To Do or to Have? That Is the Question.

Abstract

Do experiences make people happier than material possessions? In two surveys, respondents from various demographic groups indicated that experiential purchases-those made with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience--made them happier than material purchases. In a follow-up laboratory experiment, participants experienced more positive feelings after pondering an experiential purchase than after pondering a material purchase. In another experiment, participants were more likely to anticipate that experiences would make them happier than material possessions after adopting a temporally distant, versus a temporally proximate, perspective. The discussion focuses on evidence that experiences make people happier because they are more open to positive reinterpretations, are a more meaningful part of one's identity, and contribute more to successful social relationships.

Mobile Internet and User Happiness

“…", and "how much does mobile internet contribute to your happiness in life?" [4], [22] Usage frequency ranges from "very often" (scored 1, over five hours a day) to "never used it" (scored 6). Usage variety was measured following the same approach as the Wi-Fi Adoption and Security Survey 2012 Hong Kong [11].…”

The association between experiential and material expenditures and subjective well-being: New evidence from Hungarian survey data

“…These results consequently supported the idea that money can buy happiness if it is spent right (Dunn, Gilbert, & Wilson, 2011;Dunn & Norton, 2013). One of the main findings was that spending money on experiences rather than on material goods makes people happier (Van Boven, 2005;Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003).The studies mentioned above used similar experimental designs. Typically, a small sample of university students were randomly assigned into two groups, and members of one group were asked to think about the most recent experiential purchase they made, and members of the other group were asked to think about the most recent material purchase they made.…”

“…Thomas and Millar (2013) found that experiential purchases had more impact on the self than material purchases, and they showed that this impact mediated the relationship between purchase type and subjective well-being. This characteristic of experiential purchases can also explain why we more often avoid unfavorable comparisons of experiences and why memories of experiential but not material purchases may become more positive over time (Carter & Gilovich, 2010).Experiences also have an inherent social nature (Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003); they are typically experienced with others, whereas material goods are more often enjoyed alone.1 For a detailed review see Gilovich and Kumar (2015 Finally, people adapt more quickly to material goods than experiences. Nicolao, Irwin, and Goodman (2009) examined the adaptation process after material and experiential purchases over a two-week period.…”

“…Although many purchases are in between the material-experiential spectrum, studies have shown that there are certain types of expenditures that people consider to be a prototypical material or experiential purchase. The most frequently listed examples of material purchases are clothing, electronics and jewelry, whereas the most typical examples of experiential purchases are travel, various tickets and admissions (e.g., to a concert) and outdoor sport activities (Guevarra & Howell, 2015;Van Boven, Campbell, & Gilovich, 2010;Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003).In Van Boven and Gilovich's study (2003), participants were asked to describe a recent material or experiential purchase and to rate their happiness with that purchase. The authors…”

“…4 3 Contrary to these findings, Thomas and Millar (2013) found little support for the mediating role of social relationships. 4 Of course there are some exceptions in which the researchers followed a slightly different method.Some studies followed the conventional procedure but used a more heterogeneous sample (Caprariello & Reis, 2013;Carter & Gilovich, 2012;Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003). In these experiments, participants were recruited through the internet or a telephone survey, thus representing a more general population.…”