Surely you have read in numerous articles that being materialistic is not good for happiness and that money does not give the happiness .
In fact, research has found that people who are more materialistic are more likely to be less satisfied with life, be more depressed, more paranoid, and more narcissistic.
However, it has often been called into question. For example, it is known to spend money on other people and on experiences if it gives happiness.
Therefore, it is not that money does not of happiness. Have money if it can make you happy, although depending on what you spend.
Specifically, the purchases that allow you to have experiences are a good investment for your happiness:
- They improve over time in memory and help us learn, while material things decay over time.
- The experiences are difficult to compare, each is different, while material things are outdated.
- Experiences tend to be more social and being social makes us happy.
This is what research in Psychology has shown so far. However, a recent study has shown that not all material possessions are the same.
There are pure materials, such as jewelery and shopping experiences, such as tickets to tennis matches or concerts, among which are"products of experience", things that can help facilitate vital experiences.
For example, a tennis racket allows you to play games, a book allows you to imagine or learn and a guitar lets you play music.
Researchers at the University of San Francisco decided to evaluate how each of these potential purchases affect happiness. They asked several people about several purchases they made recently and if they made them happy.
The results were that purely material purchases made people less happy and that the products that allowed experiences had the same ability to produce happiness as the same experiences.
Ryan Howell, co-author of the study said:
" This is good news for materialists ".
Another important result of this study is that the products that allow you to have experiences make you gain skills and gain knowledge.
That is, playing tennis, windsurfing or reading a book, provide you with a sense of accomplishment.
As Howell says:
" If you feel unprofessional, the best way to alleviate that deprivation is with the use of products that allow experiences. If you You feel alone, you should buy life experiences and do things with other people ".
In conclusion: if you buy experiences or materials that allow you to have experiences, you will be positively influencing your happiness.