A materialist ethos can be misery inducing

A study conducted by researchers from the United States and Israel shows that a materialist ethos can lead to loneliness and a worse response to traumatic events.

The study, which was done in the United States and Israel, showed that people who are very materialistic, which is linked to self-esteem and an anxiety about death, fall apart more often after a traumatic threat to their lives and are more likely to look for solace in shopping than someone who is not materialistic.

“In a study published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, researchers from American and Israeli universities investigated levels of post-traumatic stress among residents of a town in southern Israel that came under sustained Palestinian rocket attacks six years ago. Highly materialistic individuals, they discovered, exhibited far higher levels of post-traumatic stress, and were much more likely to try to soothe themselves via compulsive shopping.”

Perhaps this is something that we should all keep in mind as we move into the extremely materialistic Christmas season. It would seem that the research shows that a Buy Nothing Christmas is crucial to our mental health.

Click here to read the entire article on the Guardian

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