Buying items can actually make you happier for a longer period of time.
According to a particular ancient adage, money won’t bring it happiness but they can certainly sustain it for a long time. A team of Canadian researchers has discovered that being materialistic may guarantee your happiness.
It may very well be that the scientist efforts rested more on proving wrong that only spiritual experiences may bring true happiness. We all know what it’s like to nurture a true desire for something we have been dreaming about for a long time.
And since it’s Christmas, most people will take the shops by assault in order to buy all kind of items. From coffee maker to computers, the possibilities are virtually infinite. And it would seem that these items are capable of guaranteeing our happiness more than experiential purchases.
The team of Canadian psychologists wanted to assess the level of happiness before and after people would make certain purchases, be it materialistic or experiential. Their conclusion is certain to incite some reactions.
According to their findings, household items such as computers and coffee makers are capable of safeguarding our happiness for a longer period of time than experiential purchases.But that doesn’t mean that buying stuff is the key to everlasting happiness, far from it.
As the scientists pointed out, there are several levels or layers of expectations when it comes to happiness. Experiential purchases, such as tickets to a movie, or a trip to an exotic country, are more ephemeral in terms of happiness. This would mean that material purchases are capable of delivering us an intense dose of happiness. Unfortunately, it would seem that the feeling is confined within the physical and temporal boundaries of the event itself, meaning that once the event comes to an end, our satisfaction and happiness levels will revert back to normal.
Whereas, being materialistic may guarantee your happiness. Using a large group study, which was asked to ascertain their levels of happiness over a two-week period, the team has uncovered that people who decide to spend their earnings on certain items are happier and that their levels of happiness hold out in time.
People who went ahead to purchase tablets, smartphones, smartwatches or other items, have proved to be much happier over a longer period of time than people who made experiential purchases.
Again, we must stress out the fact that this should not be construed as a statement that experiential purchases have nothing to do with happiness, just that we are dealing with different perceptions when it comes to our personal satisfaction.
Photo credits:www.wikipedia.org
