spending money on your friends and strangers? According to new research published in Science, spending money on other people has a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. This may come to a surprise to some, but makes perfect sense to others.
Given that we are creatures of reciprocity and live our lives not in absolute terms but in relative ones - both spending less money and spending it on others seems a reasonable path to increased happiness. Ethicist Jonathon Haidt has written a length about such dilemmas in his book The Happiness Hypothesis. There are important reasons why paraplegics are generally happier than lottery winners. Those reasons are related to the fact that if you happen to find a quarter in a payphone, you are more likely to come to a stranger's aid than if you do not. The Happiness Hypothesis is a wild journey blending ancient philosophy, cognitive neuroscience, and positive psychology that ends at what makes us happy. I highly recommend it.
Meanwhile, go buy a friend (or a stranger) a latte. You'll be happier because of it.
Humanities & Social Science
Brain & Behavior
Comments
It is hard to deduce causality from these kinds of experiments. It may be that people who are already happy are more likely to give away money.
Posted by: Milan | March 23, 2008 4:01 PM
I like it. It's way too easy to be very self-focused, especialy in our modern society. Much better to think more of others and less of yourself for a healthy ego.
Posted by: Eric | April 1, 2008 11:31 AM