Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Business Ethics https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04559-5 ORIGINAL PAPER Mindfulness Reduces Avaricious Monetary Attitudes and Enhances Ethical Consumer Beliefs: Mindfulness Training, Timing, and Practicing Matter Elodie Gentina 1  · Carole Daniel 2  · Thomas Li‑Ping Tang 3 Received: 30 August 2019 / Accepted: 11 June 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract Mindfulness—the awareness of the present moment and experiences in daily life—contributes to genuine intrinsic and social- oriented values and curbs materialistic and hedonistic values. In the context of materialism, money is power. Avaricious individuals take risks and are likely to engage in dishonesty. Very little research has investigated the efects of mindfulness in reducing the avaricious monetary attitudes and enhancing ethical consumer beliefs. In this study, we theorize that mindfulness improves consumer ethics directly and indirectly by lowering avaricious monetary attitudes. To test our theory, we collected data from 523 individuals with the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training and 307 individuals without MBSR. The results of our whole sample (N = 830) support our theory. Three multiple-group confrmatory factor analyses (MGCFAs) reveal intriguing discoveries. First, with MBSR training, mindfulness excites consumer ethical beliefs directly and indirectly. Without training, trait mindfulness fails to reduce monetary attitudes—mindfulness training matters. Second, the power of MBSR training holds for participants completing the training within 1 year, but wears of after 1 year—the duration after training matters. Finally, after 1 year, the training retains its strength for those who practice mindfulness, but weakens its power for those who do not—practice matters. We shed light on mindfulness, monetary wisdom, and consumer ethics, in particular, and business ethics, in general. Keywords Mindfulness/state/trait · Buddhism/spiritual/sacred/religious values · Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training/mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) · Consumer ethics · Ethical-unethical beliefs/dishonesty/ deceptive practices · Retail/marketing · Decision-making · Monetary intelligence/wisdom · Avaricious monetary aspiration/ the love of money attitude/greed/meaning of money · Materialism/secular values Introduction Economic development and human prosperity around the world have promoted secular values, materialistic con- sumption, monetary aspirations, and unethical consumer decision-making (Kasser 2002, 2016; Schwartz 1992). To reduce unethical consumer beliefs (Muncy and Vitell 1992), researchers have focused on individuals’ age, gender, or edu- cation (Lu and Lu 2010; Rawwas and Singhapakdi 1998; Robertson et al. 2012), avaricious monetary attitudes (Tang and Chiu 2003; Tang et al. 2018b, c; Vitell et al. 2007),  emotional intelligence (Gentina et al. 2018c; Mayer et al. 2004), Machiavellianism (Rallapalli et al. 1994; Tang and Chen 2008), materialism (Tang and Liu 2012; Tang et al. 2014), and religiosity (Chen and Tang 2013; Forsyth 1992; Tang 2012; Tang and Tang 2010). In a critical analysis of this research stream, Chowdhury (2019) asserts that scholars * Elodie Gentina e.gentina@ieseg.fr Carole Daniel carole.daniel@skema.edu Thomas Li-Ping Tang Thomas.Tang@mtsu.edu 1 IESEG School of Management, 3 Rue de la Digue, 59800 Lille, France 2 SKEMA Business School, Université Côte d’Azur, Avenue Willy Brandt, 59777 Euralille, France 3 Department of Management, Jennings A. Jones College of Business, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, USA