We’ve often heard it said that money can’t buy happiness, but how true is it really?
One study attempted to find out by handing out $10,000 (£8,500) to participants and measuring what happened.
As you might expect, being handed a nice wodge of cash did indeed make people happier.
But only up to a point.
Seemingly, those earning over $123,000 (£103,000) didn’t notice any extra happiness as a result of the handout.
‘By comparing cash recipients with a control group that did not receive money, this preregistered experiment provides causal evidence that cash transfers substantially increase happiness across a diverse global sample,’ the authors wrote in the study, published in the journal PNAS.
There were 200 people across seven different countries all with different income brackets involved in the study. They were signed up to it in 2020 and didn’t know what they were getting involved in.
The money itself came from two wealthy donors who agreed to redistribute $2 million (£1.7 million) all in the name of science. The countries in the study ranged from high-income countries, such as the USA, to lower GDP-average countries like Kenya.
All the participants spoke English, had a wide array of ages, and were mostly educated to degree level or higher.
‘These gains were greatest for recipients who had the least: Those in lower-income countries gained three times more happiness than those in higher-income countries,’ the scientists reported.
Happiness is, of course, an entirely subjective feeling. But the researchers approached it with the five-item ‘Satisfaction with Life Scale’ and a one to five score measuring positive and negative affect.
Participants who received money indicated significant happiness improvements over the control group (a bunch of 100 people who, unfortuantely for them, got nothing).
As you’d expect, the effect was higher in lower-income countries. Across the 200, total life satisfaction improved by an average of 0.36 points per person.
However, the wealthy donors’ satisfaction decreased by an estimated 0.16 points each.
But overall, the scientists concluded, redistribution of wealth provided 225 times more satisfaction for everyone compared to if the two donors has just kept the money.
So, if you’re earning over £100k a year, you should probably give away any excess to those in low-income countries because, according to science, it’s not making you any happier anyway.
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