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Chasing new makes you less happy
Gratitude and happiness
Gratitude is one of the most important things underpinning happiness, and gratitude means looking around and appreciating what is already there. Getting the next new thing points attention outward at what a person does not have. Research on materialism finds that people who keep seeking the next new thing are a little less happy.
A fleeting joy
The joy of opening a shiny new product is real and short. That feeling is fleeting, which sets up a cycle of chasing the next new thing to sustain happiness.
Buying to feel better
Other research finds that when people feel uncomfortable or down about themselves, buying something shiny, new, and expensive can stand in for self-worth. Buying to feel better, especially with expensive things, can hit the budget hard.
How is materialism linked to lower happiness?
In 2014, Helga Dittmar and colleagues published a meta-analysis in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology that pooled hundreds of samples. They found that people who place high value on money and possessions tend to report lower well-being. The psychologist Tim Kasser has studied the link for decades and found it in many countries. The association is a correlation, and researchers continue to debate which direction it runs.
Why does the joy of new things fade so fast?
Psychologists call this hedonic adaptation. In 1971, Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell described a hedonic treadmill in which people return to a baseline level of happiness after good events. In a 1978 study, Brickman and colleagues compared lottery winners with a control group and found the winners were not significantly happier. Winners also rated everyday pleasures as less enjoyable than the control group did.
How does gratitude affect happiness?
In a 2003 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough asked students to keep weekly lists. One group listed things they were grateful for, another listed hassles, and a third listed neutral events. The gratitude group reported better well-being and more optimism about the coming week than the other groups. The study is among the most cited experiments in the field of positive psychology.