THE SCIENCE BEHIND EXPERIENTIAL HAPPINESS

Our world has reached crazy levels of consumption and mostly consuming material things that do not enrich our souls. With the rise of the new marketing of Social Media people are being influenced more than ever to consume all the time. But what if that consumption was driven to the right type of consumption?

In the last decade, psychology research has shown scientifically that experiences bring more happiness to people than material possessions. Since 2003, psychology professor Thomas Gylovich from Cornell University has been studying and figuring out why experiential purchases provide more happiness to people than material purchases and in 2014 he presented alongside professor Matthew Killingsworth and Amid Kumar from Cornell some interesting conclusions; spending money on experiences provides more enduring happiness.

Essentially, the anticipation of buying an experience is the driver of happiness. They say that waiting for an experience elicits more excitement and happiness than waiting for a material thing. The opposite happens when you wait for a material object as it is filled with impatience rather than excitement. More over, the experiences that we go through have a long lasting effect than those material things which normally deteriorate, become obsolete and most times have a short life span. Experiences are ephemeral but that makes us cherish and savour them and with time they get even better as they are something that we will remember during our life and pass on the memory to friends and family. This ends up also in a reason for social connection as we interact with others in a positive way and share these memories with a happy outcome which is happiness.

An interesting result of this research was as well that on this anticipation for an experiential purchase human beings have better mood than those that anticipate the purchase or arrival of a material purchase. Also, people tend to be more generous and likely to pursue social activities as opposed to those waiting for a material purchase. When purchasing an experience we tend to plan in advance this purchase and that makes us flavour it even better as we plan, anticipate and experience making of it the best of purchases.

Short and sweet, if you want to be happy, have and active life and live well… don’t think twice and invest in life experiences!!