Roles of Indulgence versus Restraint Culture and Ability to Savor the Moment in the Link between Income and Subjective Well-Being

Bin Li, Sijun Wang, Xinyue Cui and Zhen Tang
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Bin Li: School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
Sijun Wang: Department of Marketing and Business Law, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA 60045, USA
Xinyue Cui: School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China
Zhen Tang: Department of Marketing and Business Law, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA 60045, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-23

Abstract: Over the past few decades, various academic fields have reported contradictory findings regarding whether income is positively or negatively associated with subjective well-being (SWB). To reconcile the inconclusive observations, researchers tend to use various mediators and moderators that could explain why income is more strongly associated with SWB for certain groups of people and why income could be negatively associated with SWB for other groups. This study endeavored to first test additional mediation roles of financial satisfaction and a sense of control in the link between income and three related yet distinct measures of SWB: life satisfaction, happiness, and emotional well-being (EWB), at both cross-national and individual levels. We further investigated the direct and moderating impacts of national difference in Indulgence versus Restraint (IVR) cultural orientations over two mediating mechanisms (income → financial satisfaction → SWB; income → a sense of control → SWB) using data from 49,097 participants in the 2017–2020 World Values Survey. Additionally, we conducted a moderated mediation analysis of individual difference in ability to savor the moment (ASM) for these two mediating mechanisms based on surveys with 796 respondents from China. Analyses at both national level and individual level confirmed the partial mediating roles of financial satisfaction and a sense of control. We further find a positive, direct impact of IVR on SWB such that people in more indulgence cultures report a higher SWB than those in more restraint cultures. The mediating effects of financial satisfaction were found to be weaker in more indulgence cultures than in more restraint ones, while the mediating effects of a sense of control remain the same. Finally, we find that individuals’ ASM does not only directly lead to a higher SWB, but also amplifies the mediation impact of financial satisfaction in the link between income and life satisfaction and in the link between income and EWB. Implications of these findings are offered for public policy makers, employers, and citizens, as well as researchers from different fields.

Keywords: subjective well-being; financial satisfaction; a sense of control; indulgence versus restraint; ability to savor the moment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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