They say money doesn't buy happiness, but new research contradicts that assumption. The eraser examined and found that money can buy happiness, at least for six months, among households with a pair of workers who earn up to $123,000 a year, or about half a million shekels.
The study, published Monday in the journal PNAS, looked at the effects of giving a lump sum of $10,000 to 200 people. The money came from two anonymous donors and was distributed through PayPal through a partnership with TED.
Participants who received the money were required to spend all of it within three months. They recorded their happiness index on a monthly basis. At the same time, a control group of 100 people who did not receive money was selected.
The researchers measured happiness by how satisfied they were with their lives on a scale of 1 to 7 and how often they experienced positive emotions, such as happiness, and negative emotions, such as sadness, on a scale of 1 to 5.
Money can also buy happiness. Illustration, photo: Reuters
The group that received $10,000 reported higher levels of happiness than the control group that did not receive money. After another three months had passed, the recipients still reported higher levels of happiness than they had experienced at the beginning of the experiment. However, people with an income of over $123,000 did not report a significant improvement in their happiness, since an income of NIS 10,000 does not make a significant difference in their bank account.
Participants documented how they spent their money, but researchers are still analyzing the data to see if different patterns of purchases led to more happiness.
Participants in the study came from three low-income countries — Brazil, Indonesia and Kenya — and four high-income countries: Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S. The findings indicated that participants from low-income countries felt three times happier than those from high-income countries. People who earn $10,000 a year are twice as happy as those who make $100,000 a year.
The feeling will probably fade away
"Ten thousand dollars in some places around the world can really buy you a lot," said Ryan Dwyer, a co-author of the study, who conducted the research as a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia. "Some people have spent a lot of money repaying their mortgage or doing a major renovation of their home."
A 2019 study found that big lottery wins increased people's life satisfaction, and a 2007 study concluded that people who won up to $200,000 from the lottery had better mental health than those who didn't win at all. The findings contradicted previous research that suggested winning the lottery had little effect on happiness.
Dwyer said that some of the happiness reported in his study may be related to people's initial excitement and that the feeling "probably fades slowly over time if you don't get more money."
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