A Comparative Study of Social Comparison, Materialism, and Subjective Well-Being in the U. S., China, Croatia, and India

As the globalization of markets spreads Western media and consumerism across the world, it raises the question as to whether the arguments proposed by theories of social comparison and cultivation hold true in non-Western societies. In this study, we test the relationships between social comparison associated with television programming, materialism, and subjective well-being among college students from the United States, China, Croatia, and India. Structural equation modeling results reveal that the positive relationship between social comparison and materialism is universal. However, the mediating role of materialism between social comparison and subjective well-being is different between individualistic and collectivistic societies

Cognitive Foundation of Diversity Management: Bridging the Gap between Aspiration and Reality

Lewin’s change model states that the most effective way to implement a change is to reduce restraining forces. In this article, we suggest that cognitive biases are a major restraining force that has been ignored in diversity management research. Drawing upon the theory of rationality/intuition two-system thinking, we explain that the driving forces for workforce diversity are primarily propelled by rational reasoning. Yet, their effects are impeded by the cognitive roadblocks rooted in intuitive thinking. We propose a behavioral design approach to reduce the restraining forces by mitigating perceptual biases and judgment errors in the work context