Most of us don’t have a desire for unlimited wealth

Do humans always want more, or are we sometimes just happy with our lot? This debate has long raged in multiple disciplines: economics, politics, and even philosophy. And whether an unlimited desire for more is inherent or a product of capitalism is equally hotly contested.

Paul G. Bain from the University of Bath and Renata Bongiorno from Bath Spa University explore this question in a new paper published in Nature Sustainability. They find that the assumption we always want more, no matter how much we have, may not be completely accurate: while some of us do have unlimited desire for wealth, they are not the majority.

The first study included around 2000 participants from both advanced and economically developing countries, including the US, UK, France, South Africa, China, Russia, and Brazil. As part of a larger study, participants were asked to imagine their absolutely ideal life, and to consider how much money they would want in this ideal life. They were then asked whether they wanted to enter one of eight hypothetical lotteries, each with a prize ranging from $10,000 to $100 billion. After this, participants indicated the most important change they would make with the money.

The second study recruited nearly 6000 participants from a wider number of countries, including from the Middle East, Africa, Central America, North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Participants in this study completed the same measures as in the first.

The results were similar in both studies. Relatively few participants chose the smallest values, but there was a peak between $1 million and $10 million, with a large number of participants choosing these lotteries. Interest in the larger figures then declined, with only a small number of people choosing $1 billion. But a significant number of people chose the largest, essentially "unlimited" figure of $100 billion. In the first study, for instance, 32% of Americans picked this amount, though only 8% of those from China chose this. In the second study, Indonesia had the highest proportion of participants selecting unlimited amounts at 39%, and Russia the lowest at 11%. However, it's worth noting that although a substantial number of people did pick this "unlimited" amount of money across the studies, they were always a minority.

In terms of the nationality of participants, the proportion of those selecting unlimited amounts was similar across more and less developed countries, despite the fact "luxury and consumption" is encouraged in more developed countries, as the authors point out. Where there was a difference, however, was between countries where the group is prioritised over the self: participants from these countries were more likely to select the unlimited lottery than those from more individualistic nations. Younger people and those who live in cities were also more likely to select the unlimited lottery, though there was no variation by gender, class, education or political ideology.

When asked what they would use the money for, those who selected the unlimited lottery were  more likely to say they wanted to use their money to address social problems — perhaps why this choice was more prevalent in collectivist societies. However, the majority of these participants still stated they would use the money for themselves. When asked about their values, participants who chose the unlimited figure were also no more likely to care about the welfare of others, but did place more importance on their own personal interests.

The study suggests that the idea we all want unlimited resources is probably not accurate. Further research could help us pinpoint exactly what drives our desire for certain amounts of money, limited or unlimited: for instance, it would be interesting to know whether people's views on extreme wealth and inequality influence their decisions.

Overall, the study's results could help us move towards a more sustainable and less unequal way of thinking about resources and wealth. As the team writes, "normative beliefs guide behaviour even as they are inaccurate": in other words, we sometimes fail to act on our own values because we think we are in the minority. Having limited wants, the study suggests, is normal; understanding this more thoroughly could help us consume less, even as materialistic societies encourage us to consume more.

• Emily Reynolds is a staff writer at BPS Research Digest