EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE

Many people seek out extraordinary experiences throughout their lifetimes. If they didn't, recreational activities like skydiving, bungee jumping.
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The narrative of the rafting experience rather than relationships between expectations and outcomes is shown to be central to its evaluation. Implications for other services and consumption activities are discussed. Most users should sign in with their email address. If you originally registered with a username please use that to sign in. To purchase short term access, please sign in to your Oxford Academic account above. Don't already have an Oxford Academic account? Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Sign In or Create an Account. Close mobile search navigation Article navigation. Abstract This article explores the provision of extraordinary hedonic experiences on commercial, multiday river rafting trips in the Colorado River basin. You do not currently have access to this article. You could not be signed in. Sign In Forgot password?


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We next examined whether outsiders' anticipated happiness from these experiences resembled the ratings of the people who recalled them. A spotlight analysis clarified the effect of experience type on anticipated happiness as a function of age: These results not only provide confirmation that the ordinary-extraordinary dimension of experience is meaningful and recognizable but also demonstrate the robustness of the moderating effect of age.

Indeed, imagining the happiness one would enjoy from others' ordinary and extraordinary experiences produced the same pattern of results found among those reporting the happiness they actually experienced. The experiences generated in study 1A suggests that ordinary experiences are more likely to involve nonromantic others. Hence, one possibility is that the ordinary-extraordinary experience distinction, as well as its effect on happiness as a function of age, is simply driven by the extent to which these experiences are shared with others. This possibility is consistent with recent research that argues that the greater happiness shown to result from experiential vs.

In order to test whether the effects of ordinary versus extraordinary experiences on happiness observed in studies 1A and 1B depend on the involvement of others, we adapted the procedure employed by Caprariello and Reis , orthogonally manipulating whether the experience participants were instructed to recall was shared. Accordingly, we used a 2 experience type: An examination of participants' reported happiness suggests that the findings in the previous studies did not depend on whether the experience was shared with others.

A spotlight analysis to clarify the significant interaction effect replicated the pattern of results found in studies 1A and 1B see fig. These results suggest that the effects of extraordinary and ordinary experiences on happiness demonstrated in studies 1A and 1B do not depend on their social nature.

An extraordinary experience

Even though the experiences generated by participants in study 1A suggest that a greater proportion of ordinary experiences tend to be shared, the involvement of others in each type of experience is not responsible for the relative happiness enjoyed by younger and older individuals. Though it was surprising that the social nature of the recalled experiences did not affect reported happiness in light of recent research Caprariello and Reis , the current study focused specifically on happy experiences rather than experiential purchases more broadly. This key difference may have restricted the experiences recalled to a range beyond which sharing would impact happiness, producing a ceiling effect.

To better understand the role of sharing in our study, we examined who was involved in the events recalled by participants reporting shared experiences. Few clear differences emerged: Hence, although the experiences generated in study 1A show that a larger proportion of ordinary vs. In the previous studies, participants recalled studies 1A and 1C or read about another's study 1B happy experience, then rated how happy the experience made or would make them.

We adopted a different approach in this study and identified the experiences most associated with happiness using a natural data source: Although our focus is not on sharing per se, research has shown that people post content on Facebook that reflects what makes them happy in order to present themselves positively to others, enhancing their self-esteem Wilcox and Stephen Additionally, our previous studies show that age influences the happiness that individuals attain from ordinary and extraordinary experiences.

extraordinary

Although the psychology of aging is primarily rooted in the amount of time people feel they have left in life Carstensen , other factors also vary over the course of life. For instance, relative to younger people, older people tend to focus more on family and to have more financial resources and worse physical health Fung, Carstensen, and Lutz ; Heckhausen, Wrosch, and Schulz To further investigate the role of age while ruling out other such factors, the next three studies assess psychological age by directly measuring studies 2A and 2B and manipulating study 2C how much time people feel they have left in life Carstensen et al.

These people used Facebook frequently: Participants were instructed to open their personal Facebook page and to describe their most recent status update. Fifty-three participants were not included in the analysis because they either did not describe a status update or they described one that did not reflect a personal experience e. Finally, participants completed the item future time perspective scale Lang and Carstensen , which measures the extent to which people perceive their future as limited or extensive e.

A regression analysis revealed a significant relationship between individuals' future time perspective and the extent to which they were likely to post experiences that were extraordinary vs. We also looked at ordinary-extraordinary ratings as a categorical variable excluding those on the scale midpoint. In light of recent research on the socioemotional function of Facebook posts Wilcox and Stephen , these results are consistent with the idea that extraordinary experiences are associated with greater happiness when time is perceived as extensive, but ordinary experiences become more associated with happiness as time becomes limited.

These findings complement work showing that extraordinary experiences are especially likely to be preserved through the creation of memory cues Zauberman et al. Although this data source is compelling in that individuals naturally selected these experiences as worth sharing i. As a more direct test, the next study again measured future time perspective but explicitly asked participants to report an experience that has or will make them happy. Conducted among a sample of students of similar ages, this study tests the robustness of the previous study's finding by again examining the relationship between individuals' perceived time remaining and the types of experiences they view as happy.

Additionally, since our prior studies have examined only past experiences, a natural question is whether this pattern will hold for future experiences that people want to have. Therefore, a second objective of this study was to test whether the effects we have documented will emerge for planned future experiences as well as those that have already occurred. Finally, we changed the way we measured the ordinary and extraordinary nature of an experience by using two separate unipolar scales.

This eliminates the ambiguity of a response on the bipolar scale midpoint, which could reflect the experience being either highly ordinary and highly extraordinary or neither ordinary nor extraordinary. It also minimizes the potential of the survey inadvertently communicating that extraordinary experiences are inherently better because the extraordinary label is on the right i.

Participants were instructed to describe a happy experience. To test for a potential difference between past and future experiences, half were instructed to describe a recent experience that made them happy, while the others were instructed to describe an experience they plan to have that will make them happy. The extraordinary ratings were therefore subtracted from the ordinary ratings to create a single extraordinary-to-ordinary experience measure, with positive scores reflecting a more ordinary experience and negative scores reflecting a more extraordinary experience.

These findings indicate a consistent effect of future time perspective on experience type, regardless of whether the experience had already happened or had yet to happen. The more extensive individuals perceived their future to be, the more likely they were to report a happy experience that was extraordinary, while the more limited individuals perceived the future to be, the more likely they were to report a happy experience that was ordinary.

These results held when the individual measures of ordinary and extraordinary were used instead of the combined measure. This study explores a potential implication for marketers who are increasingly looking to position their products and marketing campaigns as more experiential LaSalle and Britton ; Schmitt , We tested whether consumers' reactions to products associated with each experience type would follow the same pattern found in the previous studies.

Accordingly, we manipulated an advertisement to position the product as either helping consumers enjoy ordinary experiences or extraordinary experiences and measured purchase intentions. In addition, rather than measuring future time perspective as in studies 2A and 2B , we sought convergent evidence for the role of psychological age in this experiment by manipulating the amount of time participants perceived they had left.

We first manipulated participants' perceptions of how much time they have left in life by presenting them with a 3-inch line representing the average life span and instructing them to indicate where they currently fall on the line using a slider Kim, Zauberman, and Bettman Next, participants were presented with an advertisement for a Flip video camera, with the tagline manipulated between participants: We conducted a 2 experience type: These results parallel those of studies 1A through 1C , thereby suggesting that consumers' reactions to products associated with each type of experience reflect the happiness they gain from the experiences in their lives.

Thus, it behooves marketers to understand what types of experiences resonate with which consumer segments when highlighting the experiential aspects of products. Furthermore, whether identified via actual age studies 1A—1C or psychological age studies 2A—2C , we establish a consistent effect: What explains the changing hedonic impact of extraordinary and ordinary experiences?

Though our definition centers on commonness and frequency Sussman and Alter , other dimensions that likely vary with this distinction might help explain these effects. For instance, extraordinary and ordinary experiences may also differ in the extent to which they are self-defining Belk ; Zauberman et al. Given these likely differences between extraordinary and ordinary experiences, which is responsible for the impact on happiness? Research exploring reasons for the greater happiness from experiences over material goods suggests one possibility: Carter and Gilovich , describe how experiences are central to the self: They become parts of our autobiography and, hence, part of us.

Since extraordinary experiences are unusual and special, they are more likely to be protected in memory, thus helping to build an individual's experiential curriculum vitae CV and definition of self Keinan and Kivetz ; Wildschut et al. Actively seeking to define the self is particularly important among young people, whose self-concepts have not yet gained stability and clarity Campbell et al.

Once people have surpassed most of their life milestones and accumulated an array of experiences, their self-definition may draw more from the familiar activities that reflect their daily life Carstensen et al. That is, as people get older, their focus may shift from discovering who they are through achievements like graduating cum laude and unique endeavors like ziplining through the rainforest to living who they are by spending time in their preferred ways, such as reading sci-fi, gardening, or singing in the church choir.

Hence, self-definition is a promising candidate to account for why extraordinary experiences bring happiness at any age, as well as why ordinary experiences lead to increasing happiness as people get older. The subsequent exploratory study 3A tests the various factors that may differ between the two experience types and identifies self-definition as a mechanism underlying the influence of age on happiness from ordinary and extraordinary experiences. The final study 3B seeks confirmatory evidence by manipulating the extent to which an experience is self-defining and by measuring its likelihood of being extraordinary or ordinary for people of different ages.

In order to explore the mechanism underlying the effects shown thus far, this study followed the same procedure as study 1A and asked participants to evaluate their recalled experience on multiple dimensions that potentially distinguish ordinary and extraordinary experiences. The objective was to find which of these factors is responsible for the influence of age on the happiness enjoyed from the two experience types. To capture other potential differences between experience types, we compiled a list of 39 face-valid descriptors derived from relevant research Berger and Milkman ; Caprariello and Reis ; Mogilner et al.

Remaining items were dropped from subsequent analyses. An examination of the eight factors revealed that relative to ordinary experiences, extraordinary experiences were more self-defining, less calming, higher risk, less private, more expensive, more likely to be shared with many less-known others, and more physically demanding.

Consistent with study 1C, ordinary and extraordinary experiences did not differ in the extent to which they were focused on connecting with close others see table 2 for details. Next, we examined the effects on happiness. To investigate drivers of the interaction effect, we conducted a multiple mediation analysis with the eight factors entered simultaneously as potential mediators using the bootstrap mediation technique Preacher and Hayes We repeated this analysis on just ordinary experiences to examine whether the positive effect of age on the happiness from ordinary experiences can be explained by self-definition.

Self-definition mediates effects of ordinary versus extraordinary experiences by age on happiness. These results further clarify the distinction between ordinary and extraordinary experiences. Besides frequency, these experience types differ systematically on at least seven different factors. More importantly, among these factors, mediation analyses revealed that only self-definition drives the effect of experience type and age on happiness. While extraordinary experiences are self-defining throughout life, ordinary experiences become more self-defining as people age, contributing to happiness as much as extraordinary experiences later in life.

To gain additional support for the role of self-definition in driving the effects of experience type on happiness, in this study we manipulated self-definition and measured the extent to which the experience was ordinary or extraordinary as a function of age. The ordinary ratings were subtracted from the extraordinary ratings to create a single ordinary-to-extraordinary experience measure, with positive scores reflecting a more extraordinary experience and negative scores reflecting a more ordinary experience.

Finally, the three self-definition items from study 3A were included as a manipulation check i. Of central interest, we examined the influence of age on the extent to which self-defining experiences were ordinary versus extraordinary. Logistic regressions analyzing the ordinary-extraordinary ratings categorically excluding those at the scale midpoint showed consistent results: Together, these results further support the central role of self-definition in determining the extent to which people's experiences contribute to their happiness.

Even though each experience is unique to a particular individual at a particular moment, the infinite array of possible experiences—ranging from adventurous vacations, to career accomplishments, to life milestones like graduations or weddings, to annual holidays, to a particularly moving aria at the opera, to an inventive wine-paired meal at a world famous restaurant, to a comfy meal at a favorite neighborhood restaurant, to a pizza night on the couch with the family—can be meaningfully grouped into one of two categories: Furthermore, the extent to which each type of experience contributes to people's happiness depends on age.

Extraordinary experiences, which are rare and fall outside daily routines, capture people's attention and endure in memories, affording happiness at any stage of life.

Study Suggests 'Extraordinary Experiences' Might Make You Feel Bad

Ordinary moments that make up everyday life tend to be overlooked when the future seems boundless; however, these ordinary experiences increasingly contribute to happiness as people come to realize their days are numbered. The original purpose of this research was to identify a meaningful way to categorize experiences so as to inform individuals which they should pursue in their quest for happiness. Following the approach taken in Van Boven and Gilovich's seminal work, we asked people to recall experiences that were either extraordinary or ordinary and measured their associated happiness study 1A.

Subsequent results found that outsiders accurately identified each experience type and predicted similar levels of associated happiness as those who culled the experience from their own life history study 1B , and this distinction was not confounded by the social nature of the experience study 1C. Together, our results suggest that this ordinary versus extraordinary distinction is meaningful, resonates with people, and affects intentions to purchase experiential products in addition to affecting individuals' happiness study 2C.

Although this distinction is well supported by the results of these studies, one potential limitation is that participants' responses may have been influenced by the lay definition of extraordinary as intrinsically superior to ordinary. Though we were careful to define these terms for all participants with respect to frequency, it is still possible that responses were systematically biased, obscuring our ability to interpret responses and directly compare levels of happiness across experience types.

We therefore interpret these happiness levels with caution. In particular, happiness from ordinary experiences may be understated, relative to extraordinary experiences. Notably, however, this makes the high level of happiness from ordinary experiences among older participants especially remarkable, since it was no different than that generated by potentially inherently superior extraordinary experiences. Perhaps most importantly, this investigation reveals individuals' age to play a critical role in determining the relative happiness from each experience type.

These findings contribute a temporal context to help reconcile the different perspectives proposed in prior research highlighting the benefits of special or collectible experiences Keinan and Kivetz ; Zauberman et al. Extraordinary experiences, which tend to be more special and collectible, produce greater happiness than ordinary experiences but only among younger people who perceive an expansive future.

Conversely, increased savoring of ordinary, mundane experiences is likely to naturally occur as people age. Our exploration into potential reasons for this shift revealed self-definition to be critical studies 3A and 3B. It seems that young people actively looking to define themselves find it particularly rewarding to accumulate extraordinary experiences that mark their progression through life milestones and that help them build an interesting experiential CV.

Once people grow older and have established a better sense of who they are, the experiences they view as self-defining are just as likely to include the routine events that reveal how they like to spend their time. Notably, defining one's self through experiences becomes no less important with age; rather, the experiences that best define the self shift from the extraordinary to the ordinary over one's life span.


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These findings are broadly consistent with research on the psychology of aging. Socioemotional selectivity theory argues that younger people are more future-oriented and prioritize knowledge goals, often seeking novel social interactions to develop future-ready selves. Meanwhile, older people are more present-oriented and prioritize emotional goals, often seeking emotionally fulfilling social interactions with familiar others Carstensen Though a shift in social goals i. For instance, a life milestone like a daughter's graduation and a typical Sunday dinner with the same daughter may not vary in terms of the social actors involved or their relevance to emotional goals but may still differ in their frequency of occurrence and potential impact on happiness.

Future work should investigate other dimensions of experience, as well as multiple dimensions of well-being. For instance, though recent work has found self-definition to be more critical to meaning than to happiness Baumeister et al. Future research might more specifically examine which aspects of experience affect which dimensions of well-being, and when. In addition, because we asked participants to recall happy experiences, their responses may have been influenced by their normative beliefs about what experiences should result in greatest happiness Wood and Bettman Future research could assess these potential selection issues by testing whether invoking happiness alters how people recall and categorize experiences.

Brand managers are increasingly recognizing the advantages of experiential marketing Holbrook and Hirschman ; LaSalle and Britton Framing consumption as an experience rather than a single purchase decision is seen as a way for brands to provide greater value and forge deeper connections with consumers Pine and Gilmore ; Schmitt Because marketing practitioners assume extraordinary experiences to be inherently superior and higher impact than ordinary experiences e. Is this really the right strategy for every brand?

Our findings suggest that association with the ordinary is not necessarily undesirable.

extraordinary experience definition | English dictionary for learners | Reverso

We conducted an additional follow-up study to examine how brands' associations with extraordinary or ordinary experiences impact consumer happiness and brand connection. Google and Apple were rated among the top five for both experience types and were excluded for the sake of discriminant validity.

For ease of interpretability, we compared combined responses for the top five extraordinary versus ordinary brands. These findings indicate that appealing to consumer experience may not be straightforward. To realize the benefits of experiential marketing, brands must draw consumers' attention to the type of experience and dimension of connection that is appropriate for their target segment. Philosophical considerations aside, even if people wanted to plug into such a machine and program their selection of experiences, which experiences should they choose to maximize their happiness?

In reality, we are often faced with a similar choice: Even amidst the dizzying, infinite array of possible experiences, our findings suggest that there is underlying order. A happy life includes both the extraordinary and the ordinary, and the central question is not only which, but when. Both authors jointly managed the data collection and analyzed the data for all of the studies. Studies 1A and 1B were conducted in the summer of ; study 1C was conducted in the winter of ; study 2A was conducted in the summer of ; and studies 3A and 3B were conducted in the summer of Study 2B was conducted in the second author's class in the spring of Study 2C and the brand study reported in the General Discussion were conducted by research assistants at the Wharton Behavioral Lab in the fall of Getting a yummy frappuccino!

It was perfect for that day, as it was really hot and muggy, and the drink was cold and icy. I went fishing at a lake in Alaska and caught a pike. It was the first fish I'd ever caught. I gutted him out and fried him for dinner. Watching the birth of kittens being born from onset of labor through to Momma Kitty quietly nursing her new babies. Since this article was published online on December 13, , corrections have been made.