Materialistic people: their 6 characteristic traits

There are those who base their whole lives on two very basic things: what you own and what you look like. It is the case of materialistic people, whose way of life is increasingly promoted by a society obsessed with money and possessions.

Now... what are the characteristics that define materialistic people and how can they be recognized? Let's see it next.

• Related article: "Idealistic people: the 9 traits and habits that define them"

What are materialistic people like?

It must be borne in mind that to assess the degree of materialism it is necessary to take into account the cultural and economic context in which one lives.

For example, there are those who, because they were born in a rich society lives surrounded by all kinds of products, without that meaning that you basically value those kinds of comforts. On the other hand, you can be materialistic and live in a very poor family, as we will see.

That said, let's see what those traits and habits of materialistic people are.

1. They invest a lot in improving their appearance

Who make your life revolve around your resources, they see their own body as a part of their properties and therefore they treat it as if it were a facade. In a way, they use their appearances as a capital available to them to have more power and more possibilities to access better standards of living.

2. They value others according to their possessions

For the most materialistic people, other people have value based on what they have: a very expensive car, a good wardrobe, land, or simply money. This is so because they establish their socialization priorities according to the possibilities of having more assets by staying with these people. For example, even if someone appears to have no belongings, they may be chosen as a friend because they have contacts with important people.

3. They always seek to have more

In theory, those who are materialists need not always aspire to have more things; it should simply put possessions first. However, in practice, the dynamic of consumerism that prevails today in our society it is especially primed with those who meet this psychological profile.

That is why materialistic people can become very anxious if they cannot access certain material goods. In the same way, they may plan purchases for months, so that in that time everything that is done has to do with that goal. In short, your life goals revolve around possessions, leaving out experiences or dealing with others.

• Related article: "Obsession for money: this is how it appears in our life"

4. They divide people into successful or unsuccessful

As we have seen, materialistic people establish the value of people according to what they have. This is transformed into a general principle of life in which wealth or poverty are indicators of success or failure. Whoever enjoys many resources is someone who is successful, while someone who has nothing material, or contacts (that is, the possibility of having resources in the short and medium term), has failed.

Thus, according to this point of view, each person is a project to enrich themselves, so that some work according to objective parameters, while others do not.

5. They believe that wealth depends on individual decisions and personal merits

From what we have seen earlier this other characteristic of materialistic people derives: they believe that what you have depends only on yourself, despite the fact that it really is not like that (you just have to look at the possibilities of living poor all your life simply by being born into a family in certain regions of the planet).

Thus, materialistic people are especially insensitive to those with few resources, since they have an excuse to despise them: they have not tried hard enough, they have not taken it seriously, they have been unambitious, they have little talent, etc.

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6. They invest in the brand, not so much in the profit

In order to pretend more, the materialistic logic says that sometimes it is better to invest money in the brand than in the utility of a product, since this is easily recognizable by everyone and is associated with certain sensations and ideas that, supposedly, speak about oneself.

Of course, companies are aware of this fact, and take advantage of it to inflate prices, sometimes leaving well above production expenditure, to exploit that virtual value subject to the desire for the appearance.

Curiosity: tendency to depression

Although it is not a trait that can be easily identified in materialistic people, it is also known that they have a greater tendency towards depression. The reason for this, it seems, is that they spend too much effort getting everything they want to possess, making your life very stressful and with few moments to disconnect and enjoy the little things.