Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off

Elizabeth W. Dunn; Lara B. Aknin; Michael I. Norton

Article | Current Directions in Psychological Science | 2014

Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off

by Elizabeth W. Dunn, Lara B. Aknin and Michael I. Norton

Abstract

While a great deal of research has shown that people with more money are somewhat happier than people with less money, our research demonstrates that how people spend their money also matters for their happiness. In particular, both correlational and experimental studies show that people who spend money on others report greater happiness. The benefits of such prosocial spending emerge among adults around the world, and the warm glow of giving can be detected even in toddlers. These benefits are most likely to emerge when giving satisfies one or more core human needs (relatedness, competence, and autonomy). The rewards of prosocial spending are observable in both the brain and the body and can potentially be harnessed by organizations and governments.

Keywords: money; prosocial spending; happiness; well-being; Happiness; Money; Spending; Welfare or Wellbeing; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving;

Format: Print

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Dunn, Elizabeth W., Lara B. Aknin, and Michael I. Norton. "Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off." Current Directions in Psychological Science 23, no. 1 (February 2014): 41–47.

How do the wealthy spend their time, and does their time use relate to their greater well-being? Two large-scale surveys of millionaires and the general population show that millionaires spend their time in surprisingly similar ways as the general population. For example, millionaires spend the same amount of time as the general population cooking, shopping, and eating – and even spend more time on household chores. However, while millionaires and non-millionaires also spend the same amount of time engaging in leisure activities, a critical difference emerged: the wealthy engage in more active leisure (e.g., exercising and volunteering) and less passive leisure (e.g., watching TV and relaxing). Moreover, the extent to which wealthy individuals engage in greater active leisure helps to explain the gap in life satisfaction between millionaires and the general population. Together, these results further our understanding of when and how wealth translates into well-being.

Article | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Enacting Rituals to Improve Self-control

D. A. Tian, J. Schroeder, G. Haubl, J. Risen, M. I. Norton and F. Gino

Rituals are predefined sequences of actions characterized by rigidity and repetition. We propose that enacting ritualized actions can enhance subjective feelings of self-discipline, such that rituals can be harnessed to improve behavioral self-control. We test this hypothesis in six experiments. A field experiment showed that engaging in a pre-eating ritual over a 5-day period helped participants reduce calorie intake (Experiment 1). Pairing a ritual with healthy eating behavior increased the likelihood of choosing healthy food in a subsequent decision (Experiment 2), and enacting a ritual prior to a food choice (i.e., without being integrated into the consumption process) promoted the choice of healthy food over unhealthy food (Experiments 3a and 3b). The positive effect of rituals on self-control held even when a set of ritualized gestures enacted were not explicitly labeled as a ritual, and in other domains of behavioral self-control (i.e., prosocial decision-making; Experiments 4 and 5). Furthermore, Experiments 3a, 3b, 4, and 5 provided evidence for the psychological process underlying the effectiveness of rituals: heightened feelings of self-discipline undergirded the facilitative effect of rituals on behavioral self-control. Finally, Experiment 5 showed that the absence of a self-control conflict eliminated the effect of rituals on behavior, demonstrating that rituals affect behavioral self-control specifically because they alter responses to self-control conflicts.

Keywords: Behavior; Perception; Personal Characteristics; Health;

Citation:

Tian, D. A., J. Schroeder, G. Haubl, J. Risen, M. I. Norton, and F. Gino. "Enacting Rituals to Improve Self-control." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 114, no. 6 (June 2018): 851–876. View Details

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Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off

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