Study Confirms Link Between Materialism And Unhappiness


The more we spend, the less happy we are. Materialism is making us sad.

This notion is explored in a recent article published by The Guardian , which makes reference to a new book titled The Good Life: Wellbeing and the New Science of Altruism, Selfishness and Immorality authored by psychotherapist Graham Music. The book  “confirms, through use of data collected by scientists over the last 40 years, that the materialistic tend to be unhappy, those with material goods will remain unhappy, and the market feeds on unhappiness.”

A study at Berkeley University, quoted by Music, reveals that “The higher up the social-class ranking people are, the less pro-social, charitable and empathetically they behaved … consistently those who were less rich showed more empathy and more of a wish to help others.”

“If you love material objects, you are less likely to love people and so, of course, the planet. The connection between the rise of materialism and indifference to the environment is not coincidental; nor is the connection between the rise of materialism and growing inequality, and fear of the stranger…. Money is a brutalising agent and a paranoiac drug”, notes Tim Kasser, a psychology professor at Knox College, Illinois.

This hard truth is not a new phenomenon. The Bible teaches about an encounter between Jesus an a young rich man who became very sad when he learned that in order to save his soul he had to “sell all his possessions and share the money with the poor.”  This is one of many instances where the Bible hints to the disturbing link between materialism and unhappiness.

H/T The Guardian

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