Can materialistic consumers have high well-being?

Materialism has emerged as an important topic within consumer research. Most studies report a negative relationship between materialism—the importance a consumer assigns to buying and owning products—and consumer well-being. However, relatively little is known about the nature of this relationship. Could materialism and well-being have a non-linear association? To further explore this relationship, we conducted a large scale cross-country empirical study involving 2,430 consumers. While results confirm that overall materialism has a negative effect on consumers’ well-being, our data suggest an S-shaped, cubic relationship meaning that both low and high levels of materialism were related to increased consumer well-being, and average materialism was related to decreased consumer well-being. The results help untangle what has been described as a complex and enigmatic relationship between materialism and consumer well-being.