Do not expect shopping to fix your mood or sense of identity
People who place greater importance on money and possessions tend to report lower well-being, but the association is weak and its direction is unclear. Other research suggests that buying experiences can bring more happiness than buying objects. An outing or a meal with someone may therefore be more useful than a full shopping cart when you feel low.
What it takes
No money is needed. The challenge is resisting checkout when you feel bad.
What you may gain
A meta-analysis combined 259 independent samples and 753 effect sizes. Higher materialism was associated with lower self-reported well-being. For the most commonly used multidimensional measures, the correlation was r=−0.19, corrected ρ=−0.24. Measures focused only on the importance of money showed weaker associations, r=−0.08 to −0.11. Associations were strongest for risky health and consumer behavior and negative self-evaluation, r=−0.28 to −0.44, and weakest for life satisfaction and negative affect, r=−0.13 to −0.15. Mediation analyses suggested that unmet psychological needs may help explain the association. In another study, two surveys of different populations found that respondents reported greater happiness from experiential than material purchases. In a subsequent laboratory experiment, recalling an experiential purchase also produced a better mood than recalling a material one. These studies used non-Chinese samples and do not provide China-wide estimates.
Context & considerations
Most included studies asked people about both variables at one point in time and cannot establish which came first. The authors called for more experiments and longitudinal work to clarify direction. The finding does not mean buying things causes unhappiness; it gives limited grounds for expecting shopping to create lasting happiness. An r of −0.19 explains only a few percentage points of variation, leaving large individual differences. Comparable Chinese data were not available to cite. Spending on something you like is not the problem. Using shopping as your standard mood-regulation strategy can make placing another order your first response the next time you feel bad. For practical saving measures, see chapter 5. For approaches to low mood with supporting evidence, see the later entries in chapter 22 and chapter 29. For spending to feel a step above other people, see the next entry.
Research & references
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. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037409; Van Boven L, Gilovich T (2003). To do or to have? That is the question. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(6), 1193–1202. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.6.1193.