Money, or the love of same, is the root of all evil. So sayeth the Bible. But humans have no trouble turning that wisdom on its head and shaking loose the opposite axiom—Greed is Good. All of us have occasionally looked to money as a route toward happiness, notwithstanding the fact that one of the most banal lessons of Hollywood movies is: Money CANNOT buy you happiness. Think Scarface, whose leetle friend was no substitute for the real thing.
So which is it? Study after study has suggested that income level, beyond the level of basic needs, has very little effect on personal satisfaction, self-worth, or overall happiness. Yet research by Robert H. Frank and others had demonstrated that most people implicitly assume personal spending will lead to more happiness.
Two psychologists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Lara B. Aknin, together with Michael I. Norton of the Harvard Business School, wondered whether the matter was governed not by how much money you had, but rather by how you spent it. "Specifically," the researchers reported in Science vol. 319 (sub. required), "we hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself."
With that biblical hypothesis in mind (think rich men and camels and the eye of a needle), the researchers set out to identify situations where money DID buy some happiness. That’s not easy, because "the mere thought of having money makes people less likely to help acquaintances, to donate to charity, or to choose to spend time with others." (Science Vol. 314).
Not a promising situation. The researchers first took a nationally representative sample of Americans and had them rate their general happiness and break down their spending into two categories: personal (bills, expenses, gifts for themselves) and prosocial (gifts for others, donations to charity). Regression analysis revealed strong support for the group’s hypothesis: Personal spending was unrelated to perceived happiness, but higher prosocial spending was associated with greater happiness.
Article comments
1 - Dr Dreadful
Interesting that a team of Canadian researchers should choose Americans to be the subjects of their research.
Could it be because in American culture, money above all else defines one's every action and even one's worth as a citizen?
Just a suggestion...
2 - Dan
Voluntarily giving money to social concerns you find justifiable probably does increase happiness. But having your hard earned money confiscated by others to give away to social concerns they find justifiable probably just leads to resentment.
Then there's the happiness, and sense of accomplishment, of wealth that you've generated on your own vs. the relative lesser happiness of recieving unearned wealth.
An interesting paradox I've noticed in myself and others who have accumulated some wealth, is that they're not very materialistic people. That's how they get that way.
The happiness for them is the freedom that wealth gives them. If they spend it, they lose that freedom.
When I was poor, I wanted things I couldn't afford. I can afford some of them now, but not all of them. But now, I like knowing that I could have something if I wanted it badly enough.
The spending that makes me happiest now, is when I can find a good bargain on something that I want or need. Or, if I can buy something useful that also appreciates in value.
3 - Morris
It is amazing. Is'nt it? What makes you unhappy is really ultimately makes you happy. When you start giving money for charities, it really makes you unhappy to begin with. Because you are parting with your money. But if you continue doing it, it hurts less and ultimately turns into happiness. In other words happiness can be learnt by going through painful process of parting with money on charity. Does it make sense?
4 - sma
i like ur opinion