Happiness can be bought, you just need to know what to spend money on
What would you go for to get a million dollars? 65% of people would be willing to spend a year on a desert island, and 30% in prison. For three million, about 7% could go to murder. This is the result of one of the polls conducted by the researcher of materialism Marsha Richins of the University of Missouri.
Everyone wants to have money, but as works on the topic of happiness show, it can easily make only the very poor happy. "Over the past 40 years, the standard of living of Americans has at least doubled, while the level of happiness has remained virtually unchanged," writes Jakub Kryś, a scientist at the Institute of Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. It turns out that if we have a roof over our heads, a wardrobe full of overflowing and a refrigerator, then money brings us joy only when we know what to spend it on.
The millstones of hedonism
People need money not to save it, but to spend it. A new car to make it safer and more comfortable to travel, an expensive TV to have perfect sound and picture, shoes and a dress in a fashionable color to dress beautifully for work, the latest iPhone, because it is better than the previous one … Even the most rational reasons for the next purchases are not explained, why, for the sake of possession of objects, we are ready to risk our own peace of mind and safety by getting into loans. As we become richer, we increase the comfort of our lives, but we do not become happier with it, noted the late American economist Tibor Scitovsky.
According to Marsha Richins, the real reason for falling into a shopping vicious cycle is a desire for change and a genuine belief that wonderful things will help us improve our social connections and increase productivity, that our lives will improve. With this approach, purchases become a self-sufficient goal. That's why we get into debt so easily, Richkins writes in an article in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing.
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The pleasure of the very desire to possess something is more experienced by materialists than non-materialists. The feeling of happiness preceding the purchase is the stronger, the greater the belief in the “magic potential” of a particular product. Unfortunately, even the most intense pleasure of planned purchases instantly dissolves when we bring them home. “At this moment, the so-called millstones of hedonism begin to work. Positive experiences, especially material pleasures, quickly become commonplace. What gave us great joy after some time ceases to act on us, becoming habitual,”explains Jakub Krys.
Adventure for money
Psychologists study the shopping process closely, dividing it into the smallest details. The conclusions that appear in their works sound optimistic: it turns out that money can still make you happier. Not only is it equally enjoyable, the key to happiness is not the amount of money, but the way it is spent. We must strive so that the inner millstones do not grind our pleasure and joy in an instant. It makes sense to buy experiences and experiences because the brain takes longer to get used to them. Memory pushes material goods into the background, turning them into an insignificant background of everyday life, and protects experience, especially positive emotions from oblivion. Over time, the experienced events become more expressive, undergo rethinking, and as a result, a not very successful vacation after years can turn into a wonderful episode. Instead of becoming overgrown with objectsit is better to “consume” theater performances, concerts or sporting events. Traveling around the world can be called an investment in happiness, but the same amount left in a car dealership is no longer. The items we buy rarely meet our high expectations. The satisfaction with the purchase disappears completely when we begin to ponder what we could have had instead. Scientists have verified that spending, for example, on an unsuccessful trip to a restaurant (the waiter poured wine on us, the tie got into the soup, the dishes did not suit our taste) do less harm to a person than on a frustrating gadget.rarely meet our high expectations. The satisfaction with the purchase disappears completely when we begin to ponder what we could have had instead. Scientists have verified that spending, for example, on an unsuccessful trip to a restaurant (the waiter poured wine on us, the tie got into the soup, the dishes did not suit our taste) do less harm to a person than on a frustrating gadget.rarely meet our high expectations. The satisfaction with the purchase disappears completely when we begin to ponder what we could have had instead. Scientists have verified that spending, for example, on an unsuccessful trip to a restaurant (the waiter poured wine on us, the tie got into the soup, the dishes did not suit our taste) do less harm to a person than on a frustrating gadget.
Another important advantage of experiences is that they are difficult to compare. Namely, comparisons are the main enemy of happiness. We are much less happy with a promotion, buying a large apartment or a new car, if our neighbor or colleague got an even better promotion, bought a house with a garden, or an incomparably better model of car. In a study conducted 20 years ago, respondents were asked what they would prefer: receive 50 thousand dollars when a friend gets 25, or 100 thousand when he earns 200 thousand. Almost half of the respondents preferred the first option, although in the second they themselves were twice as rich. The respondents answered more “normally” to the question about vacation: what do you prefer - two weeks versus one with a friend, or a month when someone else takes two? In this case, only 15% were envious. Most preferred a long vacation, even if it was even longer for colleagues.
The brain likes surprises
We value our experience also because it gives us a sense of development. A visit to a museum, even if the exhibition is unusually boring, becomes valuable because of the thought that we have learned something or improved our cultural level. Such a feeling will not come to us when hunting for sales, even on the best streets of Paris and London.
The money spent on the experience will help you prove yourself at a friendly party, advise Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton in Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending. The stories about the past are usually interesting, they have a plot and tension. Conversations about impressions allow us to rejoice over episodes from the past and improve the mood of those who hear them in our retelling. It is better to keep silent about overseas purchases, because protruding property status will transfer us into the category of not the most pleasant people.
Materialism has a negative impact on communication with friends, and it is on these connections that the feeling of happiness largely depends. Professor Leaf Van Boven from the University of Colorado argues that spending money solely on material goods reduces popularity among acquaintances. According to popular belief, the person who accumulates things is selfish and self-centered, while the one who collects impressions is considered an open and friendly altruist. However, people who talk only about their acquisitions are simply boring.
Buying material goods, one should avoid routine and excess. The brain loves surprises. Even the smallest surprise brings a lot of joy, because consciousness erases the advantages of known events. “There is a bit of an oddity in our nature: no matter how much we love certain things, if we get them too often, they become boring. Research has shown that this applies to a wide variety of areas. We react to shopping in much the same way as we react to the tastiest cake: the first bite is delicious, and the fiftieth bite is already nauseous,”says Professor Michael Norton of the Harvard Business School to Focus. In his book Happy Money, he advises using a simple strategy: if you stop for a while, for example, buying coffee in the morning, after a while you will experience pleasure from it again. Buying some little thing for a loved one,we experience more pleasure than spending money on ourselves. Even small amounts can help strengthen our social connections, and the stronger they are, and the closer contacts we establish with others, the happier we will feel. Helping the poor also improves our mood. It is better to give than to take - this rule works regardless of place of residence and size of income, which was proved by a Gallup survey conducted in 2006-2008 with the participation of 235 thousand respondents from 120 countries. In turn, Lara Aknin of the University of British Columbia asked 820 students from universities in Canada and Uganda to describe the situations in which they last spent money on themselves and others. The very memory of spending money on someone else increased the feeling of happiness.
The power of materialism
If we want to possess something, we must pay for it immediately. The reverse sequence (first consumption, and then exhausting loan repayment) kills a significant part of the pleasure available for money. Paying is always unpleasant, so it's better not to prolong this process. Imagine that during a romantic dinner in a restaurant, a waiter constantly stands at your table and asks for payment for each next piece. Such an evening will not leave pleasant memories, and the food will seem tasteless, even if it was prepared by the greatest culinary virtuosos. However, there is a trap in dividing the goods into those that do not bring pleasure and those that can make us happy. Everyone will agree that a new watch is 100% tangible and a trip to a music festival is a pure experience. But what is a new bike or kayak? What is it:tangible objects or new means of travel to the dream world? Will a bicycle be the same for a person who is going to cross the Low Beskydy on it on vacation, and for a person who rides in a city park a couple of times a year? Some scholars divide purchases into two categories: hedonistic (promoting pleasure) and purely practical, which allow you to achieve certain goals. But even here there is room for questions. For example, how do you value a gas grill, which costs 10 times more than a coal one? Is this hedonism or pure practicality?riding in the city park a couple of times a year? Some scholars divide purchases into two categories: hedonistic (promoting pleasure) and purely practical, which allow you to achieve certain goals. But even here there is room for questions. For example, how do you value a gas grill, which costs 10 times more than a coal one? Is this hedonism or pure practicality?riding in the city park a couple of times a year? Some scholars divide purchases into two categories: hedonistic (promoting pleasure) and purely practical, which allow you to achieve certain goals. But even here there is room for questions. For example, how do you value a gas grill, which costs 10 times more than a coal one? Is this hedonism or pure practicality?
Spending money and getting pleasure from it is not as easy as scientists describe in their universal formulas. Most of us are unaware of the power of our materialism. The standards of life are imposed on us by our environment, and contrary to the advice of experts, we usually want to have a new car, a furnished apartment and prefer to spend money on ourselves and not on others. Dunn and Norton advise, as part of the work on changing consumer skills, to carefully record all purchases for some time, dividing them into two groups: purely material and enjoyable.
When planning expenses, you should remember about the relatively regular replenishment of a feeling of happiness: at least once every few months, because this joy does not last so long.
Ewa Nieckuła