Book | We Want to Be the Owner of Everything - Pursuit

A book I came to know during a recent book study, We Want to Be the Owner of Everything.
Personally, my impression is that the book's overall content seems to expand from the Endowment Effect into various psychological phenomena including Loss Aversion, while explaining them. I'm posting some additional, insight-filled interpretations from the author that I couldn't include in the previous post. 

People Addicted to Pursuit

What is it that pushes us to acquire things? Why do some people think of themselves as shopping addicts? An ordinary person might think that acquisition itself delivers great satisfaction, but many people obsessed with shopping will testify that the anticipation of acquisition is, in fact, the more powerful force. Such anticipation can grow into outright fervor. As we can see in the rise of the 'Black Friday' phenomenon - where shoppers, gripped by the expectation of gain, fight to be the first to grab a discounted product - even law-abiding citizens can turn into a law-disregarding mob. There have even been cases of people being trampled to death while charging toward sale items.

Twisting William James's quote that the human "self" is the sum of all that he can call his own, Jean-Paul Sartre wrote: "A human being is not so much the sum of what he already has, as the sum of what he does not yet have, what he could have." In Sartre's view, what defines who we are is the pursuit of a goal, not acquisition. And his insight aligns with the neuroscience of motivation. The brain has mechanisms that operate differently depending on whether we already own something or want to own it!" An object already perceived as an extension of the self is integrated into the neural network that generates the sense of self. By contrast, an object we want may stimulate our sense of self, but it also activates the system that responds to the novelty and excitement of the chase. If we think it over carefully, we spend far more time pursuing pleasure than consuming it. The common thread among the most enjoyable experiences is novelty. Bring the Coolidge Effect to mind. As Brian Knutson, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, has pointed out, the long tradition of exploration - from transoceanic voyages to mountain climbing and the moon landing - amply demonstrates the powerful force of novelty that motivates us. The reason we celebrate and remember such people is also that, through them, a kind of ownership has been established for the first time. An easily achieved goal feels less rewarding than an achievement that took much time and effort. Why is that?

An explanation for this can be found in how the various brain systems that motivate us to attain goals operate. Deep within the brainstem - the oldest part of the brain, supporting all life functions - sits the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Here are the dopamine neurons that activate the brain's motivation system, which responds to novelty and reward. One such region is the striatum at the top of the brainstem, a network of interconnected systems that control our behavior in relation to punishment and reward. In 1954, James Olds and Peter Milner, psychologists at McGill University in Canada, while studying the brain's learning mechanisms in rats, would stimulate various brain regions with electrodes whenever a rat happened to touch something that, literally, excited it. A rat with an electrode implanted in the septum - corresponding to the human striatum - would keep pressing a lever to receive brief electric shocks even to the point of refusing food and drink. The rat had become addicted to the exciting stimulus. The dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area also extend to the prefrontal cortex, where executive decisions are made. This is where the passion of pursuit is regulated. Together with the ventral tegmental area, the striatum and the prefrontal cortex make up the motivational circuit that confirms our goals and initiates the pursuit of them.

Many studies carried out since the brain's pleasure center was first discovered have confirmed that dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area are activated by various addictive human activities, such as sex, drugs, and rock and roll." And shopping would be on this list as well. In studies of patients given drugs that regulate dopamine activity to control Parkinson's disease, one side effect was an increase in gambling, sex addiction, and shopping addiction.  All these side effects are related to the anticipation of pleasure. They are all related to the anticipation of pleasure. As when Dr. Frank-N-Furter teases us in the musical <The Rocky Horror Picture Show>, what gives us the greatest enjoyment is not conquest but anticipation. Knutson and his colleagues demonstrated that the anticipation of a discount sale activates the ventral tegmental area, while a high price or financial loss is registered in the aversion center of the insula."

We think the joy of acquisition fuels consumer culture, but in reality, it is pursuit that pushes us to fill our lives with all kinds of stuff. Goals based on the motivation of acquisition are essentially tied to reward, so when we fail to attain a goal we feel disappointment or frustration. But achieving the goal does not bring satisfaction either, because acquisition does not deliver the joy we anticipated. Even if it does bring joy, that feeling habituates so easily that we begin looking for the next thing we 'must have' all over again.

Even before we get a possession in hand, our brain is already savoring the expected gain. And once we get it, we attach excessive value to it because the possession is an extension of the self. The problem is that many people quickly habituate and set out in search of the next conquest. With this powerful emotional drive that finds it hard to be satisfied with possessions, some people cannot stop their acquisitive behavior, and may end up losing their life or being literally suffocated by their possessions. p.275





Are possession and happiness the same thing?

Through the power of possession, we extend our personal self into the world, and through possessions we communicate our identity and status to others. The reason the loss of possessions strikes us is not so much because of their value but because they represent our identity to a considerable degree. This relationship varies among individuals and cultures, but we all construct our sense of self to some extent through possession. This explains not only our motivation to have more, but also why we struggle so much to let go of what we have. To address the unrelenting issues of materialism and consumer culture, not to mention territorial disputes, we need to understand this peculiar relationship between human beings and the things they own.

Our irrational behavior arises because we identify ourselves with what we think of as our possessions. But there is an essentially contradictory side to this. We overvalue our possessions and find it hard to let them go because they represent our identity, but we also habituate easily to most of our possessions. In our unrelenting yet ultimately unfulfilled desire to elevate our identity, we strive to get our hands on more. This may give us a greater feeling of success, but ironically, the more we accumulate, the less satisfying it becomes.

Surely you'll disagree with the claim that materialistic goals do not bring satisfaction. In fact, you'll think that the basic warning of this book has nothing to do with you. Many people are convinced that they will be satisfied if they have more, and so all the motivations of life are built on this belief. Possession is a core issue of our morality, politics, and worldview - the only way to settle the related debate is to look at the data. Not just data from one or two studies on a wired group, but the data from as many studies on as many people as possible that explore the link between materialism and happiness.

Research about all such available studies is called meta-analysis. Rather than relying on a particular study, research group, or individual scientist that may be biased in finding a particular result, meta-analysis averages the findings of many studies and so provides a far more balanced and accurate assessment of the relevant field. As such, it has become the standard of scientific research. And there is a jury, too. According to the most comprehensive recent meta-analysis carried out by Helga Dittmar's research team at the University of Essex, on more than 750 measurements drawn from over 250 independent studies, "there is a clear and consistent negative correlation between various types of personal happiness and the beliefs of those who prioritize materialistic pursuits in life." 38. This holds regardless of culture, age, or gender. Although several factors weaken this relationship, in no case has a positive relationship been found.

If we were satisfied with what we currently own, we would not need to strive to have more. But considering all of it - the thrill of the chase, the desire for status, the destructive effect of expected loss - we can see that possession is one of human beings' most powerful drives, and that it rarely yields to reason. Of course, most people think they are free of that desire, that they are the exception. And so, in the end, we cannot let go of what we have in our hands. p.293

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