Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness

by: Elizabeth W Dunn, Lara B Aknin, Michael I Norton

Science, Vol. 319, No. 5870. (21 March 2008), pp. 1687-1688.

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Abstract

Although 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. Specifically, we hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. Providing converging evidence for this hypothesis, we found that spending more of one's income on others predicted greater happiness both cross-sectionally (in a nationally representative survey study) and longitudinally (in a field study of windfall spending). Finally, participants who were randomly assigned to spend money on others experienced greater happiness than those assigned to spend money on themselves. 10.1126/science.1150952

@article{citeulike:2568405, abstract = {Although 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. Specifically, we hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. Providing converging evidence for this hypothesis, we found that spending more of one's income on others predicted greater happiness both cross-sectionally (in a nationally representative survey study) and longitudinally (in a field study of windfall spending). Finally, participants who were randomly assigned to spend money on others experienced greater happiness than those assigned to spend money on themselves. 10.1126/science.1150952}, author = {Dunn, Elizabeth W. and Aknin, Lara B. and Norton, Michael I. }, citeulike-article-id = {2568405}, doi = {10.1126/science.1150952}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {sciencemag}, month = {March}, number = {5870}, pages = {1687--1688}, posted-at = {2008-04-13 12:20:23}, priority = {0}, title = {Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1150952}, volume = {319}, year = {2008} }

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TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:2568405 L3 - citeulike-article-id:2568405 TI - Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness JF - Science VL - 319 IS - 5870 SP - 1687 EP - 1688 N2 - Although 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. Specifically, we hypothesized that spending money on other people may have a more positive impact on happiness than spending money on oneself. Providing converging evidence for this hypothesis, we found that spending more of one's income on others predicted greater happiness both cross-sectionally (in a nationally representative survey study) and longitudinally (in a field study of windfall spending). Finally, participants who were randomly assigned to spend money on others experienced greater happiness than those assigned to spend money on themselves. 10.1126/science.1150952 KW - sciencemag AU - Dunn, Elizabeth AU - Aknin, Lara AU - Norton, Michael PY - 2008/03/21/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1150952 ER -

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