If happiness is enjoying the small things in life then…beware money!

09 Jun If happiness is enjoying the small things in life then…beware money!

Posted at 09:05h in Happy Tips by
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by Christopher Peterson for Psychology Today

I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.
– Pablo Picasso

The relationship between money and happiness has long been of interest to those of us in the modern world, and in the past few years, positive psychologists have conducted a number of intriguing studies showing – if nothing else – that the link between them is complicated. I have written some blog entries about these studies, as have some of my Psychology Today colleagues.

Yet another intriguing line of research has just been published.

Researchers Jordi Quoidbach, Elizabeth W. Dunn, K.V. Petrides, and Moêra Mikolajczak investigated whether wealthy people were less likely than others to savor small pleasures. As you might imagine, given that I am writing about this research, the answer to this question is an interesting yes. Wealthy people apparently take less pleasure in the small things in life. Is this because they already have the big things? I’ll return to what this finding might mean, but first let me describe the research. Two studies were done.

The first study used a mixed-methods procedure: survey and laboratory. Adult research participants (from Belgium) filled out standard surveys assessing their income, their disposition to savor positive emotions, and their overall happiness. Half of the participants were primed by exposure to a photo of euros; the other half were not. In one set of analyses, wealth (income) negatively predicted scores on the savoring measure, and so did exposure to the money prime. In another set of analyses, the statistical link between income and happiness was weakened when the tendency to savor was taken into account.

The second study…

…if you want to read the full article JUST CLICK HERE

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