Experiences Bring Happiness, Not Stuff

With all this hype about the iPad (and the fact that I don’t have one) I thought I’d console myself by rubbing in some recent research from the American Psychological Association proving things don’t bring happiness. As it turns out,

“No matter which wristwatch one buys, even if it is entirely satisfactory, it can still be compared to one in a store display — encouraging counterfactual thoughts about what it would be like with their positions reversed. After returning from vacation, in contrast, it is not so easy to compare a hypothetical Vail ski run with the waves actually ridden in Fiji.”

Experiences can’t be evaluated as clearly in contrast to alternative experiences one could have been having. Purchases, of course, have more permanent effects than most experiences. If I go to the park and play baseball tomorrow afternoon I may not even remember the experience in a week. However, the study showed that my satisfaction of the same event may actually increase over time rather than decrease:

“Satisfaction with material purchases tends to decrease over time, whereas satisfaction with experiential purchases tends to increase.”

The living proof of this has to be my grandparents. They look back on their experiences with fondness and joy but they never mention the “stuff” they owned. The conclusion? Invest in experiences you can enjoy for a lifetime over purchases you’ll enjoy for a few years. Read the rest here.

Via Unclutterer