So you love your car, your designer clothing, and that shabby chic couch you just paid an arm and a leg for even though it was marked down. But it doesn’t matter because your mate loves his or her "stuff" too. It doesn’t matter that you love material objects as long as you love each other more, right? Not so fast.
It seems obvious that if you buy everything under the sun and your spouse is content living in a tent that it wouldn’t work out, but if you’re both high maintenance then you should be fine. It turns out, however, that materialism is all around bad for business. According to a study reported on Live Science, it causes problems with all sorts of relationships.
"We thought it would be the incongruent or unmatched pattern that would be most problematic, where one's a spender and one's a saver," Study researcher Jason Carroll, a professor of family life at Brigham Young University told LiveScience. "Our study found that it's the couples where both spouses have high levels of materialism that struggle the most."
It doesn’t matter your income either. You could rich or poor, that's not the point. Carroll has done similar studies that show that materialism creates a sense of depression, anxiety, and insecurity as well.
Again, Live Science:
"The researchers collected online questionnaires from 1,734 married couples through the RELATE Institute, a national research non-profit. The institute provides an online, research-based "relationship assessment" questionnaire that is used by marriage counselors, educators and curious couples alike."
These findings are completely understandable for a number of reasons. The couples that last through thick and thin, the ones that are as in love as when they first met, are completely unselfish and compassionate. They are able to truly, and I mean truly, feel their lover’s pain all the time. They are able to put themselves in the other’s shoes, especially when the going gets rough. Too much materialism often means putting yourself before your spouse and if your spouse is doing the same thing, you’re in for a world of hurt.
Materialism also creates a sense of depression and hurt because you’re always worried about either losing what you have or getting to the next big thing. True contentment comes from within. While meeting your desires may make you happy for a short bit, it's not good for you or your spouse in the end.
