Island Confidential: happiness

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From New York Times Education: How to Live Wisely

By RICHARD J. LIGHT What does it mean to live a productive life? What about a happy life? Five exercises that tackle the tough questions. Try these at home. Published: July 30, 2015 at 02:00PM from NYT Education http://nyti.ms/2ldslFT Sign up for Frankie’s newsletter and get a free Professor Molly story Blog | Facebook | […]
from From New York Times Education: How to Live Wisely

From New York Times Education: How to Live Wisely

We know what will make us happy, why do we watch TV instead?

By Christian Jarrett The luxury microwave meal was delicious, the house is warm, work’s going OK, but you’re just not feeling very happy. Some positive psychologists believe this is because many of us in rich, Western countries spend too much of our free time on passive activities, like bingeing on Netflix and browsing Twitter, rather than […]
from We know what will make us happy, why do we watch TV instead?

We know what will make us happy, why do we watch TV instead?

The Type of Presents That Bring The Most Happiness

Material purchases can bring as much happiness as experiential ones, but in time-release form.

The finding is fascinating because until now studies have suggested that experiential purchases are superior.

Experiential purchases include things like holidays, concert tickets or visits to a spa.

Material purchases, though, can provide just as much pleasure in the long-run, the new research suggests.

For the study, people were asked to keep track of their levels of happiness five times a day over two weeks.

The study compared the effects of material purchases, like portable speakers and coffee makers, with experiential purchases, like tickets to a hockey game or a weekend ski trip.

The results showed that experiential purchases provided short intense bursts of pleasure which tended to fade away.

In contrast, material purchases brought repeated smaller doses of happiness over the weeks.

However, when people looked back at their purchases six weeks later, it was the experiences that gave them more satisfaction.

So, perhaps experiences still have the edge.

Mr Aaron Weidman, the study’s first author, said:

“The decision of whether to buy a material thing or a life experience may therefore boil down to what kind of happiness one desires.

Consider a holiday shopper deciding between tickets to a concert or a new couch in the living room.

The concert will provide an intense thrill for one spectacular night, but then it will end, and will no longer provide momentary happiness, aside from being a happy memory.

In contrast, the new couch will never provide a thrilling moment to match the concert, but will keep the owner snug and comfortable each day throughout the winter months.”

The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science (Weidman & Dunn, 2015).