________________ JainDigest How to Make Giving Feel Good By Elizabeth W. Dunn, Michael I. Norton (Elizabeth W. Dunn, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. Michael I. Norton, Ph.D., is an associate professor of business administration and a Marvin Bower Fellow at the Harvard Business School. This essay is adapted from their new book, Happy Money. Reprinted with permission from Greater Good, the online magazine of the Greater Good Science Center (GGSC). Based at UC Berkeley, the GGSC studies the psychology, sociology, and neuroscience of well-being, and teaches skills that foster a thriving, resilient, and compassionate society.) Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give. -- Eleanor Roosevelt Studies show giving makes people happy, and How did their purchases affect them? By the happiness makes people give--but not always. end of the day, individuals who spent money on Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton offer three others--who engaged in what we call "prosocial ways to help people feel good about giving. spending"--were measurably happier than those who spent money on themselves--even though On a fine summer morning in Vancouver, British there were no differences between the two groups Columbia, our graduate student Lara Aknin at the beginning of the day. The amount of money approached passersby with a box of envelopes and people found in their envelopes--five dollars or an unusual request: "Are you willing to be in an 20--had no effect on their happiness. How people experiment?" If people said yes, she asked them spent the money mattered much more than how how happy they were, got their phone number, and much of it they got. handed them one of her mysterious envelopes. This experiment suggests that spending as little as When people opened the envelope, they found a five dollars to help someone else can increase your five dollar bill, accompanied by a simple note. For own happiness. Similarly, in a representative sample some of them, the note instructed: of more than 600 Americans, the amount of money individuals devoted to themselves was unrelated to Please spend this $5.00 today before 5pm on a gift their overall happiness; what did predict happiness for yourself or any of your expenses (e.g., rent, bills, was the amount of money they gave away: The or debt). more they invested in others, the happier they were. This relationship between prosocial spending and Others found a note that read: happiness held up even after taking into account Please spend this $5.00 today before 5pm on a gift individuals' income. for someone else or a donation to charity. And it extends well beyond North America: In addition, some people got similar envelopes, A survey conducted by the Gallup World Poll but with a 20 dollar bill rather between 2006 and 2008 found that in 120 out of than a five. Armed with this 136 countries, people who donated to charity extra bit of cash and their in the past month reported greater satisfaction PLEASE instructions about how to with life. This relationship emerged in poor and GIVE spend it, people went on rich countries alike--again, it held up even after their way. That evening, they controlling for individuals' income. Across the 136 received a call asking them countries studied, donating to charity had a similar how happy they were feeling, relationship to happiness as doubling household as well as how they had spent income. The link between prosocial spending and the money happiness seems to be remarkably universal.
