Materialism and Its Relationship to Life Satisfaction

Studies into the consequences of pursuing a materialisticlifestyle have found that materialism is negatively related tolife satisfaction. While most of these studies have beenconducted using American samples, the few reported studies usingAustralian samples have limitations that the current study soughtto address. Using a sample of 162 Australian adults and animproved methodology, a negative relationship was found, in thatthose individuals who were high in materialism were lesssatisfied with their `life as a whole' and with specific `lifedomains' than those who were low in materialism. The implicationsof these findings for future research are discussed.