Questioning the “I” in Experience: Experiential Purchases Foster Social Connection

Abstract

QUESTIONING THE “I” IN EXPERIENCE: EXPERIENTIAL PURCHASES FOSTER SOCIAL CONNECTION Amit Kumar, Thomas C. Mann, Thomas D. Gilovich Cornell University Research on experiential and material purchases (money spent on doing versus having) has focused on the benefits of experiential consumption in terms of consumer satisfaction and the underlying mechanisms that produce this difference. Here, we present another downstream consequence of spending money on experiences: fostering social connection. In Studies 1 and 2 we show that people feel more kinship with someone who has made the same (or a similar, but “upgraded”) experiential purchase as them than someone who made the same (or a similar, but “upgraded”) material purchase. In Study 3, we find that people feel more connected to others in general when they are asked to reflect on their experiential purchases. This connection is expressed in a greater desire to engage in social activities (Study 4) and participants behaviorally demonstrate social connectedness by acting more prosocially after thinking about their experiences than after thinking about their possessions (Study 5).