- social relationships
- temperament/adaptation
- society and culture
- positive thinking styles
- money
Today, we look at some of these variables before turning to examine the relationship between money and happiness in more detail.
We begin with social relationships. Diener conducted a study that discovered that the happiest 10 percent of the subjects all had strong supportive relationships. While a strong social network did not guarantee happiness, it appeared to be a requirement to be happy.
Temperament appears to have a genetic component and affects mood. There is a set point for temperament. We have our ups and downs in reaction to life’s events, but ultimately we usually adapt and return to a set point. Diener offers that temperament is more like a “moving baseline” than a single point permanently set for life.
Thinking patterns influence our happiness levels. Here are some cognitive patterns associated with more happiness:
- You see opportunities (rather than threats).
- You see the positive and beauty in things.
- You generally trust others.
- You interpret things with a more positive spin.
- You savor past experiences (rather than ruminating on negative ones).
The society around us also influences our levels of happiness. By country, Scandanavian countries are often the happiest, with nations in poverty or war the least happy.
You have probably heard the adage that money doesn’t buy happiness. But is it really true? Wealth is correlated with happiness, but money has a declining marginal utility. If you are moving out of poverty, those first few dollars contribute more to happiness than Jeff Bezos tacking on another million to his billions. Several studies have determined that the more your income rise, the happier you will be, up until US$75,000 per year.
Can money be toxic? When researchers asked individuals if money was more important than love, those who answered in the affirmative were less likely to be happy.
Some evidence suggests that wealthier people spend more time engaging in stressful activities, such as shopping and commuting. You may wonder how you can strategically deploy your money to get the most happiness bang for your buck. The answer appears to be to spend on avoiding household chores. You may wish to hire a housecleaner or pay the neighbor kid to mow the lawn.
Buy free time to increase happiness.
A Harvard researcher offers that their research report— entitled buying time promotes happiness — might convince us to reconsider how we spend the minutes of our lives. Despite rising incomes, many of us feel increasingly pressured for time.
Even in first-world countries, higher incomes are associated with time scarcity. With time stress comes several problems, including anxiety, trouble sleeping, obesity, and diminished happiness levels.
Modern life's time deficit may be reduced by using money to buy time. The investigators did surveys of large, diverse samples from four countries in North America and Europe. They asked more than 6,000 people (who earned a variety of incomes), whether they spent money on time-saving services.
Spending money on time-saving activities improved happiness.
Does buying time cause more happiness?
The researchers performed an experiment with 60 working adults in Vancouver (Canada) over two weekends. During one weekend, they gave participants $40 to spend on a time-saving purchase. Some had groceries delivered to their home, others paid for a house cleaning service, and one woman hired a boy in the neighborhood to run errands.
During the other weekend, they gave the same people $40 to spend on a material item. These individuals bought a variety of things, including new clothes, board games, and wine.
The participants offered that spending money on time-saving purchases left them in a slightly better mood, compared with spending money on material goods. In summary:
In both Europe and in the United States, those who outsourced their way out of cooking, cleaning, household maintenance, and other time-sucking tasks reported greater life satisfaction.
Are there real-world implications? The Stanford School of Medicine rewarded faculty members with vouchers for meal deliveries, laundry services, and housecleaning. Doctors who participated said they were 20 percent more likely to stay at Stanford, and they also reported a better work-life balance.
This Harvard Business School American/European study represents the first to show a relationship between spending money to buy free time and greater happiness levels. On another note, the money: happiness positive relationship appears to have become stronger over time, at least according to a new analysis of more than 40,000 adults in the USA, ages 30 and over. Money appears to buy more happiness than it used to. But if you want to be strategic about it, use those dollars to buy time.
I would be remiss if I did not note that many simply cannot afford to buy time. How many are working two or even three jobs just to get by? We as a society have to do better.
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