Spending Money Versus Happiness

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Perhaps the Beatles were right that a diamond ring can’t buy (me) love. But giving gifts – altruistic spending –might be able to buy happiness. While there is strong evidence for the weak effect of income on happiness, recent research suggests that by spending money on others, human beings can play an active role in their happiness, improving it on the daily level.
In a 2008 study, researchers Dunn, Aknin and Norton attempted to identify “whether and how disposable income might be used to increase happiness” (Dunn, et al., 2008). Their study used three tests to prove that spending money on others is key. First, the researchers asked a nationally representative sample of Americans to quantify their happiness and then to estimate how much money they spend on what -- which the researchers divided into two categories: prosocial spending (charity donations or gifts) and personal spending. The data demonstrated that personal spending was unrelated to happiness, but higher prosocial spending was correlated to higher happiness. Based on this initial evidence, the researchers predicted that...

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