Discretionary activity and happiness: The role of materialism

The current study examined the moderating impact of materialism on the relationship between discretionary activities (creative activities, experiential purchases, and material purchases) and happiness. It was hypothesized that materialistic persons would associate more happiness with discretionary material purchases and that persons lower in materialism would associate other types of discretionary activity (experiential purchases and creative activity) with happiness. Participants were randomly assigned to recall a recent material purchase, experiential purchase, or creative activity. Subsequently, participants reported the amount of happiness and self-relevance associated with the event and then completed a measure of materialism. As predicted, materialists associated happiness with material purchases and than non-materialists.