<p>Relative deprivation derives from a social comparison of individuals or groups discovering that they are inferior to others. Though the link between subjective well-being and relative deprivation has been well documented, the link between some important dimensions of subjective well-being and relative deprivation has been less investigated. To investigate the inner mechanism of relative deprivation, 421 individuals were surveyed by using the Materialism Values Scale, the Personal Relative Deprivation Scale and the Subjective Well-Being Scale. The results were as follows: (1) Materialism positively predicted relative deprivation; (2) mental relaxation played a partial mediating role between materialism and relative deprivation; and (3) emotion regulation moderated the first half pathway of mental relaxation as a mediating effect. The higher the level of emotion regulation, the greater the predictive effect of materialism on mental relaxation. The results revealed a significant effect of individual materialism on relative deprivation, which has important theoretical and practical significance for reduce individual’s relative deprivation.</p>