It's a good news for all the shopaholics, a recent study has found that material things can bring happiness.
Researchers from Society Personality and Social Psychology 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.
The research found out that material purchases bring repeated doses of happiness over time in the weeks after they are bought, whereas experiential purchases offer a more intense but fleeting dose of happiness.
Researcher Weidman said that the decision of whether to buy a material thing or a life experience may therefore boil down to what kind of happiness one desires.
He added consider a holiday shopper deciding between tickets to a concert or a new couch in the living room. The concert will provide an intense thrill for one spectacular night, but then it will end, and will no longer provide momentary happiness, aside from being a happy memory. In contrast, the new couch will never provide a thrilling moment to match the concert, but will keep the owner snug and comfortable each day throughout the winter months.
The study is published in the journal of Social Psychological and Personality Science.
