Materialistic Values and
Environmental Challenges
Tim Kasser, Ph.D.

Materialism
• Can purchase happiness
• Important to work and consume
• Financial profit and economic growth are main priorities
• Life is meaningful and people are successful to the extent they have money, possessions, and the right image

Measuring Materialism
• Survey methods (e.g., Belk, 1985, Richins
& Dawson, 1992)
• Rate agreement with statements
• Sample Items
– My life would be better if I owned certain things I don’t have.
– I like to own things that impress people.
– I like a lot of luxury in my life.
– I would rather buy something I need than borrow it from someone else.

Measuring Materialism
• Values strategy (e.g., Kasser & Ryan, 1993, 1996)
• Rate many goals, guiding principles, (e.g., family, spirituality, fun, etc.)
• Sample materialistic items
• You will have a job that pays well
• You will have many expensive possessions
• You will achieve the “look” you’ve been after
• You will be admired by many people
• Examine relative importance of goals

Ecological Outcomes
• Care less about the environment
– Saunders & Munro (2000); Schwartz (1994)
• Fewer pro-environmental behaviors
– Brown & Kasser (2005); Gatersleben et al. (in prep);
Kasser (2005); Richins & Dawson (1992)
• Higher Ecological Footprints
– Brown & Kasser (2005)

Tragedy of the Commons
• Sheldon & McGregor (2000) assigned people to one of three groups:
– All high materialistic
– 2 high/ 2 low materialistic
– All low materialistic
• Played a forest-management game
• High materialist groups harvested more forest more quickly

Tragedy of the Commons

Diminished Happiness
Kasser (2002)
• Lower
– Happiness
– Life Satisfaction
– Vitality
• Higher
– Anxiety
– Depression
– Substance Use
– Physical Symptoms

Social Behavior
• Care less about social justice, loyalty
• Lower empathy
• More Machiavellian &
Competitive
• Less pro-social behavior
• More anti-social behavior

Two-fold Strategy
Causes
Materialism

Causes of Materialism
(Kasser et al. 2004)
• Social Modeling
– Higher if friends, parents, peers care
– Higher if more television
– Higher if liberal capitalism
• Insecurity
– Higher if cold parenting, divorce
– Higher if poverty
– Higher if thinking of death or hungry

Two-fold Strategy
Causes
Materialism
Healthy
Values

Healthy Values
Grouzet, Kasser et al. (2005)
• Assessed aspirations in 11 domains
– e.g., Spirituality, Hedonism, Affiliation, Health, etc.
• >1800 College students in 15 nations
• Circular Stochastic Modeling
– Adjacent goals are consistent
– Opposing goals are conflictual

Conformity
Extrinsic
Popularity
Image
Financial success
Self-transcendence
Spirituality
Community
Intrinsic
Affiliation
Self-acceptance
Hedonism
Physical self
Physical health
Safety

Intrinsic Values
Kasser & Ryan (1996)
• Self-acceptance
“I will follow my interests and curiosity where they take me.”
• Affiliation
“I will express my love for special people.”
• Community Feeling
“I will help the world become a better place.”

Personal Well-being
• More happiness
• More life satisfaction
• Higher vitality
• Less depression
• Less anxiety
• Fewer physical symptoms

Social Well-being
• More pro-social behavior
• More empathy
• More cooperation
• Less antisocial behavior

Ecological Well-being
• More environmentally friendly behaviors
• Lower Ecological
Footprint
• Less consumption in forest dilemma game

Two-fold Strategy
Causes
Materialism
Healthy
Values

• Designed to promote consumerism
• Often creates feelings of insecurity
• Presence everywhere promotes social norm that consumerism is good

• Remove ads from public places
• Ban advertising to children
• Tax advertising as a form of pollution
• Use revenue to promote intrinsic values

Goal Framing
Vansteenkiste et al (2004)
• Subjects - education students
• Asked to read a text on recycling framed either:
– Intrinsic - would benefit community
– Materialistic - would save money
• Those with Intrinsic frames:
– Learned for more autonomous reasons
– Learned material more deeply
– Were more likely to visit library to learn more
– Were more likely to go on later trip to recycling plant

Goal Framing
• Important implications for social marketing
• Beware connecting environmental behavior to materialistic aims because doing so:
– Reinforces materialistic values, which are bad for the environment
– In and of itself leads to lesser motivation

Voluntary Simplicity
• Rejection of workspend lifestyle
• Instead focus on
“inward riches” of caring about personal growth, family, volunteer activity, and ecology (Elgin, 1993)

VS
Lifestyle
High
Well-being
Ecologically
Responsible
Behaviors

VS
Lifestyle
High
Intrinsic &
Low
Materialistic
Values
High
Well-being
Ecologically
Responsible
Behaviors

Voluntary Simplicity -
Directions
• Explore ideas about happiness and values, then educate about Voluntary Simplicity
• Use established programs
– Your Money or Your Life
– Simplicity Circles

• Currently Gross Domestic Product is dominant
• Alternative indicators include metrics of intrinsic values in computation
• Examples:
– National Well-being
– Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness
– Happy Planet Index
– Genuine Progress Indicator

Gross Domestic Product vs.
Genuine Progress Indicator

• Adopt Alternative Indicators
• Hopefully, citizens will recognize that increases in GDP ≠increases in Quality of
Life
• Thus, new policies will be developed

Martin Luther King, Jr.
We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.
We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thingoriented society” to a
“person-oriented society.”