Another bonus of buying experiential gifts is that they also increase the well being and satisfaction of the buyer.

The findings of the study were presented at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology annual meeting on Feb. 7.

"These findings support an extension of basic need theory, where purchases that increase psychological need satisfaction will produce the greatest well-being," claimed the author Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University.

In the study, participants were questioned about items they had recently purchased and wrote down their reflections on their experiences.

The results showed that participants considered experiential purchases as greater value for money and led to greater happiness for both themselves and the recipient of the gift. This finding was unaffected by the amount of money spent or the participant's income.

Experiences also lead to longer-term satisfaction. "Purchased experiences provide memory capital," Howell said. "We don't tend to get bored of happy memories like we do with a material object.

"People still believe that more money will make them happy, even though 35 years of research has suggested the opposite," Howell said. "Maybe this belief has held because money is making some people happy some of the time, at least when they spend it on life experiences."

"The mediators of experiential purchases: Determining the impact of psychological need satisfaction" was conducted by Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University and SF State graduate Graham Hill.