Can Money Buy Happiness?
b"Can money buy happiness?
Elizabeth Dunn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Michael Norton is a Marketing Professor at the Harvard Business School. And the two of them have co-authored a book titled \\u201cHappy Money: The New Science of Smarter Spending.\\u201d The book\\u2019s main premise is that happiness depends more on how you spend your money than how much you have, and it\\u2019s been nicely summarized by Andrew Blackman in an article titled Can money buy happiness?\\xa0that was published in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago.
The connection between money and happiness
In the book, Dunn and Norton describe an experiment where they gave the same amount of money to people in two groups, and told the first group to spend it on themselves and told the second group to spend it on others and (surprise, surprise) the second group, that was asked to give money away, was way happier than the first group that was told to spend money on themselves.
The book\\u2019s results, at first glance, seem obvious: people with higher incomes are, broadly speaking, happier than those who struggle to get by.
But dig a little deeper and the findings get a lot more useful. \\xa0 Wealth alone doesn't guarantee a good life. What matters more than a big paycheck is\\xa0how\\xa0you spend it.
Researchers found that life experiences give us more lasting pleasure than material things
When people do spend money on themselves, they are a lot happier when they use it for experiences than for material goods. Researchers found that life experiences give us more lasting pleasure than material things. \\xa0Yet people, do the opposite. \\xa0They deny themselves experiences and prioritize buying material goods, thinking experiences are fleeting and material goods last longer.
When people looked back at their purchases, they realized that experiences actually provided more happiness and more lasting value, while material purchases provided a brief thrill and were then taken for granted.
Experiences are often shared with other people and meet more of our underlying psychological needs, giving us a greater sense of social connection. For example, if you've climbed the Himalayas, that\\u2019s something you\\u2019ll always remember and talk about, long after all your favorite gadgets have gone to the landfill.
We also tend not to compare our experiences with other people. Keeping up with the Joneses is much more prominent for material things than for experiential things.
A recent research paper called \\u201cWaiting for Merlot\\u201d shows that we also get more pleasure out of anticipating experiences than anticipating material things. People waiting for an event are generally excited whereas people waiting for material things seem more impatient.
Use your money effectively to lead a happier life
Another trick to living happier lives is to consciously foster appreciation and gratitude for what you have. Literally count your blessings and don\\u2019t take things for granted.
Move your material possessions around. For example, if you keep a painting hanging at the same spot on the same wall, you\\u2019ll stop noticing it after a while. So swap it with a painting from another room, and you\\u2019ll see each of them with fresh eyes, and appreciate them more.
Want to get more happiness from the things you own? \\xa0Lend something you own to someone else for a while, for their enjoyment . \\xa0You\\u2019ll find that you appreciate and enjoy that thing a lot more when you get it back.
A\\xa0lot of us think we\\u2019ll give to charity one day, when we\\u2019re richer, but there are benefits to giving even when people are struggling to meet their own basic needs. What matters more than the dollar amount you give is seeing that your money makes a difference in other people\\u2019s lives, even if the amount you gave was quite small."