Materialism and its relationship to life satisfaction

Studies into the consequences of pursuing a materialistic lifestyle have fo und that materialism is negatively related to life satisfaction. While most of these studies have been conducted using American samples, the few repor ted studies using Australian samples have limitations that the current stud y sought to address. Using a sample of 162 Australian adults and an improve d methodology, a negative relationship was found, in that those individuals who were high in materialism were less satisfied with their 'life as a who le' and with specific 'life domains' than those who were low in materialism . The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.