“Money is surprisingly bad at making us happy. Once we escape the trap of poverty, levels of wealth have an extremely modest impact on levels of happiness, especially in developed countries. Even worse, it appears that the richest nation in history – 21st century America – is slowly getting less pleased with life. (Or as the economists behind this recent analysis concluded: “In the United States, the [psychological] well-being of successive birth-cohorts has gradually fallen through time.”)
Needless to say, this data contradicts one of the central assumptions of modern society, which is that more money equals more pleasure. That’s why we work hard, fret about the stock market and save up for that expensive dinner/watch/phone/car/condo. We’ve been led to believe that dollars are delight in a fungible form.
But the statistical disconnect between money and happiness raises a fascinating question: Why doesn’t money make us happy? One intriguing answer comes from a new study by psychologists at the University of Liege, published in Psychological Science. The scientists explore the “experience-stretching hypothesis,” an idea first proposed by Daniel Gilbert. He explains “experience-stretching” with the following anecdote:
I’ve played the guitar for years, and I get very little pleasure from executing an endless repetition of three-chord blues. But when I first learned to play as a teenager, I would sit upstairs in my bedroom happily strumming those three chords until my parents banged on the ceiling…Doesn’t it seem reasonable to invoke the experience-stretching hypothesis and say that an experience that once brought me pleasure no longer does? A man who is given a drink of water after being lost in the Mojave Desert may at that moment rate his happiness as eight. A year later, the same drink might induce him to feel no better than a two.
What does experience-stretching have to do with money and happiness? The Liege psychologists propose that, because money allows us to enjoy the best things in life – we can stay at expensive hotels and eat exquisite sushi and buy the nicest gadgets – we actually decrease our ability to enjoy the mundane joys of everyday life. (Their list of such pleasures includes ”sunny days, cold beers, and chocolate bars”.) And since most of our joys are mundane – we can’t sleep at the Ritz every night – our ability to splurge actually backfires. We try to treat ourselves, but we end up spoiling ourselves.”
Read more at Wired (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
literally cannot waitttt !"
Maybe people with money who suffer like this might benefit from donating to the less well off. Call me. . . .
That’s why it’s better to spend your money on an oz of pot.
Never disappoints.
good
And it could be that other things like relationships and peak experiences are where the real happiness is … we may just be chasing a mirage with money. Try Martin Seligman, or Mihály Csíkszentmihályi on ‘Flow’.
As a financial adviser, I agree. Money in itself does not appear to make people inherently (more) happy.
Nor indeed, do ‘things’, especially in the context above whereby we need ever nicer ‘things’ to achieve the same level of happiness.
It appears to me that ‘experiences’ are where increasing and ongoing happiness can occur – often combined with ‘people’, be they friends or family.
So whilst going home alone to a cool beer on a sunny day is not going to do it for most people, sharing this kind of simple pleasure with friends/family/etc, is good. There seems to be evidence that using your own money to make experiences nicer for others works well too – so treating your friends to a cold beer on a sunny day (whether at the ritz or not) is also good.
One other thing…
I was once speaking to a group of reasonably succesful entrepreneurial business people and they were discussing what to do on a day off – and a proper day off at that – so no doing work or even thinking about it.
Some people gave the kind of “more money equals more pleasure” answer discussed in topic above, such as jetskiing on lake or day at spa/fancy restaurant – but one person simply said “potter”
What a great aspiration, just having the time to ‘potter’
Still rather have money and be unhappy than be poor and unhappy!
Interesting but what what about the distinction between those who are born into money verses those who win the lottery for example? How your upbringing has conditioned your financial outlook must surely effect your happiness levels?
It’s a good theory. Do they want volunteers to test it on
This is why you should look into The Zeitgeist Movement. It’s no less than a global movement with hundreds of thousands – maybe millions – of supporters advocating a redesign of our culture using what appears to be the only viable solution to our sustainability and happiness problems as a whole. Take a look at the film, website or both:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EewGMBOB4Gg
http://www.thezeitgeistmovement.com
It’s only the people with money that say “money doesn’t bring you happiness” it would make me happy. They can throw their money my way
haha! oh please please please gimme lotsa money so i can prove this isnt true!
i guess the person to axe is derren…he’s been on both ends of this spectrum.
Up to the age of 19 I had my parents money and was depressed, now I have very little of my hard earned cash but I am so happy.
As to money making people happy i can agree in a certain level but must say it depends on your financial history, working for a high street bank i see all kinds of customers of different socio-economic classes and when the single parents come into the bank with cheques of high balances, being £5000 – £10,000 they seem overjoyed, booking holidays, the main problem with the current monetry system is there is little way for countrys to avoid debt and from the time i have worked in the financial district i have learnt very little people who have credit cards loans or mortgages have good credit ratings and find themselves in a spiralling debt.
Check out the zeitgeist movement, details above
My understanding of most entrepreneurs is that money is simply a by-product of the challenge and is not the driver.
I have brought up three children with not a huge amount of money, as I chose to stay at home and do just a few hours evening work etc. When they got older, I went to university to study psychology which I loved. Unable to pursue a career in psychology, I went back to full-time and ended up with more money, clothes etc than I had had for 20 years – it was the unhappiest I had been for 20 years because I was bored and unfulfilled.
I would rather do something inspiring, earn less money and buy my clothes in charity shops than subscribe to the consumerist, decadent, selfish lifestyle that caused the financial mess we’re in.
This reminded me of this: http://www.pidjin.net/2008/06/01/numb-number/