Study Explains Why Being Materialistic is Bad for the Environment
You can protect the environment by focusing on personal goals, happiness and emotional well-being than being a materialist, say researchers.
Financial standing, social status and income level of people no doubt is associated with better quality of life, health and mental status. Psychologists say harboring too many wants and material desires can negatively affect environment around us and lead to wastage of resources. The study says people must try giving more importance to personal life, relations and happiness instead of running the rat race. The experts believe in order to satisfy material goals, individuals neglect basic emotional and social needs and focus on gaining affluence and wealth.
The pressure to lead a lavish lifestyle and have luxuries leads to unnecessary financial burden and debts that rob peace of mind and mental satisfaction. People who accumulate wealth and material objects to achieve social acceptance often end up exploiting natural resources, wealth and also cause too much wastages and pollution.
"For decades, consumerism has been on a collision course with the environment, with consumer appetites draining the planet of natural resources and accelerating global warming. One view is that we need to change consumption in order to save the planet," said Miriam Tatzel, study author and researcher at the Empire State College in a news release.
"But what if we approached it from the other way around? What if what's good for the consumer meets what's good for the environment," she adds.
The study involved analysis of past psychological trials that suggest people who are less materialistic are happier than those who run behind money and fame.
"People's wants escalate as they tire of what they have and they want something else, which in turn leads to more consumption and more waste in landfills, more energy consumed and more carbon emitted into the atmosphere," said Tatzel.
In addition, the research noted although level of income influenced happiness quotient of Americans, people who earned more than $75,000 annually did not experience any drastic change in state of emotional and mental well-being. The authors, therefore, urge inculcating positive attitude and thinking and healthy relations to reduce stress, economic burden, poor health condition and wastages.
"A society in which some people are idolized for being fabulously rich sets a standard of success that is unattainable and leads us to try to approach it by working more and spending more. Cooling the consumption-driven economy, working less and consuming less are better for the environment and better for humans, too," said Tatzel.
The research was presented at the 122nd annual convention of the American Psychological Association.
