Giving Other People Money Can Make You Happier
Can money buy you happiness?
Yes — so long as you spend the money on someone else.
According to a new research by the faculty from Harvard Business School (HBS) and University of British Columbia (UBC), giving other people even as little as $5 can lead to increased well-being for the giver.
That’s the insight into the secret of happiness by the professors Michael Norton (HBS), Elizabeth Dunn (UBC) and Lara Aknin (UBC) in the research titled “Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness”.
“While much research has examined the effect of income on happiness, we suggest that how people spend their money may be at least as important as how much money they earn,” the researchers explain, “[and] spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself.”
The research found these results to hold in three different studies: (i) a nationally representative survey, (ii) a field study of people with windfall spending, and (iii) an experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to spend money on others experienced greater happiness than those assigned to spend money on themselves.
[Read more - Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness (actual research)]
[Read more - Spending on Happiness (HBS newsletter interview)]