COMPARISON OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN AND ANGLO-AMERICAN ATTITUDES TOWARD MONEY

This study compared attitudes toward money of Mexican- and Anglo-Ameri can consumers. Based on the Hispanic/Mexican-American literature, hypo theses were generated for four dimensions of a money attitude scale (M AS) developed by Yamauchi and Templer (1982). Mexican-Americans were f ound to have lofter scores on a Retention/Time dimension that reflects willingness to delay spending money to achieve gratification. Contrar y to previous studies, Mexican-Americans were found to have lower scor es on a Quality dimension, calling into question an assumption found i n much of the literature that Hispanic consumers prefer high prestige goods/services. Hypotheses pertaining to Power/Prestige and Distrust/A nxiety dimensions were also not confirmed suggesting further reservati ons about Hispanic consumer characterizations found in the consumer be havior literature.