Making yourself miserable keeping up with the Joneses? Your brain may be to blame

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-08-05 04:00

International

What does this mean?

Jump to: MultimediaAttachmentsExpert Reaction

Do you crave more and more stuff even though it's making you miserable? Well, we can probably blame our brains for our relentless pursuit of material goods, according to a computer simulation study by US and German scientists. Some of their simulated 'brains' were given a simple 'reward', while others were given an extra reward when they based decisions on prior expectations and on comparing their rewards with others. The latter group was less happy, but learned faster than the former, and outperformed them in all the tests they carried out. The team says the results may help explain why we become trapped in a cycle of never-ending wants and desires, and may shed light on psychopathologies such as depression, materialism, and overconsumption.