A recent study published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making has confirmed that experiences create stronger social connections than material possessions. By investigating how different types of purchases affect feelings of social connectedness, researchers have found that people feel a greater sense of kinship and community when they spend money on experiences rather than on material goods.
“What this work suggests is that we might actually be able to build social capital from what we buy. That, in turn, could lead to more health and happiness,” said study author Amit Kumar, assistant professor of marketing and psychology at Texas McCombs.
Numerous studies have shown that social relationships are crucial for mental and physical well-being. Positive social interactions are linked to happiness, better health, and even longer life spans. Conversely, loneliness and social exclusion can lead to severe mental health issues, including depression and cognitive decline.
Given the importance of social connections, the researchers wanted to explore whether different types of spending—on experiences versus material goods—might influence these connections. Previous studies hinted that experiences might provide more lasting satisfaction than material items, but there was limited empirical evidence to confirm whether experiential purchases indeed enhance social connections.
Across a series of seven experiments, the researchers consistently found that experiential purchases foster greater feelings of social connection compared to material purchases. Each experiment focused on different aspects of these purchases and their social implications.
An initial experiment with 301 participants (recruited from Microsoft’s Cloud Research Connect) found that participants felt a stronger sense of similarity and kinship with someone who had made the same experiential purchase as they had, compared to someone who made a similar material purchase or someone with whom they had no shared purchase. This suggests that shared experiences create a unique bond that shared possessions do not.
In a subsequent experiment, which included 96 university students, the researchers aimed to understand why experiential purchases might lead to stronger social connections. Participants indicated that their experiential purchases were more central to their identity compared to material purchases. This sense of identity connection then translated into a greater feeling of similarity and kinship with others who had made similar experiential purchases.
A mediation analysis confirmed that the reason behind the stronger social connection is that experiences are more intertwined with who we are, as opposed to material goods which are less representative of our true selves.
For their third experiment, the researchers tested if the sense of connection would still hold if the other person had made a superior, upgraded version of the same purchase. The results, based on responses from 400 individuals, showed that even when participants knew the other person’s experiential purchase was better, they still felt a strong connection. This indicates that the inherent value of shared experiences is robust enough to withstand social comparisons, unlike material purchases where such comparisons can often lead to envy and reduced social bonds.
In two additional experiments, the researchers examined whether the benefits of experiential purchases extended beyond specific individuals to a broader sense of connection with others in general. These experiments included 197 university affiliates and 202 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.
Participants who reflected on significant experiential purchases reported higher levels of generalized social connection, feeling more connected to humanity at large. This effect was consistent even when controlling for the cost of the purchases, reinforcing that the social benefits of experiences are not tied to their financial value but rather to their nature as shared activities.
In yet another experiment with 135 participants, the researchers investigated whether recalling experiential purchases would increase participants’ desire for social activities. Participants who reflected on experiential purchases showed a stronger preference for engaging in social activities compared to those who recalled material purchases.
Interestingly, those in the control group, who did not reflect on any purchases, exhibited similar preferences to the experiential group. This suggests that thinking about material possessions might actually dampen the desire for social interaction, highlighting a potential negative aspect of materialism.
The final experiment, which included 100 university students, moved beyond recollections to real-world behavior by providing participants with money to make either an experiential or material purchase. One week later, those who spent the money on experiences reported greater social interactions and felt that their social lives were more enriched compared to those who spent it on material items. This practical application confirmed the earlier findings and demonstrated that the benefits of experiential purchases are not just theoretical but manifest in real life.
“A growing body of evidence has demonstrated that experiences tend to produce more enduring happiness than material possessions — and, as we find here, enhanced feelings of social connection,” the researchers concluded. “The results of these experiments suggest that when consumers buy experiences rather than things, they are not only investing in themselves, but in each other as well. Although there is an ‘I’ in experience, it is aptly buried in the middle of the word. Even when pursued individually or thought about in the abstract, our experiences connect us to others.”
The study, “The Aptly Buried ‘I’ in Experience: Experiential Purchases Promote More Social Connection Than Material Purchases,” was authored by Amit Kumar, Thomas C. Mann, and Thomas Gilovich.