The relationship between materialism and personal well-being: A meta-analysis.

By H. Dittmar, R. Bond, M. Hurst, T. Kasser. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2014

739 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This meta-analysis investigates the relationship between individuals' materialistic orientation and their personal well-being. Theoretical approaches in psychology agree that prioritizing money and associated aims is negatively associated with individuals' well-being but differ in their implications for whether this is invariably the case. To address these and other questions, we examined 753 effect sizes from 259 independent samples. Materialism was associated with significantly lower well-being for the most widely used, multifaceted measures (materialist values and beliefs, r = -.19, ρ = -.24; relative importance of materialist goals, r = -.16, ρ = -.21), more than for measures assessing emphasis on money alone (rs = -.08 to -.11, ρs = -.09 to -.14). The relationship also depended on type of well-being outcome, with largest effects for risky health and consumer behaviors and for negative self-appraisals (rs = -.28 to -.44, ρs = -.32 to -.53) and weakest effects for life satisfaction and negative affect (rs = -.13 to -.15, ρs = -.17 to -.18). Moderator analyses revealed that the strength of the effect depended on certain demographic factors (gender and age), on value context (study/work environments that support materialistic values and cultures that emphasize affective autonomy), and on cultural economic indicators (economic growth and wealth differentials). Mediation analyses suggested that the negative link may be explained by poor psychological need satisfaction. We discuss implications for the measurement of materialist values and the need for theoretical and empirical advances to explore underlying processes, which likely will require more experimental, longitudinal, and developmental research.

Subfields: Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/07e281ee22309175924b94a00899d322a55e2abc

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Meditating for the Planet: Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on Sustainable Consumption Behaviors (2020, background): “A substantial body of evidence indicates that well-being and materialism are intertwined (Dittmar et al., 2014; Kasser et al., 2014).”
Buying to Blunt Negative Feelings: Materialistic Escape from the Self (2016, background): “A metaanalysis evaluating 753 effect sizes from 259 independent samples found materialism to be significantly associated with lower wellbeing (see Dittmar et al., 2014).”
Attitude toward Consumption and Subjective Well‐Being (2016, background): “It is interesting to note that Dittmar et al. (2014) found that the relationship differs based on what aspect of well-being is being studied.”
Will materialism lead to happiness? A longitudinal analysis of the mediating role of psychological needs satisfaction (2017, result): “…materialism links to personal well-being via psychological needs satisfaction from the perspective of SDT. Inspired by the results of Dittmar and colleagues' meta-analysis, we chose one positive (i.e., SWB) and one negative (i.e., depression) indicator to representwell-being (Dittmar et al., 2014).”
Examining links from civic engagement to daily well-being from a self-determination theory perspective (2019, background): “Materialism and consumer behaviors, which conflict with pro-environmental behaviors, were consistently negatively associated with well-being in meta-analysis (Dittmar et al., 2014).”
Re-examining the Experiential Advantage in Consumption: A Meta-Analysis and Review (2020, background): “For instance, meta-analyses have examined how materialism relates to happiness (Dittmar et al. 2014), how considering (e.g., number of options; Chernev, Bo¨ckenholt, and Goodman 2015) has an influence on outcomes such as satisfaction, and the linkages between happiness and other outcomes…”
Materialistic cues make us miserable: A meta‐analysis of the experimental evidence for the effects of materialism on individual and societal well‐being (2020, methodology): “In fact, an extensive body of empirical studies has found that a desire for wealth, possessions, and consumption is negatively related to personal well‐being in different societies with diverse cultural and political backgrounds (Dittmar et al., 2014).”