The unmatchable brightness of doing: Experiential consumption facilitates greater satisfaction than spending on material possessions

Abstract

Living in a consumerist society can afford material abundance, but these gains can bring psychological costs. A developed literature suggests experiential purchases (such as trips or outdoor recreation) represent a more promising route to enduring consumer happiness than the consumption of material goods. The satisfaction from experiences extends across a rather broad time course, including the anticipation of experiential consumption, in-the-moment consumption, and retrospection. This review discusses the underlying reasons for why these effects occur, additional downstream consequences of consuming experiences, and potential directions for future work. This extensive program of research provides a simple lesson people can apply to improve wellbeing in daily life: shifting spending in the direction of doing rather than having would likely be psychologically wise.

Keywords: Consumer satisfaction; Experiential consumption; Happiness; Materialism; Well-being.