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Personality and Individual Differences 105 (2017) 312–317

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Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Will materialism lead to happiness? A longitudinal analysis of the


mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction
Rong Wang a,c,1, Hongyun Liu a,b,1, Jiang Jiang a,b,⁎, Yue Song a
a
School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
b
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
c
College of Management, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Materialism represents the importance of possessions in one's life. While high materialism ones keep seeking
Received 18 July 2016 happiness from external goals such as money, status, and appearance, self-determination theory (SDT) suggests
Received in revised form 6 October 2016 that basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness should be satisfied in order to expe-
Accepted 8 October 2016
rience well-being. However, materialism, as a type of extrinsic motivation, may forestall the fulfillment of psy-
Available online 14 October 2016
chological needs, and then undermine personal well-being. Drawing on the view of SDT, we conducted a
Keywords:
longitudinal study to test how materialism indirectly influences subjective well-being (SWB) and depression
Materialism via psychological needs satisfaction. Data was collected from Chinese students in three waves (with 6 and
Subjective well-being 12 months in between, respectively), and a total of 565 participants completed all of the three surveys. Using
Depression structural equation modeling, the cross-lagged model revealed that psychological needs satisfaction fully medi-
Psychological needs satisfaction ated the effects of materialism on SWB and depression. Specifically, materialism impairs individuals' psycholog-
ical needs satisfaction, and in turn decreases SWB and increases depression.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Well-being is becoming a popular policy concern in not only eco-


nomically developed but also developing countries. For instance, since
With increasing economic development, we are exposed to mass the economic reforms began, China has launched a series of welfare re-
messages in our daily life telling that money, possessions, status, and forms related to citizens' well-being (Chan, Ngok, and Phillips, 2008).
image are important. That is why in recent decades, materialism has Moreover, throughout the world, people are granting increasing impor-
emerged as a topic of great interest among philosophers, religious tance to subjective well-being (SWB). SWB, referring to both people's
leaders, and economists, as well as researchers; it was even identified affective and cognitive evaluations of their lives, is sometimes labeled
as one of the basic human characteristics together with greed, avarice, as “happiness” (Diener, 2000). Diener (2000) indicated that even in so-
and financial self-interest (Kasser, 2016). cieties that are not fully westernized, participants considered SWB to be
Materialism is related to a set of centrally held beliefs about the im- very important and thought about it frequently.
portance of possessions in one's life (Richins and Dawson, 1992, p. 308), According to Richins and Dawson (1992), highly materialistic indi-
and/or goals to obtain external approval and rewards such as financial viduals have a tendency to consider money and possessions as the cen-
success, social recognition, and an appealing image that are frequently ter of success and life, and the source of happiness. That is to say, they
expressed via money and possessions (Kasser and Ryan, 1993, 1996). are likely to treat possessions as one of the channels to pursue well-
Previous studies have shown clearly that materialism brings many being, since money enables them to live in desirable ways (Richards,
problematic outcomes: it is detrimental for individuals' financial and 2016). Interestingly, there is considerable research evidence indicating
consumption behaviors (Dittmar, Long, and Bond, 2007), interpersonal that materialistic ones may suffer from a lack of happiness due to
relationships (Pieters, 2013), work and educational motivations (Ku, over-concern with possessions (Jiang et al., 2016). Materialistic orienta-
Dittmar, and Banerjee, 2012), and also personal well-being (Jiang, tion is even postulated to necessarily be associated with materialistic
Song, Ke, Wang, and Liu, 2016). depression (Azibo, 2013).
Self-determination theory (SDT) provides one possible explanation
for the negative effect of materialism on well-being from the perspec-
⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, No.19 tive of needs. In SDT, needs specify “innate psychological nutriments
Xinjiekouwai Street, Haidian District, Beijing 100875, China.
E-mail addresses: wangrong815@szu.edu.cn (R. Wang), hyliu@bnu.edu.cn (H. Liu),
that are essential for ongoing psychological growth, integrity, and
jjiang@bnu.edu.cn (J. Jiang), songyue0925@gmail.com (Y. Song). well-being” (Deci and Ryan, 2000, p. 229). SDT maintains that autono-
1
Author note: Rong Wang and Hongyun Liu have the equal contribution to this paper. my, competence, and relatedness are three basic psychological needs:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.10.014
0191-8869/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
R. Wang et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 105 (2017) 312–317 313

autonomy involves perceiving that activities are endorsed by or congru- collected. After finishing each survey, participants received a gift
ent with one's integrated sense of self; competence is fulfilled when de- (costs around 5 RMB) as a token of appreciation.
sired effects and outcomes are obtained successfully; and relatedness
pertains to belongingness and closeness with others and the environ- 2.2. Measures
ment (Deci and Ryan, 2014; Reis, Sheldon, Gable, Roscoe, and Ryan,
2000). Basic psychological needs facilitate well-being and they deter- 2.2.1. Materialism
mine to some extent whether people will display mental health or ex- Materialism was measured by the Material Values Scale (Richins and
perience happiness (Deci and Ryan, 2000). When people place priority Dawson, 1992), which includes 18 items belonging to three dimensions
on financial success, popularity, appearance, and other extrinsic motiva- (success, centrality, and happiness). Participants rated all the items on a
tions, they are likely to ignore the inherent satisfaction of basic psycho- five-point scale from 1 “strongly disagree” to 5 “strongly agree.” Example
logical needs, leading to a decrease in well-being and an increase in item is “Some of the most important achievements in life include ac-
psychological problems (Vansteenkiste et al., 2007). quiring material possessions”. Higher scores indicate higher levels of
The negative association between materialism and well-being, as materialism. The Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.69 for Wave 1, 0.73
well as the mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction served in for Wave 2, and 0.75 for Wave 3.
their relation have been proposed by previous researchers (Dittmar,
Bond, Hurst, and Kasser, 2014). However, the empirical evidence is rel-
2.2.2. Psychological needs satisfaction
atively limited, or, initial studies simply relied on cross-sectional data
Basic Need Satisfaction in Relationships Scale (BNS) (La Guardia,
(Chen, Yao, and Yan, 2014; Tsang, Carpenter, Roberts, Frisch, and
Ryan, Couchman, and Deci, 2000) was used. It has 9 items and three
Carlisle, 2014). Mediation is a causal chain involving at least two causal
subscales, that is, autonomy, competence, and relatedness, based on a
relations. When inferences about causality are derived from cross-sec-
seven-point scale ranging from 1 “completely contradictory to reality”
tional data, they are often fallacious (Cole and Maxwell, 2003). It is dif-
to 7 “completely conforms to reality.” Example item includes “I feel free
ficult to tell whether the emphasis on materialistic values/goals impairs
to be whom I am”. An overall score of need fulfillment was obtained
psychological needs satisfaction, or the thwarted needs satisfaction mo-
by averaging all of the nine items. Higher scores represent higher levels
tivates focal persons to pursue materialism. For example, researchers
of satisfaction of psychological needs. In the current sample, the
have found that enhancing interpersonal security can reduce valuing
Cronbach's α coefficients of the whole scale were 0.81 for Wave 1,
possessions (Clark et al., 2011). Therefore, it is believed that in the
0.80 for Wave 2, and 0.80 for Wave 3.
area of materialism, improvements in study designs are warranted
(Kasser, 2016): longitudinal studies will make contributions to
2.2.3. Subjective well-being
uncovering the causal relations between materialism and well-being
Following previous research (e.g., Hayes and Joseph, 2003), SWB
outcomes, and their underlying mechanisms.
was measured by the 5-item Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)
By employing a three-wave longitudinal design, the purpose of this
(Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin, 1985). Participants indicated
study aims at exploring how materialism links to personal well-being
their agreement about each item on a scale from 1 “strongly disagree”
via psychological needs satisfaction from the perspective of SDT. In-
to 7 “strongly agree.” Higher scores show higher levels of life satisfaction.
spired by the results of Dittmar and colleagues' meta-analysis, we
An example item from this scale is “In most ways my life is close to my
chose one positive (i.e., SWB) and one negative (i.e., depression) indica-
ideal.” The SWLS is a trait-like measure yielding desirable psychometric
tor to represent well-being (Dittmar et al., 2014). We expected that psy-
properties (Diener et al., 1985). In this sample, the Cronbach's α coeffi-
chological needs satisfaction would mediate relations between
cients of SWLS were 0.79 for Wave 1, 0.83 for Wave 2, and 0.86 for Wave
materialism and both SWB and depression. Specifically, when people
3.
prioritize materialistic values/goals, they will experience relatively low
satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Then, they will hold low levels
of SWB and high levels of depression. 2.2.4. Depression
The short form of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale
2. Method (CES-D) (Cole, Rabin, Smith, and Kaufman, 2004) was employed. It in-
cludes 10 items such as “I felt fearful”, which belong to 4 dimensions.
2.1. Participants and procedure Participants indicated how often they had felt these ways during the
past week on a three-point scale anchored from 0 “rarely or none of
Our participants were undergraduate students from a university in the time (less than 1 day)” to 3 “most or all of the time (5–7 days).” Higher
Eastern China. A three-wave cross-lagged design was used, and the scores indicate higher levels of depression. In this sample, the
sample size of each wave was 908 in Wave 1 (392 males, 488 females, Cronbach's α coefficients were 0.74 for Wave 1, 0.74 for Wave 2, and
28 unspecified; Mage = 19.42 years, SDage = 1.08 years); 657 in Wave 0.80 for Wave 3.
2 (262 males, 395 females; Mage = 19.91 years, SDage = 1.04 years);
and 680 in Wave 3 (256 males, 424 females; Mage = 20.79 years, 3. Results
SDage = 1.04 years). In total, 565 students (204 males, 361 females)
ranging in age from 17 to 23 years (M = 19.34 years, SD = Missing data (e.g., wave nonresponse), as a part of longitudinal data
1.06 years) completed all of the three waves. Compared with the first set, should be accounted for in data analysis in order to draw valid con-
wave, the response rate of this study was 62.22%. The distribution of clusions. Moreover, we found the significant gender (χ2 = 45.51, df = 1,
participants' yearly family income was shown as follows: b 3000 RMB p b 0.001) and age differences (Age Time 1: t = −3.61, p b 0.001; Age
(2.1%); 3001 to 6000 RMB (5.0%); 6001 to 10,000 RMB (12.4%); Time 2: t = − 2.78, p b 0.001; Age Time 3: t = − 2.94, p b 0.001) be-
10,001 to 30,000 RMB (24.8%); 30,001 to 50,000 RMB (21.5%); 50,001 tween participants who dropped out and participants who continued
to 100,000 RMB (16.7%); 100,001 to 150,000 RMB (6.8%); 150,001 to in the study, showing our data were not randomly missing. Therefore,
200,000 RMB (2.6%); N200,001 RMB (2.0%); and missing value (6.1%). the Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) estimation approach
In each wave, participants were required to complete all the scales to was employed to deal with missing data (Little and Rubin, 2002;
measure the target variables, and to provide their demographic infor- Muthén, Kaplan, and Hollis, 1987). FIML replaces missing data with
mation. The interval between Wave 1 and Wave 2 was 6 months, and probable values by using the linear relationship between the variable
between Wave 2 and Wave 3 was 12 months. We did not explain the with missing data and other variables in the model. Compared with
purpose of this study to participants until the survey of Wave 3 was other techniques such as listwise deletion, pairwise deletion, and
314 R. Wang et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 105 (2017) 312–317

similar response pattern imputation, FIML estimates have shown to be Table 2


unbiased and more efficient (for details, see Enders and Bandalos, Results for analyses of invariance.

2001). Factor and model χ2 df Δχ2 Δdf RMSEA CFI TLI SRMR

Materialism
3.1. Descriptive analyses Model la: Equal form 18.17 15 0.02 1.00 1.00 0.02
Model lb: Equal factor 24.73 21 6.56 6 0.01 1.00 1.00 0.04
loading
Table 1 shows the means, standard deviations, and inter-correla- Psychological needs
tions of the measured variables. At each time point, materialism was satisfaction
negatively related to psychological needs satisfaction (Time 1: Model 2a: Equal form 67.80 16 0.06 0.98 0.96 0.03
Model 2b: Equal factor 72.70 22 4.90 6 0.05 0.98 0.97 0.05
r = − 0.30, p b 0.001; Time 2: r = − 0.28, p b 0.001; Time 3:
loading
r = −0.24, p b 0.001), and subjective well-being (Time 1: r = −0.27, Depression
p b 0.001; Time 2: r = − 0.25, p b 0.001; Time 3: r = − 0.28, Model 4a: Equal form 146.26 39 0.06 0.98 0.96 0.04
p b 0.001), but it was positively related to depression (Time 1: r = Model 4b: Equal factor 178.72 47 32.46 8 0.06 0.97 0.96 0.04
0.27, p b 0.001; Time 2: r = 0.27, p b 0.001; Time 3: r = 0.25, loading

p b 0.001). Moreover, psychological needs satisfaction was found to be Note. RMSEA = Root-Mean-Square Error of Approximation; CFI = Comparative Fit Index;
positively correlated with subjective well-being (Time 1: r = 0.33, TLI = Tucker-Lewis Index; SRMR = Standardized Root-Mean-Square Residual.
p b 0.001; Time 2: r = 0.33, p b 0.001; Time 3: r = 0.43, p b 0.001),
and negatively correlated with depression (Time 1: r = − 0.61,
Time 1 to Psychological Needs Satisfaction Time 2 and the path from
p b 0.001; Time 2: r = −0.62, p b 0.001; Time 3: r = −0.68, p b 0.001).
Psychological Needs Satisfaction Time 2 to SWB/Depression Time 3,
were examined. It is worth mentioning that CLPM should contain differ-
3.2. Testing for mediation (cross-lagged longitudinal mediation model) ent types of indirect effects depending on the number of waves of mea-
surement, and the total indirect effect (i.e., the sum of all time-specific
Considering that materialism, psychological needs satisfaction and indirect effects) together with time-specific indirect effects should be
depression are multi-dimensional variables, we tested the longitudinal reported. A three-wave longitudinal design was employed in this re-
invariance prior to examining the hypotheses (see Table 2). Specifically, search, so there was only one type of time-specific indirect effect.
for each of aforementioned variables, two sets of models (i.e., Models -a As shown in Table 3, the fit indices of the two models were satisfy-
and Models -b) were built. In Models -a, the structure of construct was ing. The indirect effects were significant in both Model 1 (indirect ef-
the same in three waves; in Models -b, factor loadings were constrained fect = − 0.05, SE = 0.02, p b 0.05) and Model 2 (indirect effect =
to be equal across three waves. The chi-square tests were employed to 0.06, SE = 0.03, p b 0.05). Moreover, as shown in Fig. 2a and b, the direct
compare Models -a and Models -b. For materialism and psychological effect from Materialism Time 1 to SWB Time 3 was −0.09 (SE = 0.13,
needs satisfaction, the results were statistically insignificant at the p N 0.05), and from Materialism Time 1 to Depression Time 3 was
0.05 level, and for depression, the result was statistically insignificant −0.02 (SE = 0.05, p N 0.05). All the above findings supported that psy-
at the 0.01 level, suggesting invariance of factor loadings. Furthermore, chological needs satisfaction fully mediated the relations between ma-
all the other model fit indices also keeps consistent across times, terialism and SWB, and between materialism and depression.
supporting the longitudinal invariance.
Next, based on the recommendations from Cole and Maxwell
(2003), and Selig and Preacher (2009), we used structural equation 4. Discussion
modeling (SEM) to examine whether psychological needs satisfaction
mediated the effects of materialism on subjective well-being and de- Some articles have hypothesized that the satisfaction of basic psy-
pression. Fig. 1 illustrates the cross-lagged panel models (CLPM) tested chological needs is a mediational variable that may explain the inverse
in the current study. Materialism, psychological needs satisfaction and relationship between materialism and well-being (Diener and
depression were treated as latent variables. For each variable, the resid- Biswas-Diener, 2002; Dittmar et al., 2014; Kasser and Ahuvia, 2002).
uals over time were allowed to be correlated with each other. However, this potential explanation has been supported by few longitu-
The time-specific indirect effects from Materialism Time 1 to SWB/ dinal studies. In the present study, we employed a three-wave longitu-
Depression Time 3, namely, the product of the path from Materialism dinal design to clarify the causal relations among materialism,

Table 1
Descriptive statistics and variable inter-correlations.

Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1 T1 Materialism
2 T1 SWB −0.27
3 T1 PNS −0.30 0.33
4 T1 Depression 0.27 −0.36 −0.61
5 T2 Materialism 0.65 −0.19 −0.26 0.20
6 T2 SWB −0.19 0.55 0.24 −0.27 −0.25
7 T2 PNS −0.21 0.26 0.56 −0.43 −0.28 0.33
8 T2 Depression 0.21 −0.29 −0.43 0.56 0.27 −0.38 −0.62
9 T3 Materialism 0.51 −0.23 −0.24 0.26 0.64 −0.22 −0.22 0.27
10 T3 SWB −0.19 0.53 0.26 −0.28 −0.15 0.60 0.27 −0.27 −0.28
11 T3 PNS −0.20 0.29 0.51 −0.40 −0.26 0.31 0.66 −0.48 −0.24 0.43
12 T3 Depression 0.18 −0.27 −0.36 0.47 0.18 −0.28 −0.46 0.52 0.25 −0.39 −0.68
M 2.81 3.86 4.94 0.87 2.86 4.00 4.96 0.85 2.88 4.05 4.91 0.88
SD 0.37 1.15 0.82 0.41 0.39 1.20 0.76 0.39 0.40 1.24 0.78 0.43

Note. All correlation coefficients are significant at the 0.001 probability level.
T1 = Time 1; T2 = Time 2; T3 = Time 3.
SWB = subjective well-being; PNS = psychological needs satisfaction.
R. Wang et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 105 (2017) 312–317 315

Fig. 1. The cross-lagged model examined in the current study. Note. PNS = psychological needs satisfaction; SWB = subjective well-being. The product of the path from materialism at
Time 1 to psychological needs satisfaction at Time 2 and the path from psychological needs satisfaction at Time 2 to SWB/depression at Time 3 indicates the time specific indirect effect (i.e.,
the total indirect effect in three-wave longitudinal design).

psychological needs satisfaction, and personal well-being. In line with Beyond cross sectional designs, longitudinal designs enable re-
our hypothesis, we found that materialism indirectly influenced SWB searchers to examine mediation effects in a more rigorous manner
and depression via psychological needs satisfaction. (Cole and Maxwell, 2003). Admittedly, until the present, there has
Materialism is widely viewed as an important life value or goal been only one longitudinal study exploring how materialism relates to
(Richins and Dawson, 1992). Values conflict theory posits that material- well-being via psychological needs satisfaction. Kasser et al. (2014) in
ism falls within the cluster of self-enhancement values (e.g., achieve- their Study 2 found that over a two-year period when participants be-
ment and power), and stands in relative conflict with collective- came less (or more) materialistic, they reported increased (or de-
oriented or self-transcendence values such as family, community, and creased) satisfaction of psychological needs, which fully accounted for
religiosity (Burroughs and Rindfleisch, 2002). By investigating a group the reported increase (or decrease) in well-being. However, considering
of undergraduates from fifteen cultures, Grouzet et al. (2005) have their findings, our research still makes several contributions. First, longi-
also revealed that popularity, image, and financial success, are extrinsic tudinal data from three waves rather than two waves was collected in
goals, opposite to community, affiliation, and self-acceptance goals. the current study, since Collins, Graham, and Flaherty (1998) stated
According to SDT, autonomy, competence, and relatedness are es- that three waves were necessary to test mediation. Second, advanced
sential for the well-being of all individuals regardless of culture, and statistical techniques (i.e., SEM) were employed to test hypotheses in-
they are more likely to be satisfied by the pursuit of intrinsic rather stead of regression. The SEM approach estimates everything at the
than extrinsic goals (Deci and Ryan, 2000). When individuals place same time, while the causal-steps approach assumes independent
too much priority and importance on materialism, there are two possi- equations and does not provide a quantification of the indirect effect
ble outcomes: intrinsic goals are deprioritized in order to avoid value (Zhao, Lynch, and Chen, 2010). Third, we recruited a larger sample
conflicts and incongruent cognitions that may lead to psychological ten- (565 vs. 147) and used different operationalizations of materialism
sion; intrinsic goals are “crowded out” or ignored since attention has (Material Values Scale vs. Aspiration Index). More importantly, besides
been paid to popularity, image, and financial success (Burroughs and SWB we also measured participants' levels of depression as one of the
Rindfleisch, 2002; Kasser, 2016). indicators of personal well-being. Thus, this research helps to shed
Indeed, previous research has provided direct or indirect evidence light on the influence process through which materialism undermines
from different areas to show that materialism is tied closely to thwarted well-being, providing further evidence for the related assumptions of
psychological needs. For example, materialism may do harm to the ac- SDT.
tors' autonomous motives: materialistic children tend to learn to serve
performance goals rather than mastery goals (e.g., self-growth) (Ku,
Dittmar, and Banerjee, 2014). Competence is experienced when there 4.1. Limitations and future directions
are opportunities to exercise and express one's capacities (Ryan and
La Guardia, 2000). However, Ku et al. (2012) found that earlier endorse- The current study has some limitations that are worth mentioning.
ment of materialistic values predicted later deterioration of school per- Guided by SDT, we explored the process of influence from materialism
formance. Materialism is also associated with negative social attitudes to well-being via psychological needs satisfaction. Other variables are
toward other people. It has been shown that materialism decreases also likely to mediate such a relation (Christopher, Saliba, and
helping behaviors among youth volunteers (Briggs, Landry, and Wood, Deadmarsh, 2009). For example, Sirgy (1998) has pointed out that ma-
2007), and materialism can even foster social isolation, increasing the terialism may result in lower financial satisfaction, and then lower fi-
sense of loneliness (Pieters, 2013). nancial satisfaction will spill over into satisfaction with other life
domains, leading to diminished well-being. Therefore, further research
is encouraged to delineate how materialism undermines personal
well-being according to different theoretical frameworks.
Table 3
In terms of psychological needs satisfaction, to simplify the model
Fit indices of structural models.
and analytical process, we aggregated and averaged all the scale items
Model DV χ2 df CFI TLI RMSEA to obtain an overall score of need fulfillment. Future researchers can at-
Model 1 Subjective well-being 601.48 269 0.93 0.92 0.04 tempt to examine the relative contributions of autonomy, competence,
Model 2 Depression 1340.35 534 0.90 0.90 0.05 and relatedness. Moreover, SWB and depression were chosen as two in-
Note. CFI = Comparative Fit Index; TLI = Tucker–Lewis Index; RMSEA = Root-Mean- dicators of well-being in this research. It would also be interesting to
Square Error of Approximation. take eudaimonic well-being (i.e., the pursuit of pleasure and the
316 R. Wang et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 105 (2017) 312–317

Fig. 2. a. The longitudinal mediation model of materialism, psychological needs satisfaction and subjective well-being. Note. PNS = psychological needs satisfaction; SWB = subjective
well-being. The unstandardized coefficients were reported; numbers shown in parentheses are standard errors (SE). Materialism, PNS and Depression were treated as latent variables.
**p b 0.01; ***p b 0.001. b. The longitudinal mediation model of materialism, psychological needs satisfaction and depression. Note. PNS = psychological needs satisfaction. The
unstandardized coefficients were reported; numbers shown in parentheses are standard errors (SE). Materialism, PNS and Depression were treated as latent variables. *p b 0.05;
**p b 0.01; ***p b 0.001.

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Heightened interpersonal security diminishes the monetary value of possessions.
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