Prior research suggests that material goods (e.g., electronic gadgets) often provide less happiness than do experiences (e.g., movies). As a boundary condition, the present research proposes a theory-based yet actionable solution to overcome the happiness disadvantage of material goods. Three studies show that when material goods are anthropomorphized (i.e., imbued with humanlike characteristics), consumers gain enhanced feelings of consumption sociality and, in turn, derive a boost in happiness such that they gain as much happiness from these material goods as from experiences. With mediation and moderation approaches, we provide process evidence for these enhanced feelings of consumption sociality that are typically lacking with material purchases, which are prone to being consumed alone rather than with other people. Thus, the present research suggests that even in the absence of other people, consumers can gain greater happiness from their material goods by perceiving them as human.

先前的研究表明，物质商品（例如电子产品）通常比体验（例如电影）提供的快乐要少。作为边界条件，本研究提出了一种基于理论但可操作的解决方案，以克服物质商品的幸福劣势。三项研究表明，当物质商品被拟人化（即充满人性化特征）时，消费者会增强消费社会性，进而获得幸福感的提升，使他们从物质商品中获得的幸福感与从体验中获得的幸福感一样多。通过中介和适度的方法，我们为这些增强的消费社会性感觉提供了过程证据，这些感觉通常是物质购买所缺乏的，这些感觉倾向于单独消费而不是与其他人一起消费。因此，