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The High Price of Materialism, by Tim Kasser. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. 149 pp. $24.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-262-11268-X. $14.95 paper. ISBN: 0-262-61197-X.
Are more materialistic people happier than others? Are their internal experiences and interpersonal relationships different? Do materialistic values make for better communities and a higher quality of life generally? These are the questions that motivate Tim Kasser's High Price of Materialism.
Kasser's answers are a strong indictment of materialism. Those who are more materialistic are less happy. They are more likely to suffer from insecurity and anxiety and to have low self-esteem. Materialistic values work against close interpersonal relationships, and materialists invest less of themselves in their communities, lowering quality of life generally.
These findings stem from research by Kasser, a psychologist, and his collaborators, as well as related studies, summarized in this book. The research is based on questionnaire surveys, chiefly of American college students, "who, second to white rats, form the backbone of much scientific research in psychology" (p. 7). In some cases the sample population is pre-schoolers, 18-year olds, or adults more generally.
Conceptually, Kasser roots his book in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which sees materialistic desires as growing out of needs for security, sustenance, and safety, and militating against the attainment of higher needs of self-esteem, competence, and authenticity. Kasser sides with humanistic vis-a-vis behavioral and evolutionary theories of psychology that see materialism as having...