Money can’t buy happiness? Scientists say otherwise!

Ask most people whether happiness can be bought, and without thinking they will answer ‘No’. Interestingly, a series of studies conducted in recent years has shown that this is not quite correct. It turns out that money can guarantee happiness, but it depends what you spend it on. As American actress Bo Derek once said - "Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping".

According to Professor of Psychology, Thomas Gilovich, who has been researching the relationship between money and happiness for more than 20 years, "buying things is fun, but only for a short time." Together with a group of Cornell University scientists, he has also shown that spending money on unique experiences such as travelling, concerts, camping or bungee jumping, give us a feeling of happiness that lasts for years. How is this possible?

At first glance, it would seem that the material things that stay with us for a long time should bring us more happiness, than a short holiday or a parachute jump. So why is the opposite the case? The results are surprising!

Waiting for something new

So let's start by comparing our feelings when we look forward to a unique experience with how much we look forward to buying something. The results of a study published in the Psychological Science journal show that waiting for an experience gives us more pleasure than waiting for the purchase of material things. It turns out that while waiting for an event we feel more excited, while waiting to buy an item may even cause us impatience.

Adaptability – the quiet enemy

One of the main reasons why buying more items does not make us happier is because of something called the adaptation process. Certainly, every one of us knows the feeling of when we are waiting for the moment when we can finally buy the latest item of our ‘dreams’. And whether it's a new phone, a pair of shoes or a car, the great joy of making the purchase fades pretty fast, and the new item over time becomes normal and ceases to give us as much joy as before.

This is confirmed by studies that show that our happiness persists for a few days after making the purchase and then steadily decreases. Interestingly, if we analyse in the same way the feeling of happiness after buying a unique experience such as a parachute jump, the initial level of joy is similar to when buying the material object. However, over time, our assessment of a given experience gets higher, and along with that sensation, there is also a feeling of increased happiness.

How is it possible that over time we can come to appreciate our experiences more? Dr Gilovich and a group of Cornell University researchers have decided to try to find the answer to this question as well. The conclusions they arrived at surprised everyone.

Even bad experiences in time can turn into a funny story

Research has shown that even if an experience has adversely affected the happiness of the respondents, they have had an improvement in their evaluation over time. This phenomenon is described in psychology circles as ‘Rosy Retrospection’. Scientists suspect that this is because uncomfortable and stressful experiences often turn into funny stories, which we also value as important life experiences over time. As a result, a negative adventure, such as wandering in the rain looking for a shoe store, turns into a funny story over time. Probably every one of us has memories like this which make everyone laugh when we recount them. But if we try to remind ourselves how we actually felt that day, we probably wouldn’t be laughing at all.

In addition, Professor of Psychology Ryan Howell, who works with the University of San Francisco, has proven that people misjudge the value of experiences as compared to material things. It turns out that we tend to think that objects have more value because they stay with us for a long time, while experiences are only fleeting. The results may be surprising, however. After just one month of buying an experience, respondents rated it twice as high as immediately after the event. Among people who at the same time bought material things, their value remained at the same level.

Experiences and adventures unite people

The amazing ability of our mind to "colour" our memories of different events is not the only reason that they make us happier than material purchases. It turns out that experiences better fulfil our emotional needs. Even the craziest adventures we experience with others bring us closer together. Thanks to that, we feel a much stronger connection with the people we spent holidays abroad with than with someone who just bought the same phone as us.

As Dr Thomas Gilovich says, "We consume experiences directly with other people, and after they’re gone, they’re part of the stories that we tell to one another.” As a result, even if a person was not with us at the time, we have a better chance of getting in touch with someone who has been on holiday to the same place or had a similar experience, than the person who bought the same gadget.

A story about experiences brings us joy

In addition to experiencing various adventures, it is also important that we can describe these unique experiences in our stories. In fact, we are much more likely to talk about our adventures than about the material goods we have recently acquired. Interestingly, story-telling about our unique experiences also makes us happier.

Also, unlike the purchase of material things, we rarely compare our experiences with those described by someone else. Researchers Ryan Howell and Graham Hill have proven that this is because comparing objects is simple for us and so we do it much more often. Unfortunately, when we compare what we have with the possessions of others, it often leads to a feeling of jealousy and the constant need to compete with other people, which negatively affects the general feeling of happiness. So spending money on experiences will provide not only much more joy, but also avoid unnecessary competition with others.

Invest in experiences to enjoy life!

We’ve seen that it is worth investing in experiences instead of the next pair of shoes or a new phone. So now it's time to make a list of the things you've always dreamed of and start fulfilling them. Do you dream about travelling to the other side of the world? Camping under the stars with a group of friends, or maybe you always wanted to try a bungee jump? Invest in an experience and soon you will start to feel really happy!

Sources:
news.cornell.edu/stories/2013/01/feel-happier-talk-about-experiences-not-things
psychology.unl.edu/can-money-buy-happiness   
theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/10/buy-experiences/381132/ theguardian.com/money/2016/jan/07/can-money-buy-happiness
wsj.com/articles/can-money-buy-happiness-heres-what-science-has-to-say-1415569538
Van Boven, L., To Do or to Have? That is the Question, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2013)
Gilovich, T., et al., A wonderful life: experiential consumption and the pursuit of happiness, Journal of Consumer Psychology (2014)