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Research has shown that people tend to get more happiness from spending their money on experiences, such as travel and entertainment, than on things, such as clothes and electronic goods. But are people happier during the purchased (购买的) experience itself? Or does the happiness come more from expecting or remembering the experience?

A new study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, offers an answer. Our experiential purchases bring us greater pleasure in terms of expectation and remembrance than do our material purchases, but they also bring us greater in-the-moment enjoyment, the study found.

For the study, the researchers recruited (招募) 2,635 adults who agreed to receive texts at any time during the day. The texts began with a happiness question, which asked the participants (参与者) to rate how they felt “right now” on a scale from very bad to very good. Half of them were then asked if they had made a material purchase within the past hour, such as clothing or electronic goods. The others were asked if they had made an experiential purchase within the past hour, such as eating in a restaurant or attending a concert.

The researchers found that the purchasers of the experiences express higher levels of happiness than the purchasers of the material goods, no matter how much the purchases cost.

To address possible differences in types of purchasers, the researchers conducted a second study in which they researched more than 5, 000 adults. “We still observed the same result,” said Amit Kumar, the study’s lead author.

The researchers said a possible explanation is the endurance (持久) of experiences in people’s memories, while the observed value of material goods weakens over time.

“If you want to be happier, it might be wise to shift (转变) some of your spending away from material goods and a bit more toward experiences,” Kumar said. “That would likely lead to greater happiness.”