Money buys happiness -- if you spend on someone else

Money buys happiness -- if you spend on someone else

www.reuters.com

Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else, researchers reported on Thursday.

Spending as little as $5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found.

Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others -- even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The miracle of gift giving studied through science.

This has been common knowledge for years. How much better does it feel to look at the face of someone who receives a gift rather than receive one yourself?

There's always expectation of what is in a gift box, but when its exactly what that person wants/needs, the gift is even better.

The gratitude the receiver shows is way better than any material present.

The "joy of giving" is real.

Its rather interesting this study was done and I'd like to hear other's thoughts on the matter.

"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," Dunn said in a statement.

"Employees who devoted more of their bonus to pro-social spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus, and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself," they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

"Finally, participants who were randomly assigned to spend money on others experienced greater happiness than those assigned to spend money on themselves," they said.

Really cool

Don't be selfish

www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Interesting, but I think it depends.

For instance, every year my mother buys me white crew top athletic socks.

I never wear white socks.

She seems happy; I'm miserable.

I try to dye the socks brown, but they come back looking almost pink. More misery.

I buy someone something. The don't say anything. I can't tell if they like it. (they are a very quiet individual). Sometimes, maybe a year later I find out from someone else that they were beside themselves with glee. There's no happiness for me, just dismay, confusion and the unknown.

ymmv.