Buying less is better than buying 'green' -- for the planet and your happiness -- ScienceDaily 11/02/23 23.

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Buying less is better than buying 'green' -- for the planet Breaking this hour
and your happiness
 New Spoke Season at Saturn
Date: October 8, 2019  How Ancestors of Modern Birds Used Their
Source: University of Arizona Wings
 Bacterial Weapons to Treat Human Disease?
Summary: A new study found that people who consume less are happier than those who engage
in other pro-environmental consumer behaviors, like buying environmentally friendly  Space Dust as Earth's Sun Shield
products.  A New Ring System Discovered in Our Solar
System
Share: ! " # $ %  Galactic Immigration in Andromeda Galaxy
 Caribou Have Migrated to Same Spot for ...
RELATED TOPICS FULL STORY  Killer Whale Moms Pay a Price for Raising
Sons
Earth & Climate  Codebreakers Crack Mary Queen of Scots'
Humans' overconsumption of resources -- from the
Letters
 Sustainability food and clothes we buy to the methods of trans‐
 Surprises in Sea Turtle Genes May Help Them
 Environmental Issues portation we choose -- is a leading contributor to ...
global climate change, says University of Arizona re‐
 Environmental Policy
searcher Sabrina Helm. Therefore, it's increasingly
 Environmental Awareness
important to understand the choices consumers Most Popular this week
Science & Society make and how those decisions affect the health of a
PLANTS & ANIMALS
planet with limited resources.
 Consumerism
This Groundbreaking Biomaterial Heals Tissues
 Environmental Policies In a new study, published in the journal Young Consumers, Helm from the Inside out
and her collaborators explore how culturally entrenched material‐ Warmer Climate May Drive Fungi to Be More
 Funding Policy
istic values influence pro-environmental behaviors in millennials, Dangerous to Our Health
 Economics who are now the nation's most influential group of consumers.
Ultra-Processed Foods May Be Linked to
The researchers focused on two main categories of pro-environ‐ Increased Risk of Cancer

RELATED TERMS mental behaviors: 1) reduced consumption, which includes ac‐ EARTH & CLIMATE
tions like repairing instead of replacing older items, avoiding im‐
Evolution of Wheat Spikes Since the Neolithic
 Retail pulse purchases and not buying unnecessary items; and 2) "green Revolution
buying," or purchasing products designed to limit environmental
 Consumerism impacts, such as goods made from recycled materials. Traffic Pollution Impairs Brain Function

 Environmental impact
assessment
 Environmental engineering
 Energy development
 Business administration
 Timeline of environmental
events
 Decade Volcanoes
The researchers also looked at how engaging in pro-environmen‐ Seawater Split to Produce 'Green' Hydrogen
tal behaviors affects consumer well-being. FOSSILS & RUINS
More materialistic participants, the researchers found, were un‐ Meteorites Reveal Likely Origin of Earth's
likely to engage in reduced consumption. However, materialism Volatile Chemicals
did not seem to have an effect on their likelihood of practicing
319-Million-Year-Old Fish Preserves the Earliest
"green buying." That's probably because "green buying," unlike Fossilized Brain of a Backboned Animal
reduced consumption, still offers a way for materialists to fulfill
Riddle Solved: Why Was Roman Concrete So
their desire to accumulate new items, Helm said.
Durable?
"There is evidence that there are 'green materialists,'" said Helm,
an associate professor in the Norton School of Family and Con‐
sumer Sciences in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. "If
you are able to buy environmentally friendly products, you can still Strange & Offbeat  
live your materialist values. You're acquiring new things, and that
fits into our mainstream consumption pattern in our consumer
PLANTS & ANIMALS
culture, whereas reduced consumption is more novel and proba‐
bly more important from a sustainability perspective." Scientists Develop New Index Based on

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191008155716.htm Page 1 of 4
Buying less is better than buying 'green' -- for the planet and your happiness -- ScienceDaily 11/02/23 23.35

Study participants who reported having fewer materialistic values Functional Morphology to Understand How
were much more likely to engage in reduced consumption. Con‐ Ancestors of Modern Birds Used Their Wings
suming less was, in turn, linked to higher personal well-being and Caribou Have Been Using Same Arctic Calving
lower psychological distress. Grounds for 3,000 Years

Green buying -- which may have some positive environmental im‐
plications, although to a lesser degree than reduced consumption
-- was not found to improve consumer well-being, Helm said.
"We thought it might satisfy people that they participated in being
more environmentally conscious through green buying patterns,
but it doesn't seem to be that way," Helm said. "Reduced con‐
sumption has effects on increased well-being and decreased psy‐
chological distress, but we don't see that with green
consumption."
The take-home message for consumers: "The key is to reduce
consumption and not just buy green stuff. Having less and buying
less can actually make us more satisfied and happier," Helm said.
"If you have a lot of stuff, you have a lot on your mind," she said.
"Maybe you have a lot of debt because you bought all that stuff,
and now you have to manage all that stuff. It requires mainte‐
nance and being organized. It's not like you buy it and you're
done with it. There's a lot of burdens of ownership, and if you re‐
lieve yourself of that burden of ownership, most people report
feeling a lot better and freer."
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Potential to Produce Enough Food in a Nuclear
Winter, Researchers Say
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Impurities
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Pacific Northwest Coast, New Research
Suggests
FOSSILS & RUINS
Codebreakers Crack Secrets of Mary Queen of
Scots' Lost Letters
319-Million-Year-Old Fish Preserves the Earliest
Fossilized Brain of a Backboned Animal
New Ancient 'Marine Crocodile' Discovered on
UK's Jurassic Coast -- And It's One of the
Oldest Specimens of Its Type Ever Found

Financial habits and well-being

Helm and her colleagues additionally looked at how materialism

affects millennial consumers' proactive financial behaviors, such
as budgeting and saving. Examining financial behaviors alongside
pro-environmental behaviors provides a picture of how young
adults proactively cope with resource limitations in two contexts:
environmental and financial, Helm said.

As expected, Helm and her collaborators found that those who

reported having more materialistic values engaged in fewer proac‐
tive financial behaviors than their less materialistic counterparts.
The researchers also found that, consistent with previous studies,
proactive financial behaviors were associated with better personal
well-being, life satisfaction and financial satisfaction, as well as
lower psychological distress.

"For very obvious reasons, if you have a proactive financial strate‐

gy and put money to the side and live within your means, it has
positive well-being effects," Helm said.

The researchers' findings are based on data from a longitudinal

study that followed 968 young adults from their first year of col‐
lege, when they were between the ages of 18 and 21, to two
years post-college, when they were ages 23-26. The participants
responded to online survey questions designed to measure mate‐
rialism, proactive financial behaviors, pro-environmental behav‐
iors, personal well-being, life satisfaction, financial satisfaction
and psychological distress.

Understanding how materialistic values impact consumer behav‐

iors, and how those behaviors in turn affect personal and environ‐
mental well-being, is important, Helm said. However, she ac‐
knowledges that for many consumers, shifting behaviors to be
more financially proactive and consume less will be challenging.

"We've been told since childhood that there's a product for every‐
thing and it's OK to buy, and it's a good thing because that's how
the economy works," she said. "We're brought up this way, so
changing behaviors is very difficult."

Story Source:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191008155716.htm Page 2 of 4
Buying less is better than buying 'green' -- for the planet and your happiness -- ScienceDaily 11/02/23 23.35

Materials provided by University of Arizona. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Sabrina Helm, Joyce Serido, Sun Young Ahn, Victoria Ligon, Soyeon Shim. Materialist values,
financial and pro-environmental behaviors, and well-being. Young Consumers, 2019; ahead-
of-print (ahead-of-print) DOI: 10.1108/YC-10-2018-0867

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