Research says money CAN make you happy if you spend it on others
Posted On 05 Oct 2014By : StanComment: 0
moneycanmakeyouhappy Can money really buy happiness? There are lots of debates on the subject. Some i ndividuals seem to think that it can, others would disagree. Several scientific researches show that spending money on others can satisfy basic psychological ne eds and boost happiness. Although a great deal of research shows that wealthy people are somewhat happier than people living in poverty, a recent research by Elisabet W. Dunn(University of British Columbia,) Michael I. Norton(Harvard University) and Lara Aknin(Simo n Fraser University) suggests that spending those extra few bucks in your pocket on people in need could bring you more joy than spending it on yourself. The benefits of such prosocial spending emerge among adults around the world, an d the warm glow of giving can be detected even in toddlers. These benefits are m ost likely to emerge when giving satisfies one or more core human needs (related ness, competence, and autonomy). The rewards of prosocial spending are observabl e in both the brain and the body and can potentially be harnessed by organizatio ns and governments. In their article Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off published in the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science in February 2014, they demonstrate this counter-intuitive thesis by describing a se ries of studies, many of which they conducted themselves. The researchers bring back their own study from 2008 in which participants were given $5 to $20. Half of them were asked to spend it on themselves and the other half to spend it on o thers. In the end of the day those who spent the money on someone else reported happier moods compared to those who had to spend it on themselves. They also point to a study from 2012 which states that contrary to the tradition al economic theory which depicts human beings as fundamentally motivated by self interest, people who routinely engage in prosocial acts such as giving blood or donating to charity acts that require them to incur personal costs for the bene fit of others are associated with positive emotions. The study found evidence th at even children feel happiness when giving to others. Toddlers around the age o f two who gave crackers or Teddy Grehams to their puppet buddies showed more sig ns of happiness compared to those who received the threats themselves. Their results prove to be true not only in the U.S. or other wealthy nations. Th ey found a significant relationship between giving and happiness in 120 out of 1 36 researched countries. Wealth did not seem to matter at all. So yeah, money can make you happy :) Written by Stan(founder of I Heart Intelligence) for Endoriot.com