materialism is sociopathic

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A couple of nice passages in this article by a pseudoscientist with the fantastic name of Yair Amichai-Hamburger:

"research by psychologist Tim Kasser of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, has shown that people who place a high value on material goals are unhappier than those who are less materialistic. Materialism is also associated with lower self-esteem, greater narcissism, greater tendency to compare oneself unfavourably with other people, less empathy and more conflict in relationships."

"In today's world, where we are potentially available 24/7 to absorb messages from well-honed advertisements, it is vital that we know how to analyse and evaluate their validity - and to neutralise them where necessary."

These words interest me because they suggest there is reasonably credible evidence (well, as credible as psychology can be) out there to support legislating against rampant consumerism on the basis of social wellbeing and public health. My curisosity go tthe better of me and I googled Yair's name to see what he has published. This paper is particularly interesting as it appears to demonstrate that people afflicted by Learned Helplessness are more susceptible to the malevolent influence of marketing. LH sounds synonoymous with being a subject of the UK education system (pdf).

This paper, with the title "Who blogs? Personality predictors of blogging", is a giggle too. Fluffy, pseudoscientific word.

Oh- if you want access to the papers I can email you copies.