Waiting for Merlot: Anticipatory Consumption of Experiential and Material Purchases
PRIMARY, four studies. Study 1, 97 Cornell students (60 female, mean age 20.59): anticipation of an experience rated more pleasant, M = 2.64 (SD 1.33) against M = 1.37 (SD 1.52) on a minus-four-to-four scale, t(95) = 4.37, d = 0.81; and more excited than impatient, M = 2.58 (SD 1.34) against M = 1.06 (SD 1.90), t(95) = 4.48, d = 0.84; costs did not differ. THE AUTHORS' OWN CAVEAT: both means are positive, and the authors themselves call waiting for a material good, unsurprisingly, a positive experience, the claim being only about a difference in the amount of enjoyment. Study 2, 2,266 adults in the trackyourhappiness.org experience-sampling project (median age 33, range 18-74, 61 per cent fema
PRIMARY, four studies. Study 1, 97 Cornell students (60 female, mean age 20.59): anticipation of an experience rated more pleasant, M = 2.64 (SD 1.33) against M = 1.37 (SD 1.52) on a minus-four-to-four scale, t(95) = 4.37, d = 0.81; and more excited than impatient, M = 2.58 (SD 1.34) against M = 1.06 (SD 1.90), t(95) = 4.48, d = 0.84; costs did not differ. THE AUTHORS' OWN CAVEAT: both means are positive, and the authors themselves call waiting for a material good, unsurprisingly, a positive experience, the claim being only about a difference in the amount of enjoyment. Study 2, 2,266 adults in the trackyourhappiness.org experience-sampling project (median age 33, range 18-74, 61 per cent fema
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Kumar, A., Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilovich, T. (2014). Waiting for Merlot: Anticipatory Consumption of Experiential and Material Purchases. Psychological Science, 25(10), 1924-1931. doi:10.1177/0956797614546556.