RESEARCH_FILE
Tim Kasser
Knox College
Known for:Empirical research on materialistic values and well-being, showing that placing financial success above intrinsic goals predicts lower life satisfaction, higher anxiety, and compensatory acquisitiveness
Key findings
- 1993
With Richard Ryan, Kasser found that aspiring for financial success above intrinsic goals was associated with lower vitality, more negative affect, and higher anxiety — the first empirical demonstration of materialism as an independent psychological risk factor. A Dark Side of the American Dream: Correlates of Financial Success as a Central Life Aspiration ↗
- 2002
Kasser synthesized a decade of findings showing materialistic individuals consistently report lower personal well-being across dozens of studies, and proposed that chronic insecurity — not personality — drives compensatory acquisitiveness as a strategy to meet unmet psychological needs. The High Price of Materialism ↗