Society influences every aspect of our life. Although our spending habits vary, our behaviour is influenced by what is around us. I’m in support of this debate because I believe that society’s influence has no boundaries, especially on behavioural matters. 

For example while growing up, if you had a piggy bank where your parents dropped a coin and told you it was your money, even when an uncle or aunt visited and gave you a coin to buy candy, you would rush to drop it in the piggy bank yourself. To make my argument more powerful, I will use the social learning theory of Albert Bandura that states, behaviour is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning.  

Bandura backed his theory during the famous bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961). In the above mentioned experiment he showed that individuals that are observed are called models. In society children are surrounded by many influential models, such as parents within the family, characters on children’s TV, friends within their peer group and teachers at school.  These models provide examples of behaviour to observe and imitate. Our habits are usually influenced by what we observe from what’s around us and this also applies to how we spend.

For instance in a publication by Erica Loop titled How Does Society Affect Behaviour in Teens?, the author stated that some aspects of society can have a positive influence. The author further showed that when children grow into the teen years; they become more aware of legal issues and society’s laws. Although a younger child might know that stealing money can result in jail time, adolescents have the ability to understand legalities in a more abstract way.

Society’s influence on our spending habits is so evident based on an article published online by moneyhabitudes titled ‘Spending habits: understanding and changing’. The article indicated that one’s religion and spiritual beliefs which are a core value of any society influence their spending habits.

 As a facet of culture, religion can have a strong shaping force on spending habits. For example, to tithe and give money to one’s church becomes a natural spending habit. Many religions reinforce giving alms or donating to charity.

With the above mentioned points, I believe that if someone is raised in an environment or society where spending is minimal and saving is high; they are bound to be keen on how much they spend.