We humans spend a lot of time waiting in lines: people queue up for days in order to get their hands on the latest iPhone, or what feels like eons for a table at that new brunch place.

You may be better off spending time and money on the latter. A growing body of research has shown that experiences tend to make people happier than material possessions. And even anticipating an experience like a concert, a ski trip or a really great brunch makes us happier than purchasing the latest gadgets, according to a recent study in Psychological Science.

The study, cleverly titled Waiting for Merlot: Anticipatory Consumption of Experiential and Material Purchases  (oh, dear! Ed.), tracked how about 100 college students and over 2,200 randomly selected adults felt about material goods and experiences.  People got excited about both things and events. But they tended to feel more positive about experiences, and their feelings about material purchases were more likely to be tinged with feelings of impatience.

“I think one aspect of that has to do with the nature of imagination,” says Amit Kumar, a doctoral student of psychology at Cornell University and one of the researchers behind the paper. “If you’re waiting to buy an iPhone, you know exactly how many megapixels the camera on the new phone will have,” Kumar told Shots. People often get creative planning a vacation, he says, and just thinking about all the things they’ll be doing can boost their mood. People may be competitive when it comes to keeping up with the Joneses, but tend to be less competitive about spending on experiences.  One reason may be that experiences give people the opportunity to bond and socialize. Even when if you aren’t guaranteed a ticket to a concert or a taco from the cool new food truck, people often enjoy waiting in line. “While waiting for concert tickets, people reported singing songs together, or people would be playing games with each other while they’re waiting,” he says.   (NPR website, 4 Sept 2014)

By now readers who sympathize with the views of Epicurus will be saying, “Duh! Epicurus told you that 2,300 years ago.” But it’s still nice to have it reinforced by Cornell PhD with solid research to back it up. Epicurus only had his common sense. (I feel a rush of irony coming on).