Consumerism doesn't make you happy

Interesting bit on how psychologists characterise consumerism. This text is hacked out of their's:

Consumerism is a "value structure". It emphasises the importance of material possessions and the pursuit of personal wealth. It features:

• a focus on personal material needs;
• less attention to communal goals;
• lower levels of empathy;
• a lack of gratitude;
• greater levels of relationship conflict;
• lower subjective well-being.

The lower well-being is explained in terms of a person being less satisfied with their current resources & always aspiring toward the accumulation of even greater wealth. Also, less satisfaction with friends, family, income, and fun.

The point: Consumerism doesn't appear to make people happy or much use in a community.

Personality predictors of Consumerism and Environmentalism: A preliminary study, Jacob B. Hirsh  & Dan Dolderman, Personality and Individual Differences 43 (2007) 1583–1593 [originally found in Clive Hamilton, Requiem for a species]

Status is our biggest motivator

"Once food and shelter have been secured the predominant impulse behind ur desire to succeed in the social hierarchy may lie not so much with the goods we can accrue or the power we wield, as with the amount of love we stand to receive as a consequence of high status." Alain de Botton, Status Anxiety, p 11

This love he refers to is not romantic, but that of status: "...we feel ourselves the object of concern, our presence is noted, our name is registered, our views listened to, our failings are treated with indulgence and our needs are ministered to."

How true!

The point de Botton is making seems to be that we gain this "love" through displays of wealth and power. Perhaps this is the motive that drives us to constantly consume and have new things. It might also explain why we always want to have the biggest thing. Size confers status because it implies greater wealth. Hence, the mansion, the ever burgeoning SUV, the constant growing list of "things" that are necessities.

And still, this seems to be describing the symptom, while hiding the cause....why? Why do we assign status to material wealth? Is this where the link to advertising comes in? And "automaticity of behaviour"? Everyone else is doing, therefore I do too.

That said, not everyone does:

"Man is rich in proportion to things he can do without" Henry David Thoreau (p 285 of de Botton)

But let's be honest, how many people give a fuck what Henry David Thoreau thought? How many people even know who he is?

[Also those Schumacher quotes and de Botton draws a link to reference groups and how connected we are today...but notes are a bit thin...p 45 onwards) Plus is there some connection to conectedness...what do all those internet studies people make of the link between the internet and rampant consumerism...?]

Materialism is not happiness

"When people follow materialistic values and organise their lives around attaining wealth and possessions, they are essentially wasting their time as far as well-being is concerned" Tim Kasser (quoted in The Selfish Society by Sue Gerdhart, p 278)

Discuss.

"The Hedonic Treadmill"
I set a goal to acquire something. When I set the goal I believe the sense of pleasure I get from achieving it will last forever. It doesn't. Once I achieve the goal and get the "thing"I do get a sense of pleasure. However, rather than lasting for ever, I quickly "normalise" to the new "thing" and the sense of pleasure diminishes. Repeat ad nauseum - the "Hedonic treadmill" (Tim Kasser, the High Price of Materialism,  p102)

Raises several questions:

• How do I know this is true? - empirically (give an example or three), but is there research to support it. Is it true for everyone? i.e. is it hard wired into humans and if so: why?

• Why does the need to acquire something arise in the first place? Automaticity of behaviour - comparisons with others? Advertising? Peer pressure? If so, what was the "first cause"? Who started the race? Makes evolutionary sense?

• Why does acquiring something new give me a sense of pleasure? Is this linked to the business of putting my identity into external objects?

• Why does the sense of pleasure diminish and what determines the rate? Is it true for all things? What does "normalise" mean and what is it?

Ah, questions, questions. This whole thing has perplexed me for a long while. I can't find the answer clearly spelled out in any book...can you, random reader?

So, here we go, one man's mission to boldly go and explore the dark heart of my consumerist suicidal tendency.

One plus point, Tim Kasser's original statement implies that it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, he states:

"What stands out across the studies is a simple fact: people who strongly value the pursuit of wealth and possessions report lower psychological well-being that those who are less concerned with such aims." Tim Kasser, The High Price of Materialism, p5