Why We're So Materialistic, Even Though It Doesn't Make Us Happy - 0 views
-
We tend to equate buying things with positive emotions. Subsequently, we think that purchasing new stuff makes us happy. It's a pretty clear correlation. In a study published in Neuron, researchers looked at what's going on in the brain when we think about buying stuff. When a product image flashed before people's eyes, an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens lit up when a subject liked what they saw. Essentially, the brain's pleasure center kicks into gear and floods the brain with dopamine at the very thought of getting something we want. The weirdest thing about this is that just thinking about buying something is pretty much the same as actually buying it.
-
Nany Rocha on 05 Nov 14We want to buy things,we make our brain think : "the more I buy things the happier I will be,LETS BUY MORE STUFF!"
-
-
"Thinking about acquisition provides momentary happiness boosts to materialistic people, and because they tend to think about acquisition a lot, such thoughts have the potential to provide frequent mood boosts," Richins wrote, "but the positive emotions associated with acquisition are short-lived. Although materialists still experience positive emotions after making a purchase, these emotions are less intense than before they actually acquire a product."
-
It's probably no surprise to most of us, but study after study shows that buying stuff doesn't make us happy. More importantly, we're actually unhappy when we put too much value on material objects.The big problem here isn't just that we're a little bummed out when someone else has more stuff than we do. It's that when we put a lot of emphasis on materialistic value, we're prone to depression, personality disorders, and more. One study from
- ...1 more annotation...