Staking self-worth on the pursuit of money has negative psychological consequences

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-04/uab-sso042717.php

Public Release: 27-Apr-2017
Staking self-worth on the pursuit of money has negative psychological consequences
University at Buffalo

Although people living in consumer-based cultures such as the U.S. often believe that they will be happier if they acquire more money, the findings of a newly published paper by a University at Buffalo research team suggest that there may be downsides to this pursuit.

The pursuit of money in and of itself is not bad, but there are risks to consider when it is fueled by a desire to boost self-esteem. When people tie their self-worth to the pursuit of financial success, they are more vulnerable to negative psychological consequences, according to Lora Park, an associate professor of psychology at UB and the study's lead author.

Specifically, basing self-esteem on financial success predicted making more financially-based social comparisons with others, feeling less autonomy and control over one's life, and experiencing more financial hassles, stress and anxiety. These findings were evident even after accounting for other variables, such as financial status, materialistic values and importance of financial goals.

"People don't often think of the possible down sides of wrapping their identity and self-worth around financial pursuits, because our society values wealth as a model of how one should be in the world," says Park. "It's important to realize these costs because people are gravitating toward this domain as a source of self-esteem without realizing that it has these unintended consequences."

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"When we asked people to write about a financial stressor, they experienced a drop in their feelings of autonomy," says Park. "They also showed more disengagement from their financial problems - they gave up searching for solutions. We didn't find this in people who didn't tie their self-esteem to financial success or among those who were asked to write about an academic stressor."

In those essays, the researchers also coded the type of language participants used to describe their financial problems.

"We found that people who highly based their self-worth on financial success used more negative emotion-related words, like sadness and anger," says Park. "This demonstrates that just thinking about a financial problem generates a lot of stress and negative emotions for these individuals."

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