Could Spending Money on Experiences Save the World?

Research shows that spending money on experiences instead of objects can make you happier, but can it make you a better person? Learn what scientists have found in this episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff,
Lauren bogelbam here want to cultivate a sense of gratitude
and thankfulness, spend your money on experiences, not material goods,
say researchers. It isn't necessarily a groundbreaking idea, but a
newly revealed connection may have implications that stretch far beyond

(00:23):
individual attitudes. Researchers conducted six experiments to explore the impact
of material consumption versus experience consumption on feelings of gratitude.
In one experiment, for instance, they asked participants to selectively
remember either a significant purchase or a significant experience. Those
who chose to reflect on an experience were more grateful

(00:45):
overall as expected. That's an idea borne out in previous research,
including a study from San Francisco State University that found
people who bought experiences were happier and more satisfied with
how they spent their money than those who bought material items.
And yet other studies show that engaging in new experiences

(01:06):
not only makes you feel happier, but also leads to
increased confidence and self esteem and can lead to improved health. However,
the current research team and at Kumar, a postdoctoral research
fellow at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business,
along with researchers Jesse Walker and Thomas Jilovich of Cornell University,
took the concept one step farther by giving participants the

(01:28):
power to allocate money to themselves and to someone they
would never meet. The people who remembered spending money on
experiences more than they did on things allocated a larger
portion of the money to others. This altruistic attitude can
ripple from individuals to entire communities, opening an entirely new
way to consider the benefits of experiential behavior. Kumar study

(01:51):
Cultivating Gratitude and Giving through Experiential Consumption was published in
the journal Emotion and outlined findings that described the role
of experiences in healthy communities. People become socially connected when
they reflect on experiences, according to the research, but not
when they think about possessions, Kumar said in a press
release announcing the papers publication, if people feel closer to

(02:14):
other humans, they end up treating others better. The sense
of community and how to better achieve it could change
the way policy makers and civic leaders bring people together.
Public projects such as interactive parks and libraries could make
people more likely to engage in experiences together and in
turn treat others with greater care. Today's episode was written

(02:40):
by Laurie L. Dov and produced by Tyler Klang. If
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