The "Hyper-Real" Trap: How Interactive Marketing Fuels Materialistic Impulsivity in Malaysian Youth Homebuyers

Abstract

Widening gaps among salaries, property prices, and digitally curated lifestyles complicate homeownership decisions among Malaysian youth. This conceptual paper contributes an integrative extension of the Stimulus–Organism–Response framework by combining digital marketing exposure and housing-affordability pressure within a single explanation of youth homeownership. It positions interactive digital interfaces and affordability pressure as external stimuli, materialistic and financial evaluations as organismic mechanisms, and homeownership decision-making as the response. The framework further distinguishes financial socialisation as an antecedent and demographic background as a moderator, thereby clarifying direct, indirect, and conditional relationships that remain fragmented in existing literature. Drawing on secondary literature, the paper advances theoretically derived propositions rather than empirically tested effects. Its principal contribution is a parsimonious framework that connects digital, economic, and psychological explanations of Malaysian youth homeownership while informing provisional approaches to financial capability, ethical property marketing, and housing-policy communication.