Rethink “Awesome Stuff”
Invest in experiences rather stuff
Boven & Gilovich (2003). To Do or to Have? That Is the Question. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(6), 1193–1202.
This paper tells us it is better to do than to have - experiences make people happier
Kumar et al. (2014). Waiting for Merlot: Anticipatory Consumption of Experiential and Material Purchases. Psychological Science, 25(10),1924-1931.
This paper tells us experiences have a longer-lasting effect on happiness
Pchelin & Howell (2014). The hidden cost of value-seeking: People do not accurately forecast the economic benefits of experiential purchases. The Journal of Positive Psychology,9(4), 322-334.
This paper tells us when looking at future purchases we’re more likely to value material purchases over experiential purchase but when looking at past purchases we’re more likely to value experiences over material goods
Boven et al. (2010). Stigmatizing materialism: On stereotypes and impressions of materialistic and experiential pursuits. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(4), 551–563.
This paper tells us we are socially driven to avoid materialism
Howell & Hill (2009). The mediators of experiential purchases: Determining the impact of psychological needs satisfaction and social comparison. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(6), 511-522.
This paper tells us experiential purchases make you feel more alive and are less susceptible to social comparisons
Thwart Your Adaptation
Savoring
Jose et al. (2012). Does savoring increase happiness? A daily diary study. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(3), 176-187.
This paper tells us savoring positive experiences makes you happier
Lyubomirsky et al. (2006). The costs and benefits of writing, talking, and thinking about life’s triumphs and defeats. Journal of personality and social psychology, 90(4), 692.
This paper tells us thinking about life’s positive moments makes you happier-- and so does writing about life’s negative moments
Negative visualization
Koo et al. (2008). It’s a wonderful life: Mentally subtracting positive events improves people’s affective states, contrary to their affective forecasts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(5), 1217–1224.
This paper tells us thinking about how something good in your life might not have happened actually makes you happier
Make this day your last
Kurtz (2008). Looking to the future to appreciate the present: The benefits of perceived temporal scarcity. Psychological Science, 19(10), 1238-1241.
This paper tells us you enjoy things more when you think it’s going to end soon
Gratitude
Emmons et al. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of personality and social psychology, 84(2), 377.
This paper tells us that gratitude - counting the good things in our lives - makes us happy
Seligman et al. (2005). Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5):410-21
This paper explores several happiness interventions and tells us gratitude interventions can increase happiness
Barton et al. (2015). Linking financial distress to marital quality: The intermediary roles of demand/withdraw and spousal gratitude expressions. Personal Relationships, 22, 536–549.
This paper tells us being grateful can help us through difficult times (as seen in the case of marriage)
Grant & Gino (2010). A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior.Journal of personality and social psychology, 98(6), 946.
This paper tells us receiving gratitude makes us feel valued and motivates us to be more generous
Reset Your Reference Points
Morewedge et al (2010). Consuming experience: Why affective forecasters overestimate comparative value. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46 (6), 986-992.
This paper tells us how we predict how happy something will make us in relation other standards either inferior or superior. The example in lecture is thinking about how much you will enjoy eating potato chips in comparison to chocolate and then in comparison to sardines.
Interrupt consumption
Nelson & Meyvis (2008). Interrupted consumption: Adaptation and the disruption of hedonic experience. Journal of Marketing Research, 45(6), 654-664.
This paper tells us that despite not wanting them, breaks actually make us enjoy positive experiences more
Nelson et al. (2009). Enhancing the Television-Viewing Experience through Commercial Interruptions. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(2), 160-172.
This paper tells us that commercials actually make watching TV more positive
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