African American attitude and behavior change toward purchasing diamonds: The South African diamond industry and its impact on South African economic independence

In many parts of the world, diamonds are considered precious, beautiful, and rare symbols of love, status, and/or wealth that only a few are economically privileged enough to own. However, the stark social reality is that the presence of diamonds in South Africa stands as a primary catalyst for the all but obliteration of the independent economy of the indigenous people. The present research is designed to examine the issue of whether knowledge about the history and impact of the diamond industry influences the beliefs, attitudes, and purchase intentions and purchase behaviors of a sample of African Americans. Specifically, this work will examine whether exposure to a documentary containing information about the diamond industry's adverse effect on the economic independence of South Africans will affect the attitudes and purchase behavior with respect to diamonds among a sample of African Americans in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.; This study examined how the respondents' locations along an African Identity continuum, knowledge of South Africa, and level of materialism are most related to their propensity to change their beliefs, attitudes, purchase intentions, and purchase behavior toward diamonds. The sample consisted of 128 African American undergraduates enrolled in one of eight African American Studies courses at Temple University.; Results indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between the change in the respondents' DPS score and the respondents' levels of South African knowledge, Nigresence and materialism. These results suggest that there may be a crucial disassociation between purchasing decisions and social consciousness among African Americans.