Does Materialism Make Indian Millennials Miserable or Is It a Key to Life Satisfaction? Exploring the Moderating Role of Gratitude

Abstract

Materialism as a concept has captured extensive attention across the world for more than two decades. In the extant literature, the relationship between materialism and life satisfaction remains inconclusive and has limited explanation in different cross-cultural contexts. This article extends the existing research on this relationship in a unique cultural context among Indian millennials. It also explores the role of gratitude and need satisfaction in the said relationship. A moderated mediation model is derived to represent the relationship. Data from 309 respondents in the age group of 18–35 years was collected using a questionnaire survey. A moderated mediation analysis was carried out using the PROCESS macro for SPSS. The findings establish that different levels of gratitude have a different impact on the relationship between materialism and life satisfaction. They highlight the importance of gratitude in attaining life satisfaction and reinforce the importance of studying this relationship in a different cross-cultural context.