Investing in Things?

The idea that we compensate for insecurity or low self-esteem with
our checkbook is so widely accepted that it's a cultural cliché: Why
else would we consider a middle-aged man in a Ferrari to be a midlife
crisis on wheels?

Now there is empirical evidence of the link between self-doubt and
materialism.

Robert Arkin, Ph.D., of Ohio State University, found that
undergraduate students who identified themselves as chronic self-doubters
were far more likely to agree with statements such as "I like to own
things that impress people," and "The things I own say a lot about how
well I'm doing in life." A second study found that increasing a sense of
self-doubt heightened the materialistic tendencies of subjects already
prone to insecurity.

"Self-doubt is very unpleasant, so people cope by investing
themselves in something. Materialism is one such investment," says Arkin.
The results, published in
Psychology and Marketing, also link materialism to a
sense of anomie or uncertainty about one's place in society (as opposed
to doubt about one's own abilities or identity). In both cases, the
Ferrari is a poor buffer: Arkin points out that psychological tests
repeatedly link a materialistic worldview to lower levels of life
satisfaction.