The post Why More Americans Are Choosing Experiences Over Buying More Things first appeared in Crafting Your Home.
A concert ticket doesn’t last. Neither does a weekend trip, a nice dinner out, or an afternoon hike. And according to decades of psychological research plus a growing body of real spending data, that impermanence might be exactly why more people are choosing to spend their money that way.
The shift away from material purchases and toward experiences isn’t just a vibe. It’s backed by one of the longest-running lines of research in the psychology of money and happiness, and it’s now showing up in actual consumer spending numbers too.
The Research Behind It Goes Back Two Decades
Thomas Gilovich, a professor of psychology at Cornell University who has studied the relationship between money and happiness for more than 20 years, has reached a consistent conclusion across multiple studies: people get more lasting satisfaction from experiences than from material possessions.
Gilovich points to a specific psychological trap behind why possessions disappoint us over time. “One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation,” he told Fast Company. “We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.” A new couch or a new phone starts to fade into the background of daily life almost immediately, which means the happiness boost it provides fades right along with it.
Experiences don’t run into the same problem, largely because they aren’t sitting in the room competing for attention the way a possession does. Instead, Gilovich has found, they become part of how people see themselves. “Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,” he said. “You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you.”
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It’s Not Just About Novelty; It’s About Comparison, Too
Gilovich’s research points to another reason material purchases tend to disappoint they invite comparison in a way experiences generally don’t. A new car is exciting until a neighbor buys a nicer one. Research from Gilovich and collaborator Travis Carter found that people evaluate experiential purchases more on their own terms. In contrast, material purchases are more likely to trigger the kind of side-by-side comparison that quietly chips away at satisfaction.
Research even suggests this dynamic affects how others see us. A study led by University of Colorado Boulder researcher Leaf Van Boven, with Gilovich as a co-author, found that people who prioritize material possessions tend to be viewed less favorably by others than those who prioritize life experiences and that materialistic people report having fewer, less satisfying friendships in general.
Anticipation Itself Feels Different
Another layer of the research involves what happens before a purchase even occurs. A 2014 study published in Psychological Science and led by Gilovich, along with Cornell researcher Amit Kumar and Matthew Killingsworth of the University of California, San Francisco, found that people don’t just enjoy experiences more after the fact; they enjoy looking forward to them more, too.
According to the study, waiting for an experience tends to generate excitement, while waiting for a material purchase is more likely to produce impatience. Gilovich suggests this may be because anticipating an experience involves fewer comparisons and competitive pressures than anticipating a new possession, and it may even offer a social benefit, making people feel more connected to others while they wait.
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The Numbers Are Starting to Reflect the Research
This isn’t purely theoretical anymore. A Morning Consult survey of 2,205 U.S. adults conducted in June 2025 found that among higher-earning households, those making $100,000 or more annually, 44% said they had increased their spending on experiences over the past year, compared with 37% who said the same about non-essential physical products.
When those consumers were asked why they’d spent more on experiences, Morning Consult found the top reasons centered on creating memories, spending time with loved ones, and opportunities to relax and unwind themes that line up closely with what Gilovich’s academic research has been finding for years.
Broader economic data tells a similar story. According to Bureau of Economic Analysis figures on personal consumption, spending on services, including travel, entertainment, and dining, has been outpacing spending on physical goods in recent economic data, with goods spending even declining slightly in some months while services spending continued to climb.
What It Adds Up To
None of this means people have stopped buying things entirely, and plenty of physical purchases still bring real satisfaction. But the research is fairly consistent on one point: when it comes to buying happiness, memories tend to hold their value in a way possessions rarely do.
As Gilovich put it, the case for experiences isn’t really about deprivation; it’s about where the actual payoff tends to land. A new gadget can feel exciting on day one. A trip, a concert, or time spent with people you care about tends to keep paying off long after the moment itself is over.
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