19 Ugly Things You Didn’t Know about Materialism
We all know that money can’t buy happiness; everybody says so. And as it so happens, everybody is right; tons of research proves it. But did you realize that a highly materialistic lifestyle could actually damage your mind and body?
Yes, I realize this sounds like a load of leftist propaganda (despite the fact that I’m neither leftist nor a propagandist), so let’s talk about the cold hard facts.
The Harmful Impact of Materialism
In 2002, Psychologist Tim Kasser published a book called The High Price of Materialism that goes to great lengths to lay out the relationship between unhappiness and materialism. What he found may surprise you.
There is a strong positive correlation between materialism and several mental and physical maladies. In other words, people who pursue money and things at the expense of relationships and other meaningful endeavors are more likely to suffer from these 19 problems:
1. Unhappiness
2. Envy and jealousy
3. Depression
4. Social anxiety
5. Passive-aggressiveness
6. Short attention span
7. Poor impulse control
8. Feelings of being controlled
9. Mistrust of others
10. Tendency to treat others as objects for personal gain
11. Shorter, more conflicted relationships
12. Feelings of social alienation
13. Less desire for equality
14. Less generosity
15. Narcissism
16. Substance abuse
17. Poor self-actualization
18. Less enjoyment of daily activities
19. Poor physical health
Of course, correlation does not imply causation (let’s be clear on that point), but the correlation is real nonetheless, and it’s easy to see how materialism does more to perpetuate than remediate the problems in that list.
The Unsatisfying Earn and Spend Treadmill
Kasser’s research reveals a group of people who believe money, image, status, and beauty will make them happy, so they turn to these extrinsic factors as an addict turns to heroin. And like the addict, the mindless consumer soon discovers that his high was short-lived and ultimately unsatisfying; furthermore, looking for happiness in all the wrong places has kept him from solving his real problems.
Research has consistently shown that once you have enough money to buy the basics, an increase in money and material things does not provide an increase in happiness. In other words, if you can afford the trappings of a middle class life, more material and money is usually not the answer, and by chasing it, you actually push yourself farther away from the happiness you so desire.
What does ‘Materialistic’ Mean?
According to Kasser, a materialistic person values extrinsic factors (image, status, prestige, beauty, and popularity) more than intrinsic factors (being a good person, behaving authentically, having honor).
Few people admit (or even realize) that they value designer clothes more than personal integrity, which is why the truest test of materialism lies in lifestyle evaluation:
- Are you a wage-slave, working at a job you hate so you can afford things you don’t need?
- Are you more focused on remodeling your kitchen than developing relationships?
- Are you more interested in how you’ll look in a bathing suit than in your actual health?
Only you can decide whether you’ve crossed the line, but it’s a line worth watching.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not foolish enough to completely disregard the importance of extrinsic factors, since we’d be hard pressed to function without them. But when the shiny exterior of things becomes the most important part of our lives, we’ve got a big problem.
Materialism: an Inward Battle, not an Outward one
I want to be clear: I place no blame and pass no judgment. There is nothing inherently evil about advertising, media, consumption, or image-consciousness. I spend so much time talking about consumerism on this Web site not because I hate consumers (or else I’d have to hate myself), but rather because I feel a deep sympathy for all the people in modern countries who have sacrificed meaning and relationships on the alter of long work hours and shiny things. There is more to life than granite countertops and plasma televisions.
Thought Exercise: I will leave you now with a simple exercise, intended to be food for thought. The next time you sit down to watch television, pay attention to how often you are exposed to images and ideas that make you crave something (body image, status, cars, houses, the babe of the week) that you simply do not need. That feeling of “I want that” is where it all starts.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with buying stuff we don’t need. I do it all the time, and I’ll bet you do too. The real trouble with people who fit Kasser’s definition of materialistic is that they value stuff more than people, status more than accomplishment, money more than fulfillment, and beauty more than health.
That sort of thinking is an emotional dead end.
Some researchers believe that our tendency to consume more than we need can be traced back to our earliest hunter-gatherer proclivities, but if we become aware of the consumption impulse we may learn to control it, and in the process, we just might learn that it is possible to find the meaning and happiness we crave in the form of jobs we believe in and people we love.
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Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 10:44 am under
Great article, John, as always. Its a consant struggle to focus on what matters in life in this crazy consumer culture we live in. Buying things we don’t need is good for the economy (so they say) but sure doesn’t do much for the soul. I downsized my life recently so I can work at a job I enjoy. I can’t afford trips to Bermuda anymore but getting out of the rat race was the best thing I ever did.
Keep up the good work!
September 18th, 2007 at 10:49 amVery good article, and thank you for mentioning honor… it often seems like it is an almost lost concept, though it is still of huge importance to some of us.
September 18th, 2007 at 12:13 pmSusan: I’m so happy to hear about your successful downsizing. And thanks for the words of encouragement.
Jason: I’m glad you enjoyed the article, and you’re right; it sure does seem like honor doesn’t get as much play as it perhaps once did.
September 18th, 2007 at 2:16 pmA lot of people talk about materialism and how it is bad, but not a lot of people really try to define it or to expound too much upon what to do in its stead, and i believe those to be very important points to cover.
Materialism is bad, sure, but i think just saying that is too general of a statement as per making money. Like, is it alright for me to work a career to make a lot of money, but instead of spending it “frivolously” (key word here), saving it and putting it into investments so as to meet a lifetime goal of retiring in a certain amount of time?
Also, “Hate” is a strong word. People should really think about their jobs, and whether they really “Hate” their job and it sucks the life out of them, or if they just have some things they do that they don’t like or are boring. Every job has those types of things from time to time, get over it. I’d make a point to show that the “earning” part of materialism isn’t the problem, since money is great and can greatly improve our lives. It’s the frivolous spending that we do, the continual consumption we’ve unfortunately been force fed since children, that we need to overcome, and to learn how to budget, invest, and stay out of debt. And, as an aside to that, there is one message I’d love EVERYONE to take time to consider if they don’t already: “Live within (or below) your means”. If more people could just live by that rule (especially below, so as to be able to save money and invest), we’d have a lot less debt problems as a country.
Hope that helps! ;)
September 18th, 2007 at 5:25 pmChris, first of all, thanks for the thoughtful comment.
Regarding your points, I’m not sure if you’re refuting the article or making general observations. Assuming you were refuting, here’s my crack at a response:
1) Definition of Materialism: According to the definition used in Kasser’s research, a highly materialistic person (as stated in the article) is one who values the extrinsic more than the intrinsic. That’s the definition that’s relevant to this article, although other definitions may be more suited to other discussions.
2) I refer to jobs that we “hate” for the same reason that I use phrases like “life is short.” People generally get the point. As David Fincher once said, if we spend too much time worrying about all the ways in which our words might be perceived, we’ll never have the courage to say anything at all.
3) I agree with you that frivolous spending is a major cause of unhappiness. Furthermore, the problem isn’t just “frivolous spending,” it’s “frivolous everything.” Kasser’s definition of materialism asserts that a materialistic person has fewer feelings of self-actualization and autonomy and greater feelings of being controlled. In other words, one of the biggest detriments to individual happiness posed by materialism is the feeling of coercion.
4) Of course, generally speaking, I agree with you that money is not the problem. The problem is that many of us place far too much stock in the happiness that money will bring. If you make a decent middle class living, research has shown that every additional dollar added to your base salary will yield an ever-decreasing amount of additional happiness. In other words, beyond a middle class wage, money is not the answer and is a terrible predictor of career satisfaction.
5) Your advice to live below your means is right on, for lots of reasons.
6) The topic of what to do “in place of” materialistic pursuits is the subject of many books, and Kasser’s research (and lots of other’s) suggests most of us would be well served by focusing more on activities and purchases that satisfy our own sense of self-actualization and automony and less on superficial, external pressures. That’s the 6 dollar answer. The 10,000 dollar answer would take about 200 pages.
Thanks for the exchange, as always, Chris.
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September 18th, 2007 at 10:19 pm“Kasser’s research reveals a group of people who believe money, image, status, and beauty will make them happy, so they turn to these extrinsic factors as an addict turns to heroin.”
Unfortunately, Kasser’s sample is extremely small and hardly diverse. Again, there is correlation but causation is still a long shot.
“Research has consistently shown that once you have enough money to buy the basics, an increase in money and material things does not provide an increase in happiness.”
I’d say that is more of an assertion rather than a verifiable fact. There are people who would love to travel the world, take a lot of time off work to do personal projects, and other things that would require a lot of money that would otherwise be inaccessible with a middle-class job and middle-class wages.
In the end, the real rub is that there is no solution to happiness. Just as there is no one solution for one person, there can’t also be one problem (materialism) which applies to everyone’s problems. However, I think people will agree: Money, and lots of it, can very easily lend itself to more freedom. I’m sure we can all agree that more freedom has been, at least half the time, equated with happiness.
September 18th, 2007 at 10:52 pmMarc,
Thank you for your thoughtful and articulate response. A couple of points:
1) The assertions in this article were not based merely upon Kasser’s research, but upon Kasser’s book, which references countless studies conducted in more diverse environments than Kasser’s own.
2) Although critics of Kasser are quick to point out that he used college students for much of his polling, they often fail to acknowledge that he also conducted his research with a much broader population and found similar results.
3) Causation is always a long shot with any soft science. I find it helpful to look for common threads and big picture validations over a variety of studies.
4) While I agree that most people probably believe that more money equals more freedom, and that more freedom equals more happiness, I humbly suggest an alternative view. Once a person has so much money that he doesn’t need anymore, he finds he has to deal with the hardest challenge of all: himself. In addition, money doesn’t always increase freedom; sometimes chasing it has the opposite effect.
5) Of course, I agree whole-heartedly with your fabulous observation that there is no singular, all-encompassing cause of unhappiness and no one true answer for finding its opposite. Happiness, at the end of the day, is a personal exploration. After all, statistics apply much more readily to the heard than to the life of an individual cow. In other words…
6) Just because the research suggests that most people are not made significantly more happy by achieving fabulous amounts of wealth doesn’t mean that you, as an individual, will not disagree strongly once you’ve become rich. The problem, though, is that everyone believes that he is the exception to the rule: the myth of fingerprints, and all that.
Thanks for the exchange, Marc.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:08 pm[…] consumerism is the bane of our times. An article titled 19 Ugly Things You Didn’t Know About Materialism aptly asks these […]
September 18th, 2007 at 11:44 pmHappiness is a state of mind, nothing more. One can be just as happy being a homeless wanderer without a single possession, as one could be rich, free and without a care. If it takes you money to reach that state of mind(Which I doubt many will achieve.) then go for it.
——————–
“So, how do we find happiness in this world? One message from Buddhism is the deep truth that one finds happiness by seeking the happiness of others. There is no other way. This isn’t a soft option. To love is to give endlessly, to fail repeatedly, to see the weaknesses in oneself on a daily basis, to fail and to fail again… but then to get up and try again.”
Source:
September 18th, 2007 at 11:46 pmhttp://buddhism.about.com/cs/fournobletruths/a/Happiness.htm
Jesse, thank you for taking time to respond.
I completely agree that happiness is a state of mind, and your suggestion that it can often be controlled through mental processes is very wise.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case. For example, if you have a wild dog chewing on your leg, I would politely suggest that you might be better off removing the dog from your leg than trying to convince yourself to be happy in spite of it. I’m not making a joke, merely pointing out that sometimes the surest path to happiness is changing our point of view, and sometimes it’s changing our circumstances.
It’s interesting that you mentioned religion. Many religions, as you may know, refute the importance of material possessions. The conflict between the pursuit of riches and the concern for others is a bit of traditional wisdom that dates back thousands of years to some of our most influential texts — and it’s also supported by research. That’s not to say that rich people aren’t charitable; that’s not what I mean at all (just so we’re clear). What I mean is that those who value extrinsic factors more than intrinsic factors tend to be less understanding of others and less concerned with the welfare of others, according to research. Everything on a Bell Curve, of course.
Thanks again for your intelligent thoughts, Jesse.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:56 pmFocusing on extrinsic factors is, by definition, focusing less on people, and more on things. So it is only common sense that people who do so will be less concerned or understanding of others. They are even less concerned and understanding of themselves.
Also, part of the reason why each dollar brings with it a decreasing amount of happiness is at least partially proportionate increase. If you have ten million dollars, ten thousand dollars is one tenth of one percent of your wealth… increasing your wealth by one tenth of one percent does bring a little happiness, but not a vast amount. If you only have ten thousand dollars, and your wealth increases by ten thousand, you have just had your wealth increase one hundred percent. Having your wealth double brings quite a bit of happiness.
I think there is also a difference because, as Marc says, money affects your freedom. On the other hand, freedom comes in levels, and once you’ve reached the top level (basically where you no longer NEED to work), additional money can’t take you any higher… you’re already at the top. So that again limits the happiness brought by additional money.
But I think the biggest issue with each dollar bringing less happiness is the proportion issue.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:33 amI have a lot of agreement with your post, Jason. Two points worth considering:
1) Middle-class seems to be an important financial milestone in terms of happiness, perhaps in part because it allows people to afford the things that most people consider to be essential.
2) For those few who are so rich that they don’t have to work, the questions of self-actualization at the top of Maslow’s pyramid are the toughest ones to answer.
And for the sake of clarity, Kasser’s materialism isn’t the focus on things over people; it’s the focus on outward over inward, exterior over interior. It just so happens that outwardly focused individuals are less concerned about people. And yes, I agree that’s common sense — If a person isn’t concerned with his own internal motivations, it stands to reason that he won’t be concerned with yours either, as you wisely pointed out. If you’re interested in learning more, the book is worth a read.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:42 amBy the way, John, you’re almost in the top 10,000 on Technorati… congratulations!
September 19th, 2007 at 4:19 pm[…] valuing image and beauty more than intrinsic factors, such as honor and self-actualization, leads nowhere but down. There’s nothing wrong with being beautiful, just as there’s nothing wrong with being rich; the […]
September 20th, 2007 at 10:48 amHey, thanks for the update, Jason!
September 20th, 2007 at 10:50 am[…] from previous articles, some people probably think I’ve got some secret agenda against rich people. So please allow me […]
September 26th, 2007 at 1:57 am[…] you are currently suffering from existing medical conditions, it is important to determine if there has been an aggravation of your condition. This could lead to the symptoms of heart […]
January 14th, 2008 at 11:03 amIn my experience, it’s the structure of the middle-class jobs that are limiting, not the wage level. I have pretty simple wants and earn enough to satisfy many of them. If I were able to earn exactly the same amount of money on a different schedule, I could travel a lot more than I do!
April 21st, 2008 at 3:24 pm