Experiences vs Materialism
It used to be that people purchased luxury items to convey social status – typically, their clothing and accessories would mimic what someone one level up in social class could afford (i.e. the lower class strive to dress like the middle class, the middle class strives to dress like the upper class, the upper class strives to dress like the top 1%) (Truong & McColl, 2011). But now, the upper class has shifted their focus, from luxury goods to buying experiences – horseback riding lessons, expensive vacations, the best private schools (Pchelin & Howell, 2014). Now retailers are struggling to make ends meet, going out of business at alarming rates, and hosting huge blow-out sales (Rupp, Whiteaker, Townsend, & Bhasin, 2018). What this means is that the middle class can get luxury goods for cheaper than ever before (Rupp et al., 2018).
The rich are onto something – it turns out that buying experiences makes us happier, and buying materialistic goods actually lowers our self-esteem (Pchelin & Howell, 2014; Truong & McColl, 2011). What about those of us who can’t afford horseback riding lessons, expensive vacations, or even a low-ranking private school? We may know that expensive things are not necessarily better quality and that brands are manipulating our insecurities, but how do we become more resistant to materialism and lead happier lives?
Research has found something intuitive to us, that we should have realized a long time ago – happy people do things that make them happy. They value experiences over materialism, but the experiences don’t have to cost an arm or a leg. Challenging experiences that require energy lead to greater happiness, but most of us spend far too much time on leisurely activities (e.g. binge watching Netflix) and far too little time on what makes us happy, whether it be spending time with family and friends, having purposeful “me” time, or dancing) (Schiffer & Roberts, 2018). Make time for the things in life that make you happier and you will have less of a void to fill with materialistic goods.
References
Pchelin, P., & Howell, R. T. (2014). The hidden cost of value-seeking: People do not accurately forecast the economic benefits of experiential purchases. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(4), 322-334.
Rupp, L., Whiteaker, C., Townsend, M., & Bhasin, K. (2018, February 05). The Death of Clothing. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-death-of-clothing/
Schiffer, L. P., & Roberts, T. A. (2018). The paradox of happiness: Why are we not doing what we know makes us happy?. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(3), 252-259.
Truong, Y., & McColl, R. (2011). Intrinsic motivations, self-esteem, and luxury goods consumption. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 18(6), 555-561.
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