Shopping Can Make You Happier, Here's how

Good news for all the shopaholics! Recent study reveals that shopping can reduce stress and even make you happier in long-term. This study is contrary to the common debate that money can't buy you happiness. Conducted by the researchers at University of British Columbia, the findings revealed that spending money can actually make the spender happy regularly. It has also revealed that buying stuff brings much more happiness than buying experiences such as traveling or visiting a zoo. "Consider a holiday shopper deciding between tickets to a concert or a new couch in the living room," explains study author Aaron Weidman, from University of British Columbia. The concert will provide an intense thrill for one spectacular night, but then it will end, and will no longer provide momentary happiness, aside from being a happy memory. In contrast, the new couch will never provide a thrilling moment to match the concert, but will keep the owner snug and comfortable each day throughout the winter months.
Previous studies were based on analyzing the material and experiential purchases and the things that the participants remembered about these experiences and items. However, the researchers Aaron Weidman and Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia wanted to know how the people felt when they were in the moment of a new purchase, say first few weeks of buying a new dress or a phone. The assessed that the momentary happiness people got from experiential and material purchases was as much as five times a day for two weeks. For the study, Weidman and Dunn evaluated the participant's actual-period of happiness that they got from buying things or experiential purchases such as spa gift cards, ski trip etc.