More Evidence That Spending Money On Others Makes Us Happier Than Spending On Ourselves

More Evidence That Spending Money On Others Makes Us Happier Than Spending On Ourselves

via Forbes by Mark Travers

A new study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology offers yet another compelling reason why spending money on others brings us more happiness than spending money on ourselves.

“Previous studies show that spending money on others makes people happier than spending it on themselves,” say the authors of the research, led by Hajdi Moche of Linkoping University in Sweden. “[We] tested and extended this idea by examining the role of active versus passive choice and default choices. Here, 788 participants played and won money in a game, from which some of the earnings could be donated to charity. The results showed that people who donated money were happier than people who kept money for themselves, and that active choices elicited significantly more negative [emotions] than passive choices.”

In other words, people were happier when they opted for prosocial rather than personal spending, but they were most happy when this decision was made for them — presumably because this freed them from experiencing any uncertainty or regret about the decision they made.

There is one caveat, however…

… keep reading the full & original article HERE