Custodes Futurifor the advancement of humanity

Cultural factor, barrier 5 of 6

Materialism and status competition

Self-Determination Theory research finds prioritizing wealth, image, and status is associated with lower wellbeing than prioritizing growth and relationships.

Evidence

  • Wellbeing. A meta-analysis of 259 samples found materialist values were associated with lower wellbeing (r = -0.19), most strongly for risky health and spending behaviors and weakest for life satisfaction. The studies are correlational (Dittmar et al., 2014).
  • Change over time. Three longitudinal studies and a small trial found wellbeing improved as people became less materialistic (Kasser et al., 2014), but a three-year study of 6,551 people found no within-person link (reported by PsyPost, 2023).
  • Children's learning. In 9- to 11-year-olds in Britain and Hong Kong, materialism was linked to lower exam performance through weaker interest in mastering material (Ku, Dittmar, and Banerjee, 2014). An independent study of 404 Hong Kong students found earlier materialism predicted lower later achievement (King and Datu, 2017).

Proposed and experimental methods

Methods that are proposed, under trial, approved in some places, or tried and then failed. Each shows a stage label and an evidence rating. A stage label shows how far a method has progressed, not whether it works. The stage labels are explained on the cultural factor page.

  • Limiting the visibility of others' incomes (Theoretical, B). No direct trial exists, but a natural experiment shows the reverse. After Norway put individual tax records online in 2001, the gap in happiness between richer and poorer people grew by 29% and the gap in life satisfaction by 21% (Perez-Truglia, 2020). This supports the idea that policies affecting how visible incomes are can change the wellbeing cost of status comparison.
  • Restricting advertising aimed at children (Approved but not scaled, C). Quebec bans advertising directed at children. A study of household spending from 1984 to 1992 found that the ban mainly reduced the number of households buying fast food in a given week (about 13% fewer), worth about $88 million a year (Dhar and Baylis, 2011). In a two-wave survey of 466 Dutch children aged 8 to 11, lower life satisfaction led to more materialism one year later only among children frequently exposed to television advertising (Opree et al., 2012). No study was found that measured the effect of a ban on materialism itself.
  • Interventions to reduce materialistic values (Early trial, C). In three longitudinal studies, wellbeing rose as people placed less importance on materialistic goals, and in a fourth, experimental study, highly materialistic U.S. adolescents given an intervention that reduced materialism gained self-esteem over several months compared with controls (Kasser et al., 2014). In a randomized trial in China, a 14-day online self-compassion and meditation program (154 versus 155 waitlist participants) increased self-compassion and self-esteem and reduced materialism (Gu et al., 2025). Both are small, self-reported, and short-term.
  • Reversed: New Zealand's legal requirement for wellbeing reporting (Failed or reversed, B). New Zealand published its first Wellbeing Budget on May 30, 2019 (NZ Treasury, 2019). A 2020 amendment to the Public Finance Act required the Treasury to report on national wellbeing at least once every four years, and the first report appeared in 2022, but in 2026 the Act was amended to remove that requirement (NZ Treasury, n.d.). Bhutan screens policies and projects through its Gross National Happiness framework before Cabinet approval (GNH Centre Bhutan, n.d.). No evaluation was found showing that either approach reduced materialism or raised wellbeing.

Sources cited on this page

  1. Ku, L., Dittmar, H., & Banerjee, R. (2014). To have or to learn? The effects of materialism on British and Chinese children's learning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(5), 803-821. DOI B Moderate
  2. King, R. B., & Datu, J. A. D. (2017). Materialism does not pay: materialistic students have lower motivation, engagement, and achievement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 49, 289-301. DOI B Moderate
  3. Dittmar, H., Bond, R., Hurst, M., & Kasser, T. (2014). The relationship between materialism and personal well-being: a meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107(5), 879-924. DOI B Moderate: for association, D for causation
  4. Kasser, T., Rosenblum, K. L., Sameroff, A. J., Deci, E. L., Niemiec, C. P., Ryan, R. M., et al. (2014). Changes in materialism, changes in psychological well-being: evidence from three longitudinal studies and an intervention experiment. Motivation and Emotion, 38(1), 1-22. DOI B Moderate
  5. PsyPost (2023). Does materialism really lead to lower life satisfaction? Surprising new study suggests otherwise C Limited: cited through a news report
  6. Banerjee, A., La Ferrara, E., & Orozco, V. (2019b). Entertainment, education, and attitudes toward domestic violence. AEA Papers and Proceedings, 109, 133-137. link B Moderate
  7. Dhar, D., Jain, T., & Jayachandran, S. (2022). Reshaping adolescents' gender attitudes: Evidence from a school-based experiment in India. American Economic Review, 112(3), 899-927. link B Moderate
  8. Dhar, T., & Baylis, K. (2011). Fast-food consumption and the ban on advertising targeting children: The Quebec experience. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(5), 799-813. link C Limited
  9. Gu, X., Wu, M., Zeng, X., Wang, Y., Zhang, Y., Dong, X., et al. (2025). The effect and mechanism of self-compassion on reducing materialism: A randomized controlled trial of an online self-compassion intervention. International Journal of Psychology, 60(4), e70076. link C Limited
  10. Opree, S. J., Buijzen, M., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2012). Lower life satisfaction related to materialism in children frequently exposed to advertising. Pediatrics, 130(3), e486-e491. link C Limited
  11. Perez-Truglia, R. (2020). The effects of income transparency on well-being: Evidence from a natural experiment. American Economic Review, 110(4), 1019-1054. link B Moderate

Every source for this factor is listed on the cultural factor page.