Experiential Purchases

What it is

In their 2003 paper, Van Boven and Gilovich defined experiential purchases as those made with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience. In two surveys, respondents from various demographic groups said experiential purchases had made them happier than material purchases, and in a laboratory experiment people felt more positive after thinking about an experience they had bought than after thinking about an object. The authors suggested three reasons: experiences are more open to positive reinterpretation, they become a more meaningful part of a person's identity, and they contribute more to social relationships.

In effect

The advantage connects to hedonic adaptation. A 2009 study by Leonardo Nicolao, Julie Irwin and Joseph Goodman found that people adapt more slowly to experiences than to objects, which keeps the feeling from an experience alive for longer. When the experience goes well, that is an advantage. For anyone deciding how to spend on pleasure, it suggests that a good experience, especially one shared with other people, may keep its value longer than an object of similar cost.

What it does not say

It does not say that experiences always win. The 2009 study found that when a purchase turned out badly, experiences offered no advantage and, for some people, produced less happiness than a disappointing object. A 2020 meta-analysis by Evan Weingarten and Joseph Goodman, covering 360 effects from 141 studies, supported the advantage overall but estimated that about a third of the effect may be due to publication bias. It found the advantage more tied to feeling connected to others than to happiness as such, and smaller for negative experiences, for solitary experiences, for lower socioeconomic status consumers, and when the experience and the object offer similar practical benefits. A 2018 study by Jacob Lee, Deborah Hall and Wendy Wood found no experiential advantage for people of lower social class, who were made happier by material purchases or equally happy with both.

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