A recent study published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making confirms that experiences create stronger social connections than material possessions. Researchers found that people feel a greater sense of kinship and community when they spend money on experiences rather than on material goods.
Social relationships are crucial for mental and physical well-being. Positive interactions are linked to happiness, better health, and longer life spans, while loneliness can lead to severe mental health issues, from depression to dementia.
Given the importance of social connections, researchers from the University of Texas-Austin McCombs School of Business explored how spending on experiences versus material goods influences these connections.
Across seven experiments, researchers consistently found that experiential purchases foster greater social connection than material purchases. In the initial experiment with 301 participants showed that shared experiences create a unique bond, unlike shared possessions.
In a subsequent experiment with 96 university students, participants indicated that experiential purchases were more central to their identity than material purchases, translating into a greater sense of similarity and cohesion with others who made similar experiential purchases.
In a third experiment of 400 individuals showed that even when others made superior experiential purchases, participants still felt a strong connection. This provided evidence that unlike material purchases where it tend to draw increases in social comparisons, experiential purchases was likely to cause this.
Two additional experiments with 197 universities and 202 participants from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk showed that experiential purchases foster a broader sense of connection with others, unrelated to the cost of the purchases.
In the sixth experiment of 135 participants, investigators found that recalling experiential purchases increased the desire for social activities, whereas reflecting on material possessions dampened social interaction desires.
For final experiment with 100 university students, researchers involved real-world behavior, where those who spent money on experiences reported greater social interactions and enriched social lives compared to those who bought material items, confirming the practical benefits of experiential purchases.
“What this work suggests is that we might actually be able to build social capital from what we buy. That, in turn, could lead to more health and happiness,” stated the study’s lead author, Amit Kumar.
So stop wasting your money on material goods. Invest in yourself and your community through experiences. Find a hiking club or running group, take up tai chi or an improv class; go out and do stuff rather than getting lost on Amazon.com because those purchases will not make you feel more fulfilled.
A Kumar et al. The aptly buried “I” in experience: experiential purchases promote more social connection than material purchases. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making (2024). https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.2376
