There is an age-long debate about whether it is best to spend your money on material purchases or on experiences such as a nice meal out or a trip away. Which one will be better value for money? Which one will bring you more joy over all?
Well, research into the field of positive psychology has shown that choosing experiences will bring you more joy overall. Here are 4 reasons why:
1. Hedonic Adaptation
Hedonic Adaptation is just a fancy way of saying that the human mind is designed to get used to things. Usually this is a really useful feature of our minds. It helps us to cope with very difficult situations. It helps us to acclimatise to our new work environments so that we can stop focusing on the environment and focus on the work instead.
But this useful feature comes at a cost, which is that we get used to the good things too. Our shiny new car doesn’t seem so shiny after six months, no matter how much we spent on it. Our brand new state of the art laptop, quickly becomes just a laptop.
Paradoxically, the reason that experiences make us happier is because they end. We cannot get used to a trip away with our friends because it is over before we start to find it boring. Therefore, even though a holiday may only last us a week while a laptop might serve you for years, you will always think of the holiday with fond memories whereas one day you will be complaining about your laptop and wanting to replace it.
2. The Gift that gives 3 Times
Furthermore, gifting someone an experience is likely to bring them joy for longer. This is because not only do they get to enjoy the actual experience but they also get to look forward to it and remember it.
Studies have shown that the anticipation and excitement of an event may even contribute more to our happiness than the actual experience itself.
And when it comes to reflecting on experiences, our brains have a tendency to remember positive experiences with rose tinted windows and think that things were even better than they were. This is especially true, the further in the past the event is. When we think back on an event from 5 years ago, we will probably only remember the positive aspects and any bickering that occurred between friends and family will have been completely forgotten.
3. It is Harder to Compare Our Experiences to Others
Another reason why experiences tend to make us happier than our purchases is because it is harder to compare our experiences with others.
As humans we are social creatures and we love to compare ourselves to our peers. This can be useful when determining things like how much money we should be earning or whether our actions are moral. However, as society becomes ever increasingly materialistic, we use this feature of our minds more and more often to look at our neighbour’s new shiny car and get sad about how dull our own car is.
The reason why this makes experiences the better choice is because it is much harder to compare our experiences with another persons. If you went on holiday to Greece this year but they went on holiday to Wales, these two experiences are completely different and it would be pointless to compare them when they each have their own unique value. Similarly this applies to much smaller events, you wouldn’t compare your trip to the cinema with someone’s trip to the seaside in the same way that you might compare which models of phone you have.
4. Experiences Tend To Involve Socialising
And lastly, when most people reflect on their life, their greatest memories are those times spent with loved ones, and we are far more likely to create those memories when we choose to spend our money on experiences over new material possessions.
If you give someone a possession for christmas, they may use it for a few years but they are unlikely to treasure it forever they way they do with fond memories.
Conclusion
I am not against material purchases. You should buy that new laptop if your old one is getting incredibly slow and a new one will dramatically increase your efficiency when working. You should buy a new car if your old one has become unsafe and you should buy new socks if your old ones have holes in them. However, you should not buy physical material possessions with the expectation that they will bring you happiness. If you have money to spare, and you want to use it to make yourself happier, you will do far better by investing in experiences.
Comments