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Becoming a winner but staying the same: identities and consumption of lottery winners
University of Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8454-2891
2011 (English)In: The American journal of economics and sociology, ISSN 0002-9246, E-ISSN 1536-7150, Vol. 70, no 1, p. 187-209Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article discusses how large lottery winnings are experienced and used by the winners. The study draws on a survey of 420 Swedish winners, which is analyzed against the background of previous research from the USA and Europe. The analyses show that winners are cautious about realizing any dreams of becoming someone else somewhere else. This result contradicts theories suggesting that identities are being liquefied by the commercially driven consumer culture in affluent Western societies. In contrast, the article concludes that winners generally try to stay much the same, but on a somewhat higher level of consumption. The critical situation that large winnings produce is generally met by an attempt to hold on to one’s identity and social relations. In addition, the article shows that lump sum winners tend to save and invest large parts of their winnings, compared with winners of monthly installments who are more likely to spend on leisure and consumption. These results indicate that “wild” lump sums make winners “tame” their winnings more firmly, whereas “domesticated” monthly instalments can be spent more thoughtlessly without changing identity or becoming an unfortunate winner.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Vol. 70, no 1, p. 187-209
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Social Sciences, Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-97449DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2010.00768.xOAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-97449DiVA, id: diva2:1456657
Available from: 2020-08-06 Created: 2020-08-06 Last updated: 2020-09-14Bibliographically approved

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Larsson, Bengt

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  • de-DE
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Output format
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  • asciidoc
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