By Brad Young, from the Money team
Can money buy happiness?
When most people think about this question their minds turn to lottery winners. Does all that money really make them happy, they wonder with at least as much envy as curiosity.
But what about the rest of us? The average UK salary is £36,000 a year – so we set out to discover whether normal Britons, the ones who can’t purchase yachts and flashy Italian cars, are truly able to make themselves happy with the swipe of a plastic card, and if so, what’s the best way to go about it.
It turns out that the types of things you buy, how you purchase them and who you buy them for can be the difference between fleeting joy, lasting happiness and even an insight into what it means to be a human being…
Experiences v material goods
One of the most popular pieces of advice is to spend money on experiences rather than material goods, but this is not just for the reasons you might think, according to Kristen Duke, a social scientist at the University of Toronto.
Going to gigs or on holiday is more memorable and more social than the short-term high gained from buying clothes or gadgets, creating longer-lasting happiness, she said.
But the period before an experience also gives you access to a form of happiness thought to be unique to humans: anticipated joy.
“You’re getting essentially a taste of how you will feel at that experience,” Ms Duke says
“So if I’m anticipating going on vacation to Hawaii, then I can imagine the sun shining on me and imagine the peace I’ll get from having the waves wash over me, and I get a little dose of that happiness,” said Ms Duke.
She said the ability to simulate how we might feel in different situations is “something some people have argued makes people different from animals”.
Hybrid purchases
The problem, according to Ms Duke, is that what makes experiences “so special and interesting and meaningful and social also means that they are inherently ephemeral and fading and we lose them”.
Hybrid purchases like musical instruments, video games or souvenirs add a material dimension to an experience that allows them to live on, she said.
“The combination of both – being very material and being very experiential – can tend to yield the highest happiness.”
Minimalism
Saving more money for days out for experiences like family trips is part of the reason why author Joshua Becker became a minimalist.
For 16 years he has practised minimalism and written multiple books on the subject, which he defines as removing things from his life that distract him from doing what he values most.
“I own fewer possessions so that I can free up time and money and energy for the things that actually matter and bring real happiness,” said Mr Becker, whose lifestyle is followed by hundreds of thousands of people on YouTube and Instagram.
“The happiness that we get from possessions is always short and temporal.”
Mr Becker has downsized his home by a third, spends little on storage, keeps no more than 33 articles of clothing and owns no homeware extras like spare towels, bedsheets and tupperware.
“I could have a house full of clutter or I could make these amazing memories with my family that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”
He added: “I look back on those last 16 years and I don’t regret a thing. I love the memories we’ve had.”
Social spending
Mr Becker has also found happiness in donating to his church or investing it in his non-profit, The Hope Effect, which supports foster-style care in countries without a fostering system.
His positive emotional response will be familiar to Lara Aknin, professor of social psychology at Simon Fraser University, Canada.
Her research found that spending money on others instead of yourself can boost wellbeing.
Choosing to be generous gives people a sense of autonomy, social connection and positive impact.
This is especially true when paying for a shared dinner instead of a gift voucher, or collaborating to raise money for charity rather than making a solitary donation.
“Humans are very social creatures and these gifts that we give to other people allow us to build, strengthen and maintain relationships that are important to us,” said Prof Aknin.
“We see these emotional benefits with as little as $2.50 (£2), it’s not necessarily about big, grand gestures.”
Choice overload
You might assume having a world of options at our fingertips would make it more likely you’re happy with a product – but that’s not exactly right.
The number of choices you face can become so large that it can cause buyer’s regret, said Ms Duke.
This is because people are more likely to imagine that an alternative they didn’t purchase could have been better.
Ms Duke said consumers should use online tools to reduce their choices – and remember that just because information about small differences is available, that doesn’t mean they will affect your experience of the product.
Addiction
For a few, the process of choosing and buying products can become compulsive, as Nuno Albuquerque, an addictions counsellor with 20 years of experience in the field, knows well.
The same fleeting “high” obtained from buying a product can become an obsession for some, often as a result of underlying mental health issues like low self-esteem, depression or trauma, he said.
“We know that buying such items or spending money can have an effect on the brain, on the dopamine levels,” said Mr Albuquerque.
“It’s like using a drug, and people start to rely on that and the obsession starts to kick in.”
He said shopping around can activate dopamine production as much as the purchase itself, much like the pursuit of success in gambling.
People can spend hours shopping online, sometimes forgoing food or sleep, or causing financial or relationship breakdown, he said.
The crash that comes after the product arrives can cause shame, guilt or self-loathing, Mr Albuquerque explained.
“It is about trying to feel better. It’s like the slogan: Happiness is an inside job.”