. Attitudes on money can affect marriage. Deseret Morning News

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