O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree. What presents have you kept warm for me? As holiday shopping starts to wind down, and everyone begins looking forward to the Christmas gifts that await them, it may be a great time to revisit the old saying, “Money can’t buy you happiness.” As it turns out, science thinks it can.
In a recent study from the Social Psychological and Personality Science, “researchers have shown that material purchases, from sweaters to skateboards, provide more frequent happiness over time, whereas experiential purchases, like a trip to the zoo, provide more intense happiness on individual occasions.” While purchases made for experiencing something, according to the article, correlate with higher ratings of happiness, they last for a shorter period of time. On the other hand, material purchases don’t give feelings of happiness as high as the former, but the happiness does last for a much longer duration.
So, go out and get that new purse. Have your children celebrate with the newest game console. Get you and your friends those tickets to that basketball game you’ve been dying to go to. Don’t worry, science says it’s ok.
However, it may be important to talk about one crucial part of the study: the kind of happiness you want. This study does a great job of separating happiness based on how it came about. Dr. Weidman puts it this way, “The decision of whether to buy a material thing or a life experience may therefore boil down to what kind of happiness one desires.” Think about it this way, getting tickets to a sports game will give you a large level of excitement and thrill. But once the game is over, that’s it. The happiness tends to die down afterward. With the purchase of a brand new pair of boots, it won’t ever be as special and exciting as the basketball game, but every time you where them, you’ll have a little piece of joy that goes beyond a particular event in the fact of their use and fashion appeal during the winter months.
Considering the holidays are more about giving then receiving, it may seem selfish to think about buying yourself something. But, once again, thinking about what kind of happiness brings you the most joy should also play a role in how you go about go about deciding on gifts this year. Whether you’re in a giving mood or have a “treat yourself” attitude this season, think about the kind of happiness you want to feel and remember for your 2015 holiday.
Featured image by Allie Towers Rice via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons license.
