Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Publication Date

Spring 3-31-2022

College

Sciences and Mathematics, College of

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

BURS Faculty Advisor

Pete Giordano

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Abstract

In the twenty-first century, Western cultures are highly materialistic and defined by consumeristic goals to garner as much “stuff” as possible (Berger, 2015). This constant pursuit has demonstrable adverse effects on personal and social well being (Bahl et al., 2016; Wang, et al., 2017), while overconsumption also has devastating impacts on the global environment. Previous studies found a negative relationship between levels of mindfulness and levels of materialism (Nagpaul & Pang, 2015; Watson, 2019), indicating the potential for mindfulness to combat otherwise materialistic behaviors. Furthermore, previous research demonstrated gratitude interventions led to lower scores on materialism (Chaplin, et al., 2018), indicating the significance of meditation content on one’s materialistic values. Following literature that meditation increased a person’s suggestibility (Gloede, et al., 2021), experiencing a ‘material abundance’ meditation may promote increased materialistic values. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between mindfulness meditation content and materialistic values through an experimental manipulation. We hypothesized participants who experienced a ‘material abundance’ meditation would show the highest materialistic values, followed by those who experienced a ‘body scan’ meditation, and lastly, those who experienced a ‘gratitude’ meditation would show the lowest materialistic values.

Download

Share

COinS