After dis­cussing con­sumer sig­nalling and Geof­frey Miller’s Spent in his Find­ings col­umn (men­tioned pre­vi­ously), read­ers of John Tierney’s Lab were asked,

List the ten most expen­sive things (prod­ucts, ser­vices or expe­ri­ences) that you have ever paid for (includ­ing houses, cars, uni­ver­sity degrees, mar­riage cer­e­monies, divorce set­tle­ments and taxes). Then, list the ten items that you have ever bought that gave you the most hap­pi­ness. Count how many items appear on both lists.

Dis­miss­ing for a moment the self-selection of the par­tic­i­pants and the small sam­ple size, the responses to the ques­tion are quite intrigu­ing, show­ing you what con­sumer items are worth their cost in terms of ‘hap­pi­ness’, and what items aren’t.

  • Expen­sive items that don’t sig­nif­i­cantly con­tribute to hap­pi­ness: mar­riage cer­e­monies, most cars, boats.
  • Inex­pen­sive items that do sig­nif­i­cantly con­tribute to hap­pi­ness: meals with friends, alco­hol, books, music, qual­ity beds, pets, bicycles.
  • Items that are both (expen­sive and con­trib­u­tory to over­all hap­pi­ness): edu­ca­tion, hous­ing, for­eign travel, elec­tron­ics and sports cars.

Dr Miller’s analy­sis of the experiment’s trends is worth read­ing, as is this pre­vi­ous post on the link between money and hap­pi­ness.