Economic materialism
Economic materialism can be described as either a personal attitude that attaches importance to acquiring and consuming material goods or as a logistical analysis of how physical resources are shaped into consumable products.[clarification needed]
The use of the term "materialistic" to describe a person's personality or a society tends to have a negative or critical connotation. Also called acquisitiveness, it is often associated with a
The definition of materialism coincides with how and why resources to extract and create the material object are logistically formed. "Success materialism" can be considered a pragmatic form of
Definition
Materialism as a personality trait
Russell W. Belk conceptualizes materialism to include three original personality traits:[2]
- Nongenerosity – an unwillingness to give or share possessions with others.
- Envy – desire for other people's possessions.
- Possessiveness – concern about loss of possessions and a desire for the greater control of ownership.
Materialism as a value
Acquisition centrality is when acquiring material
Growing materialism in the western world
In the
In one survey of Americans, over 7% said they would seriously consider murdering someone for $3 million and 65% of respondents said they would spend a year on a deserted island to earn $1 million.[7]
A survey conducted by the University of California and the American Council on Education on 250,000 new college students found that their main reason for attending college was to gain material wealth. From the 1970s to the late 1990s, the percentage of students who stated that their main reason for going to college was to develop a meaningful life philosophy dropped from 73% to 44%, while the purpose of obtaining financial gain rose from about 44% to 75%.[8]
Materialism and happiness
A series of studies have observed a correlation between materialism and
Using two measures of subjective well-being, one study found that materialism was negatively related to happiness, meaning that people who tended to be more materialistic were also less happy with themselves and their lives.[15] When people derive a lot of pleasure from buying things and believe that acquiring material possessions are important life goals, they tend to have lower life satisfaction scores.[3] Materialism also positively correlates with more serious psychological issues like depression, narcissism and paranoia.[16][17]
However, the relationship between materialism and happiness is more complex. The direction of the relationship can go both ways. Individual materialism can cause diminished well-being or lower levels of well-being can cause people to be more materialistic in an effort to get external gratification.[18]
In many
Instead, research shows that purchases made with the intention of acquiring life experiences, such as going on a family vacation, make people happier than purchases made to acquire material possessions such as an expensive car. Even just thinking about experiential purchases makes people happier than thinking about material ones.[20] A survey conducted by researchers at the Binghamton University School of Management found differences between what is called “success materialism” and “happiness materialism.” People who see materialism as a source of success tend to be more motivated to work hard and drive to succeed in order to make their lives better as opposed to people who see materialism as a source of happiness. However neither mindset accounts for other factors, such as income or status, that can affect happiness.[21]
See also
- Anti-consumerism
- Moonlight clan
- Status symbol
- Consumerism
- Productivism
- Capitalism
- Greed
- Culture
- Workism
- Positional good
- Post-materialism
- Material feminism
- Economic inequality
- Identity performance
- Happiness economics
- Reduction (complexity)
- Conspicuous consumption
- Keeping up with the Joneses
References
- ^ Banerjee, Bobby; McKeage, Kim (1994). "How Green Is My Value: Exploring the Relationship Between Environmentalism and Materialism". Advances in Consumer Research. 21: 147–152. Archived from the original on 13 April 2016.
- ^ doi:10.1086/208515.
- ^ doi:10.1086/209304.
- doi:10.1086/209414.
- ^ Taylor, Steve. "The Madness of Materialism: Why are we so driven to accumulate possessions and wealth?". Psychology Today. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015.
- PMID 22390226. Archived from the original(PDF) on 31 March 2016.
- ISBN 9781576600870.
- PMID 11392866. Archived from the original(PDF) on 9 April 2016.
- S2CID 254830372.
- ^ Lyubomirsky, Sonja (10 August 2010). "Can money buy happiness?". Scientific American. Archived from the original on 10 August 2013.
- ^ Mobiot, George (10 December 2013). "Materialism: a system that eats us from the inside out". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016.
- ISBN 0-7432-2340-3.
- doi:10.1016/0167-2681(95)00003-b. Archived from the original(PDF) on 5 March 2016.
- ^ Scitovsky, Tibor (1976). The joyless economy: The psychology of human satisfaction. New York: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Belk, Russell W. (1984). "Three scales to measure constructs related to materialism: reliability, validity, and relationships to measure of happiness". Advances in Consumer Research. 11: 291–297.
- S2CID 143559692. Archived from the original(PDF) on 25 April 2016.
- ISBN 9780262276764.
- S2CID 220187582.
- S2CID 211733155.
- S2CID 220187582. Archived from the original(PDF) on 20 May 2016.
- ^ Stieg, Cory (5 September 2019). "How you think about money can impact how happy you are in life, study says". CNBC.