
Experiences, Not Products, Provide Happiness - niravs
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/04/happiness-no-purchase-necessary-says-study.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29
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steveitis
This is all so true, and yet hard to focus on in real life.

I mean if the decision were phrased 'Would you rather pay a babysitter, take
your SO out for an excellent meal, followed by a night of drunken shenanigans,
and finish up making passionate love in a wonderful hot tub suite at a local
hotel or would you rather buy an iPad?' than the only people buying an iPad
would be the very lonely or those with a direct business interest.

It's just hard to keep that kind of perspective sometimes.

~~~
wallflower
What about a consumer good that can be reused daily and helps make your day to
day experience better?

In regards to the one day hot tub experience, I think people can logically
amortize the cost of the iPad/iPhone over the months and years that they'll
use it. And, I believe if a device brings a little bit of boredom breaking
into your daily routine, why deprive yourself (you're not hurting others with
your purchase decision)?

~~~
steveitis
Sometimes physical goods ARE experiential as well, for instance a nice steak,
or purchasing the hot tub outright.

The difference pointed out by the study is that the memory of the steak is
likely to make you happier in the long run than owning the hot tub even though
the steak is long gone and the hot tub is still there. After all, the hot tub
will eventually become a chore (repairs, cleaning, upgrades, etc...) but the
memory of that steak never really dies if it was extraordinary. It's
counterintuitive, but it makes sense to me.

This study is why I've started trying to focus on experiences, rather than
things, when buying gifts. So far it's worked out rather well for me.

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obsaysditto
Link to study... <http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/98/1/146/>

This study was done at Cornell, where there has been great concern for
suicides. For students there, grades are their 'product' and hopefully they
can see that grades and being at the top of their class isn't everything.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/17/education/17cornell.html>

~~~
niravs
The above link requires you to pay to read the white paper. I found the PDF
through the researcher's website in case if anyone is interested.

[http://cornellpsych.org/people/travis/materials/Carter-
Gilov...](http://cornellpsych.org/people/travis/materials/Carter-Gilovich-
Relative%2520Relativity-InPress.pdf)

EDIT: Looks like it requires to have Google as the referrer. Simply search for
the title and it's the first link.

