News: The Insatiable Shopper

Feeling down? Buy yourself a pair of shoes. Or get a new gadget. That should boost your mood—right?

Not necessarily. According to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, seeing possessions as a ticket to happiness and success increases feelings of isolation. But the reverse is even stronger: Loneliness fuels materialism, creating a sometimes vicious cycle. While a fixation on "stuff"—especially around the holiday season—is usually blamed on an overly consumerist culture, the study suggests that it's often a symptom (and a cause) of individual alienation, not cultural shallowness.

"Lonely people have a tendency to become more materialistic over time," says study author Rik Pieters, a professor of marketing at Tilburg University. Some, he notes, may use shopping as a coping mechanism that is driven by their fear of rejection: "A friend might say no, but an iPad never does."—Agata Blaszczak-Boxe