You can't buy happiness for yourself

Social psychologist Elizabeth Dunn of the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver wanted to find out what kind of spending makes people happier: spending money on yourself, or spending it on others.

Dunn's researchers gave 46 UBC students envelopes containing either a $5 bill or a $20 bill and told them how to spend it. Some were told to spend it on themselves; some were told to spend it on someone else. After interviewing the students later, it turned out that those who spent it on others, as a gift or donation to charity, were happier than those who blew it on themselves.

According to Science Magazine, two more studies yielded similar results. Dunn's team polled 16 employees of a Boston company before and after they received bonuses of various sizes, and they gathered data on income, spending, and happiness from 632 people across the United States. In both groups, happiness correlated with the amount of money people spent on others rather than the absolute amount of the bonus or income.

If you bought yourself a cup of coffee or an ice cream today, and tomorrow bought one for someone else. Which would bring you more long- or short-term happiness? link