Materialism and Satisfaction with Life

Material acquisitiveness has become the primary goal in modern society. Studies into the consequences of pursuing a materialistic lifestyle have found that materialism is negatively related to life satisfaction. Most of these studies have been conducted in western countries. There are very few reported studies using Indian sample. Using a sample of 200 adults, a negative relationship was found, in that those individuals who were high in materialism were less satisfied with their life than those who were low in materialism. Correlation was also found between Materialism and other demographic variables like age, family income and education level. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.