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A study, published in this week's Science Magazine, has found that spending money on others makes you happy. Following a series of experiments the research team, headed by Professor Elizabeth Dunn of the University of Columbia, concluded that it's not how much you earn, but how you spend what you have that counts, with modest amounts of altruistic spending making a big difference to perceived levels of personal happiness.
"Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not," said Dunn. "This work suggests that even making small alterations in how we spend money on a daily basis can make a difference in happiness."
The team initially surveyed 632 people, asking them questions on income, spending, and general happiness. The subjects were asked to breakdown their budgets into bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity, the latter two categories being deemed "prosocial" spending. The team found that "personal spending was unrelated to happiness," but that "higher prosocial spending was associated with significantly greater happiness."
In a follow-up experiment, researchers followed 16 employees from a firm in Boston, tracking and rating their happiness both before and after they received bonuses ranging from $3,000 to $8,000. They found that it wasn't the size of the bonus that mattered, but how the recipients spent it, with those spending more on gifts and charity consistently reporting that they were happier.
In a third experiment, the team gave subjects between $5 and $20 to spend in an afternoon. Half were asked to spend the money on themselves, and the other half asked to spend the money on others. At the end of the day, irrespective of the amount, those that spent the cash on others were found to be happier.
"This study provides initial evidence that how people spend their money may be as important for their happiness as how much money they earn," said Dunn. "Spending money on others might represent a more effective route to happiness than spending money on oneself."
If that's the case, George Clooney should be feeling pretty pleased with himself right now, since the charity he heads with pals Don Cheadle and Matt Damon has just given $500,000 to the United Nations World Food Program. And Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie should be feeling positively ecstatic, since it's being reported that the duo donated over $8 million in total to various charities.
If you'd like to make yourself happy, but are on a tighter budget, the Daily Mantra suggests you give The Generosity Game a whirl (see previous post). The stealth-giving sport can be played on any budget, and as a bonus encourages recipients of your guerrilla giving to pay-it-forward, spreading happiness like an infectious disease. Just think, catching happiness could almost be as easy as catching a cold (click HERE if you're confused).