Well, I wish these experiments could be more broad. "Spend someone else's money on a thing" vs. "spend someone else's money on a service" doesn't exactly cover the entire universe -- and limiting the analysis to which of those two options makes someone happier doesn't really answer the question of whether that sort of spending is actually the way to be happiest. Would be interesting if they could give a broader range of choices, like giving to charity/individual, paying a bill, investing in something, etc. -- not to mention adding the counterbalance of the pain that comes from spending your own hard-earned money.
But within the limited context of this particular study: oh, hell yes. There are two things in this world that I completely, utterly detest: cleaning my house and mowing my yard/weeding the garden. Both of these come from years and years of having to do them as a child, hating every minute of it, and suffering through weekly allergy attacks to boot (and even one asthma attack). The joy of not having to do either of these things any more is awesome -- not only do I physically feel better, it opens up hours and hours of my weekend for fun things with my family!! My enjoyment of variouis clothes/shoes/toys I have purchased has faded a little bit, but the joy of going into Saturday knowing my whole weekend is free for whatever the hell I want never does. So you will pry my cleaning service out of my cold, dead hands. I have already done the math, I know exactly how much more I need in my 'stache to support these services in perpetuity, and I am more than happy with that tradeoff.
