Abstract
Background
Contrary to messages espoused in consumerist cultures, a substantial body of research now
demonstrates that materialism is associated with a broad range of negative outcomes for personal
wellbeing, while low consumption, sustainable lifestyles are consistently associated with higher
wellbeing. This thesis aims to explore how individuals can be supported to shift away from
materialistic values and goals and to deepen understanding of the benefits of living sustainably.
Research questions and methodology
We ask two main over-arching questions 1) can materialism be reduced? and 2) can
individuals lead meaningful and pleasurable lives while living sustainably? To answer these
questions, we experimentally tested whether a three-session intervention encouraging intrinsic goals
and activating self-transcendence values could cause sustained reductions in materialism. Employed
young adults (aged 18-30) in three European countries (UK, Italy, Hungary) were supported to set
intrinsic goals and reflect on self-transcendence values. Changes in materialistic value and goal
orientations were measured, and, as an additional indicator of materialism, participants described their
perceptions of success in their own words. We compared changes in materialism to an active control
group and followed up both groups two months after completing of the intervention. We also
conducted correlational analysis to explore whether pro-environmental behaviours had a stronger
relationship with pleasure-based, hedonic well-being or with virtue-based, eudemonic well-being. We
investigated whether materialism, which has consistently been linked to lower wellbeing and fewer
pro-environmental behaviours, might explain the co-occurrence of these variables.
Main findings
Participants who had undertaken the experimental intervention experienced a significant
decrease in materialistic goal orientation which was maintained two months later. No significant
changes in their materialistic value orientation were found and no changes in materialistic goal or
value orientations were found among the active control group. Reductions in materialistic goal
orientation were found to be independent of the cultures studied, of commitment to, self-concordance
with, and progress made on chosen goals, and of their engagement in the intervention.
We identified four intrinsically oriented themes of perceptions of success: “personal
development and achievement”, “positive wellbeing”, “positive relationships”, and “freedom and
experiences”, and three extrinsically oriented themes of perceptions of success: “financial security”,
“external validation”, and “wealth and power”. We found a distinction between status-driven and
security-driven words used to describe financial perceptions of success which could have implications
for measures of materialism.
Pro-environmental behaviours were positively associated with wellbeing in all three countries
studied, which included two nations (Italy and Hungary) where this relationship had not previously
been tested. Pro-environmental behaviours were positively associated with hedonic wellbeing in all
three countries and with eudemonic well-being in Italy only. There was no difference in the strengths
of the associations. We found no evidence that materialism explained the relationship between proenvironmental behaviours and wellbeing.
Conclusions and implications
We demonstrate that the encouragement of self-transcendence values and intrinsic goals to be
an effective strategy to reduce a materialistic goal orientation. The lack of moderating factors suggest
that this intervention could be widely useful to reduce a materialistic goal orientation in many
contexts. We discuss implications for measures of materialism from our distinction between statusdriven and security-driven words used to describe financial perceptions of success.
We provide new evidence demonstrating that pro-environmental behaviours to be associated
with pleasure-based (hedonic) wellbeing even when they are not associated with virtue-based
(eudemonic) wellbeing. This finding provides tentative evidence that pro-environmental behaviours
are not only compatible with wellbeing due to a virtuous sense of “doing good,” but they may be
inherently pleasurable.