Comparison Of The Effects Of Experiential And Material Purchases On Happiness In The Situation Of Purchasing For Self And Others

In the last decade,a number of studies suggested that spending money on experiences—those made with the primary intention of acquiring a life experience rather than on material possessions—those made with the primary intention of acquiring physical goods tends to make people happier.The reasons for this include: Experiences are more open to positive reinterpretation;Experiences are more central to one's identity;Experiences take place with others more often and have greater social value;Experiences tend to be less comparative than material possessions;consumers adapt more slowly to experiential purchases than to material purchases(so in the positive purchases,experience purchases are happier than physical purchases.);the motivation behind experiential and material purchases is asymmetric and so on.The phenomenon that experience purchases are happier than physical purchases is true in some situations,but false in other situations.Researchers explored it in different situations,and pointed out that spending money on experiences is not always happier than spending money on material possessions.These situations include: different outcome valence of purchase(positive purchases and negative purchases);different personality characteristics of consumers(materialism and Non materialism;high self-discrepancy and low self-discrepancy);different socioeconomic status(high SES and low SES);different purchase motivation(high and low happiness and meaning seeking motivation);whether there is others in the experiences.Current study explored the relative superiority of experiential and material purchases in the situation of purchasing for self and others.The preliminary study investigated people's purchasing behaviors in their daily life,suggested that the daily purchasing behaviors include experiential purchases for self,material purchases for self,experiential purchases for others,material purchases for others.Study 1 conducted a 2(purchase type)× 2(purchase object)ANOVA,results showed that spending money on experiences rather than on material possessions tends to make people happier while purchasing for self,yet spending money on material possessions rather than on experiences tends to make people happier while purchasing for others.Study 2 inquired into the psychological mechanism of material purchases superior to experiential purchases while purchasing for others according to self-determination theory(SDT).Results showed that the relationship between purchasing for others and happiness caused by buying is mediated by competence need satisfaction,competence need satisfaction elicited by material purchases for others is significant higher than that elicited by experiential purchases for others.The discussion focuses on the innovation and limitations of current study and the future directions.