But it’s also one of the best-studied findings in happiness research: material goods quickly cease delivering pleasure, whereas we savour the memory of experiences for years. A big new Hungarian study has found no significant difference between the two kinds of spending. And in any case, the more you think about it, the stranger the distinction between experiences and things begins to seem. People are readier to part with such items when they know they can trigger the same old feelings by consulting the picture later. Which raises the question: what if they’d saved their cash and just collected a bunch of photos to begin with?

Source: The Guardian July 21, 2017 13:52 UTC