Study: happiness can be bought (audio)

AirTalk/KPCC (scpr.org, 7-26-17; Crystal Quintero, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

Happiness for sale: how to buy it

If you have money, call me. I'll make you happy.

New study explains how happiness can be bought.

It’s often been said that money can’t (or won’t) buy happiness. The road to adulthood is littered with cautionary tales with this idea as the moral.

 

King Midas’ touch turned things to gold, but he soon realized the fatal flaw in his plan after touching his daughter and turning her to a gold statue.

• NEWSFLASH: Amazon.com's Founder, Chairman, CEO Jeff Bezos (with a paper fortune of $92.3 billion in stock) is a major shareholder. At 9:30 this morning, Amazon stock began selling at $1,083.31/share making him the WORLD'S RICHEST HAPPIEST MAN beating out Mexican cellphone magnate Carlos Slim and MicroSoft's miserable Bill Gates.

• VIDEO: Bezos surpasses Gates as world's richest man (Bloomberg.com, July 27) A surge in Amazon.com Inc. shares Thursday morning in advance of the online retailer’s earnings report briefly propelled founder Jeff Bezos past Bill Gates as the world’s richest person. More+VIDEO

I could give this to someone to do things.

One of author F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic characters, eccentric millionaire Jay [The Great] Gatsby, throws lavish parties every weekend and has all the world’s modern comforts but can’t buy the one thing that truly makes him happy: love [of another character, Daisy, he desires more than anything].

 

But the findings of a new study suggests that you might actually be able to buy yourself happiness -- if you spend your money right.

 

The study, co-authored by American and Dutch researchers, suggests that people who buy time for themselves are happier than those who don’t. Think paying someone to go grocery shopping, walk your dog, or do your laundry.
 

Stacks of time = stacks of potential happiness.

The study surveyed 6,000 respondents from four countries and also conducted an experiment in which participants were given $40 one week to buy something material then $40 the following week.

People said they were happier when they had more time versus when they purchased a material thing.
 

There's money in these good luck envelopes.

With the prevalence of the gig economy and apps that allow you to pay other people to do your grocery shopping or walk your dog, it would seem it’s easier than ever to buy yourself extra time and therefore buy yourself some happiness, that is, assuming you can afford to do it.

  

What do you think about the findings of this [overblown] study? Does it correlate to your own life experiences? What kinds of tasks did you once do yourself that you now pay someone else to do? Do you find yourself happier as a result? More + AUDIO

• Guest: Elizabeth Dunn, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and co-author of the study

Silicon Valley's sexual harassment issue have a long history. Corruption at Samsung!