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Young people crave boosts to their self-esteem more than sex, money -- even late-night pizza.
That's according to new research by social scientists at Ohio State University and Brookhaven National Laboratory, who surveyed the cravings and motivations of more than 280 college students in two separate projects.
They found that the students rated compliments -- like getting praise for doing well on a test -- higher than the rewards of money, sex, eating their favorite food or spending time with friends.
It wouldn't be correct to say that the study participants were addicted to self-esteem, Brad Bushman, an Ohio State psychology professor who headed the research, told Reuters. But they were closer to being addicted to self-esteem than they were to being addicted to any other activity we studied.
Bushman said he and his colleagues were surprised by their findings. We purposely chose things that we thought college students love. Most of the participants were around 19. College students love drinking, they love sex. They are poor; they love money and getting a paycheck, he said.
But students have a surprisingly strong desire to feel worthy that trumps almost any other pleasant activity you can imagine, Bushman wrote in a statement excerpted by Time magazine. He said the findings should raise red flags about how important self-esteem is in Western society -- that perhaps there's a trend toward young people becoming more self-absorbed or hooked on their own self-esteem.
Carol Landau, a clinical professor of psychiatry and medicine at Alpert Medical School at Brown University, offered another explanation for the study's results. Sex and alcohol are readily available on college campuses, but good grades and positive feedback could be harder to come by, she said.
The other rewards are somewhat within their control, Landau told The New York Times. The self-esteem factors are not.
In one of the two studies, 130 University of Michigan students were asked to rate their favorite foods, sexual activities and other self-esteem-building experiences on a scale of 1 to 5, with one rating for how much they liked a certain thing, and another for how much they wanted it. The results showed that students generally liked some experiences more than they felt they really wanted them. The difference between what they liked and wanted was smallest for self-esteem-building experiences.
In the second study, 152 UM students were asked about their favorite activity, out of a long list of rewarding things. Self-esteem boosters won out over all other options, including sex, money, food, alcohol and spending time with a best friend.
Link: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/13/study-youths-crave-self-esteem-more-than-sex/
That's according to new research by social scientists at Ohio State University and Brookhaven National Laboratory, who surveyed the cravings and motivations of more than 280 college students in two separate projects.
They found that the students rated compliments -- like getting praise for doing well on a test -- higher than the rewards of money, sex, eating their favorite food or spending time with friends.
It wouldn't be correct to say that the study participants were addicted to self-esteem, Brad Bushman, an Ohio State psychology professor who headed the research, told Reuters. But they were closer to being addicted to self-esteem than they were to being addicted to any other activity we studied.
Bushman said he and his colleagues were surprised by their findings. We purposely chose things that we thought college students love. Most of the participants were around 19. College students love drinking, they love sex. They are poor; they love money and getting a paycheck, he said.
But students have a surprisingly strong desire to feel worthy that trumps almost any other pleasant activity you can imagine, Bushman wrote in a statement excerpted by Time magazine. He said the findings should raise red flags about how important self-esteem is in Western society -- that perhaps there's a trend toward young people becoming more self-absorbed or hooked on their own self-esteem.
Carol Landau, a clinical professor of psychiatry and medicine at Alpert Medical School at Brown University, offered another explanation for the study's results. Sex and alcohol are readily available on college campuses, but good grades and positive feedback could be harder to come by, she said.
The other rewards are somewhat within their control, Landau told The New York Times. The self-esteem factors are not.
In one of the two studies, 130 University of Michigan students were asked to rate their favorite foods, sexual activities and other self-esteem-building experiences on a scale of 1 to 5, with one rating for how much they liked a certain thing, and another for how much they wanted it. The results showed that students generally liked some experiences more than they felt they really wanted them. The difference between what they liked and wanted was smallest for self-esteem-building experiences.
In the second study, 152 UM students were asked about their favorite activity, out of a long list of rewarding things. Self-esteem boosters won out over all other options, including sex, money, food, alcohol and spending time with a best friend.
Link: http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/13/study-youths-crave-self-esteem-more-than-sex/
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