Playing the violin, football or collecting stamps: hobbies come in all shapes and sizes. We are prepared to spend a lot of money on them, according to British research. Around €86 per person per month. This amounts to over €1,000 annually. But does an expensive hobby make you happy?
Kitty Visser has a big hobby: she collects everything from Star Wars and Disney. “We have a whole Star Wars room and the rest of the house is full of Disney,” she tells EditieNL.
Identity
For Kitty, this hobby is an escape from reality. “You imagine yourself in another world and can be a child for a moment. I actually have a piece of Disneyland in my own house.” It is also an important part of her own identity. “I only wear Disney clothes. When my husband died, we arranged a Star Wars funeral for him.”
Her hobby comes with a hefty price tag. “The Star Wars statues I am saving cost about €700 each. I have already collected fifteen of them. The most expensive one was almost €900. On average she spends about €700 a year on her hobby. A bit too much, she admits. “I recently had to sell something so I could take care of my four children. I found that quite difficult. I sometimes thought: if only I had a cheaper hobby.”
Feeling happy
Maastricht University’s ‘happiness’ professor Paul Smeets conducted research into our happiness and what role a hobby plays in it. “A random test showed that the amount of free time does not affect our happiness, but how we fill that free time does,” Smeets explains to EditieNL. If you spend your free time practising a hobby, that makes you happier. “If you choose to watch television and sit on your phone, that makes you less happy.”
The fact that people are willing to spend a lot of money on it, according to Smeets, is because hobbies are an increasingly important part of our identity. “When you introduce yourself to someone, the first question is: what kind of work do you do? And the second question: what are your hobbies?”
But an expensive hobby does not automatically make you happier than a cheap one. “The price tag of the hobby says nothing about the feeling of happiness. We see that social hobbies in particular produce a great deal of happiness. For example, dancing or playing music in a band. That doesn’t have to cost a lot at all.”
Watch the video
Taking the next step
If you feel our insights and expertise on this topic can help you and your organisation get ahead, please get in touch and let’s start creating an impact together!
