When More is Less: Money, Experiences, and Savoring the Little Things

Can experiencing the best that life has to offer get in the way of our happiness? The present research suggests that money and outstanding life experiences may impair people’s ability to savor everyday pleasures. We show that experimentally making participants feel like they had a lot of money reduced their ability to savor simple joys. We further show that in everyday life, wealthier individuals reported lowersavoring ability. Similarly to money, we show that experimentally making participants feel like they had a lot of experiences in the domain of travel reduced their ability to savor a simple touristic experience. We then show that in everyday life, individuals with richer experiential backgrounds are less likely to savorsimple joys. Taken together, these studies provide the first evidence that a life of abundance may impoverish savoring, potentially undermining the pursuit of happiness. Finally, we provide evidence that asceticism may sometimes offer a more productive route to happiness than consistently indulging in pleasure.