From the Binghamton University press release:<\/p>\n
Money can’t buy you happiness, but it could motivate you to live a better life.<\/p>\n
A new study featuring researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York found that viewing wealth and material possessions as a sign of success yields significantly better results to life satisfaction than viewing wealth and possessions as a sign of happiness<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
“People simply say ‘money can’t buy you happiness’ and just assume that materialism has a negative influence on overall well-being,” said Jenny Jiao, assistant professor of marketing at Binghamton University School of Management. “But it’s not that simple. There is a real difference between success materialism<\/strong> and happiness materialism<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n
Jiao and her fellow researchers surveyed over 7,500 German adults to get their findings. They first determined if participants had either a happiness materialistic or success materialistic mindset, and then asked questions regarding current satisfaction of life, expected satisfaction of life in the future and economic motivations.<\/p>\n
What they found:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Happiness materialism (wealth and material consumption is the sign of a happy life) can negatively influence life satisfaction in two different ways<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
\n
- It can lead a person to be dissatisfied with their current standard of living, which in turn negatively influences overall life satisfaction.<\/li>\n
- This can lead a person to not find satisfaction from other important areas of life (family life, social life, health, etc.), which negatively influences overall life satisfaction.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Success materialism (wealth and material possessions are a sign of success in life) positively influences life satisfaction by boosting a person’s economic motivation<\/strong>. This can lead to a rise in their future satisfaction with their standard of living, which positively influences overall life satisfaction.<\/p>\n
“We work so hard over the course of our lives. We want to make money and we want to have a better life, but what actually gives us satisfaction with life? Is it wealth and material possessions, or is it what those things are a sign of?” said Jiao.<\/p>\n
The researchers cross-checked their results with survey answers from other parts of the world, including the United States, to verify the universality of the findings.<\/p>\n
Jiao recommends focusing on future goals in order to stay driven and motivated<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
“Your happiness should never rely on money alone, but money can be a tool to motivate you to achieve major milestones in your life, which can make you feel happier in the long run,” said Jiao.<\/p>\n
She also cautions not to forget about the other aspects of life that bring satisfaction.<\/p>\n
“Never lose sight of the other things that provide happiness that don’t necessarily have monetary value<\/strong>. These include family, friends, your health, continual learning and new experiences,” she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the Binghamton University press release: Money can’t buy you happiness, but it could motivate you to live a better life. A new study featuring researchers at Binghamton University, State… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":14031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[334,60],"tags":[91,363,12,39,109],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29785"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30058,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29785\/revisions\/30058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}