New Study Challenges Belief That Materialism Leads to Reduced Life Satisfaction

Research conducted by Esther Jaspers, a senior lecturer at Massey University in Wellington, New Zealand, suggests that the link between materialism and lower life satisfaction may not be as strong as previously believed. The study followed 6,551 people over three years to investigate the relationship between materialism and subjective well-being. The research found that the negative association between materialism and life satisfaction is mostly due to differences between people rather than changes in materialism and life satisfaction within the same person over time. In other words, more materialistic people tend to have lower life satisfaction overall, but changes in materialism within a person did not lead to subsequent changes in life satisfaction. Interestingly, the study found that people who experienced lower life satisfaction increased their belief that having more possessions would make them happier. This belief represents one of three facets of materialism, as defined in materialism research, suggesting that materialism may be a coping strategy for some individuals. While longitudinal studies are better at understanding the order of effects than cross-sectional studies, the study acknowledges that external factors may be causing the negative relationship between materialism and life satisfaction observed at the population level, and that findings may be different with different time intervals between measurements.