More mindfulness, less conspicuous consumption? Evidence from middle-aged Chinese consumers

Abstract

Mindfulness has attracted more and more attention from researchers in many disciplines, including consumer behavior. This study adopted the mindfulness reperceiving model to examine the effect of mindfulness on conspicuous consumption and the mechanism of this effect. Data from middle-aged consumers were collected through a two-wave questionnaire survey with a 3-month interval in China (n = 433). Results of regression-based analyses revealed that mindfulness was negatively associated with conspicuous consumption through lower materialism and lower status anxiety, and the mediating effect of status anxiety was stronger for married men than married women. The current study is a novel attempt to demonstrate the possible relations among mindfulness, materialism, status anxiety, and conspicuous consumption. These findings provide a new perspective for understanding why people who are mindful engage in less conspicuous consumption, and they have heuristic value for future research.