Extending The Research In Relation To Materialism And Life Satisfaction

This paper builds on Sirgy's (1998) theory of material ism by integrating exposure to materialistic advertising and social influence into a more comprehensive model. The data collected in Bosnia/Herzegovina showed that exposure to materialistic advertising and social influence contribute to materialism. Materialism, in turn, leads to the use of all types of standard of comparisons (affective- and cognitive-based expectations) to make judgments about standard of living. As the use of these standards of comparisons increases, people start to evaluate their standard of living more negatively, and this negative evaluations of standard of living leads to dissatisfaction with life.