We have all ever heard that money does not buy happiness. But, let’s see, it will always be better to seek personal fulfillment with the mortgage and the bills paid. This is a fairly old debate, because there are people who really think that happiness cannot be achieved with a checkbook, while others do believe that it helps to a great extent. Generally, the first tend to be those who live with a certain economic ease, it is not necessary for any scientist to come and tell us that.
Even so, a team of scientists from the Princeton University has carried out a study in which it is shown that, indeed, money can help to obtain happiness. At least in part.
This is a study carried out by psychologists, although two millionaires also participated in it, who donated altruistically 2 million dollars for use in research. These distributed among 200 people from seven countries with such varied incomes such as the United States and Kenya. They all had similar educational levels and spoke at least some English. As for the amount, each received 10.000 $. In addition, there was another control group that was not given any money. Belonging to the control group had never been so painful.
Money gives happiness… when you are poor
Measuring happiness is not easy. Much less compare it with other people. For this reason, these scientists tried to quantify it in the most objective way possible through a list of 5 itemswhich the participants had to evaluate from 1 to 5.
they all had three months to spend the $10,000They couldn’t save them. At that time, they had to complete a monthly survey on the 5 items mentioned above. Also, six months later, they completed it again.
Curiously, those who had some annual income of $123,000, they did not have a significant happiness gain based on the surveys. However, those with a more modest income did increase their emotional well-being after donating. In fact, overall life satisfaction improved by an average of 0.36 points per person.
And what if you are rich?
On the other hand, the same survey was carried out on donors; who, despite their altruism, showed reduced satisfaction with 0’16 points. This leads us to conclude that, in reality, the happiness of the winner is more than the sadness of the loser. At least as long as the loss was voluntary and for the greater good.
Either way, the bottom line is that money may not bring absolute happiness, but it does help greatly improve life satisfaction. At least that of those people who know what it is to go through financial difficulties. If you were already rich previously, a little more money won’t cause you much excitement. Because 10,000 dollars, practically equivalent to 10,000 euros, can be the solution to the problems of many and small change for others. Actually, that is where the differences lie when evaluating whether it can really bring happiness.