How Money Can Buy Happiness Through Prosocial Spending

Assignment six: Annotated bibliography on Money Cannot Buy Happiness Research question: How Does Money Buy Happiness? Aknin, L. B., Barrington-Leigh, C. P., Dunn, E. W., Helliwell, J. F., Burns, J., Biswas-Diener, R., ... & Norton, M. I. (2013). Prosocial spending and well-being: Cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal. Journal of personality and social psychology, 104(4), 635. Aknin and his fellow authors conducted a research to test the hypothesis on whether money really buys happiness. The article clearly confirms that money can buy happiness if only it is used to help others. The articles arguments are based on the notion that, money can only but happiness if used on others since pre-social spending is fully associated with greater happiness around the world. It is interesting to note that based on survey data from 136 countries that Aknin et al conducted, the findings indicated that pre-social spending has casual impact on happiness across countries that differ greatly in terms of wealth. This article is of relevance to my research as it will offer insights on how money can be used to buy happiness especially if used to help others. This is an article that defines the positive emotional effect that money can have on its user as attributed to the happiness of the receiver of the financial help. First page Abstract This research provides the first support for a possible psychological universal: Human beings around the world derive emotional benefits from using their financial resources to help others (prosocial spending). In Study 1, survey data from 136 countries were examined and showed that prosocial spending is associated with greater happiness around the world, in poor and rich countries alike. To test for causality, in Studies 2a and 2b, we used experimental methodology, demonstrating that recalling a past instance of prosocial spending has a causal impact on happiness across countries that differ greatly in terms of wealth (Canada, Uganda, and India). Finally, in Study 3, participants in Canada and South Africa randomly assigned to buy items for charity reported higher levels of positive affect than participants assigned to buy the same items for themselves, even when this prosocial spending did not provide an opportunity to build or strengthen social ties. Our findings suggest that the reward experienced from helping others may be deeply ingrained in human nature, emerging in diverse cultural and economic contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) Aknin, L. B., Norton, M. I., & Dunn, E. W. (2009). From wealth to well-being? Money matters, but less than people think. The Journal of positive psychology, 4(6), 523-527. http://www.uvm.edu/pdodds/files/papers/others/2009/aknin2009a.pdf In their article, Aknin, Norton and Dunn research on the connection between money and the well-being of human. Concerning human satisfaction and happiness, the authors’ hypothesis that money matters but less than people think. Based on the article it is clear that people work tirelessly to earn high assuming that with high incomes, their satisfaction and happiness will remain defined. It is in this process that money defines negative effects on human since they over work themselves for fears of being defined as poor or low income earners. For this reason, one can conclude that money can buy happiness and at the same time buy anger and discomfort to many as they yearn for the happiness associated with being wealthy. It is for such insights that I believe that this article is of great relevance on my topic of research as it will offer both sides of effects that money brings to its users. The article has great facts that clearly define people’s experiences upon having and not having money which defines their emotional satisfaction in both of their experiences. First page Abstract While numerous studies have documented the modest (though reliable) link between household income and well-being, we examined the accuracy of laypeople's intuitions about this relationship by asking people from across the income spectrum to report their own happiness and to predict the happiness of others (Study 1) and themselves (Study 2) at different income levels. Data from two national surveys revealed that while laypeople's predictions were relatively accurate at higher levels of income, they greatly overestimated the impact of income on life satisfaction at lower income levels, expecting low household income to be coupled with very low life satisfaction. Thus, people may work hard to maintain or increase their income in part because they overestimate the hedonic costs of earning low levels of income. Introduction A striking inconsistency surrounds the relationship between money and happiness. Despite the fact that money has been shown to have a small (though reliable) effect on happiness in developed countries (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2002; Frey & Stutzer, 2000), humans devote much of their time and energy to earning it, seemingly motivated by the belief that money will have a substantial impact on their overall life satisfaction (Ahuvia, 2008). For example, the amount of time the average American spends at work has grown steadily over the past several decades, despite the fact that this occupational investment comes at the cost of family and leisure time (Schor, 1991). What is the source of this apparent contradiction between researchers’ conclusions about the relatively modest link between money and happiness versus laypeople’s everyday choices and behavior? We suggest that laypeople engage in behaviors designed to increase or maintain their wealth because they overestimate the impact that income has on well-being. Berk, K. (2018). Does Money Make Us Happy? The Prospects and Problems of Happiness Research in Economics. The article starts with a confirmation that money indeed makes people happy. However the article further confirms that though many people associate money with anger and stress, if used properly, money serves as a potential happiness and satisfaction engine amongst human beings. How money buys happiness serves as the primary hypothesis that Berks article aims at testing with the finding indicating that money not only buys happiness but enhance relationships amongst wealthy people. It is an interesting article that analysis economists