Groundbreaking Study Reveals Money Can, In Fact, Buy You Happiness
No shit.
/end blog.
Ok fine, let’s read on…
ITV - Money can buy happiness according to Cambridge University. In a study of almost 77,000 bank transactions, they found people who spent more on purchases that matched their personality were happiest. The study matched spending categories on the widely recognised “Big Five” personality traits – openness to experience (artistic versus traditional), conscientiousness (self-controlled vs easygoing), extraversion (outgoing vs reserved), agreeableness (compassionate vs competitive), and neuroticism (prone to stress vs stable). The researchers then compared the participants’ actual purchases to their personalities using this scale, and found that people generally spent more money on products that match their personality. For example, a highly extroverted person spent approximately £52 more each year on “pub nights” than an introverted person.
Our findings suggest that spending money on products that help us express who we are as individuals could turn out to be as important to our well-being as finding the right job, the right neighbourhood or even the right friends and partners.
By developing a more nuanced understanding of the links between spending and happiness, we hope to be able to provide more personalised advice on how to find happiness through the little consumption choices we make every day. – SANDRA MATZ, PHD CANDIDATE IN THE PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
Well fuck the cat and call me Sally, people who spend money on things that make them happy are happier. I’m just so glad Sandra Matz put her time and resources into getting to the bottom of that brainbuster. For centuries, nay, years, people have been trying to find out how to get happy. People have been lighting their money on fire and not gotten any satisfaction out of the money, and nobody knew why until now. Thank you, Sandra for all your hard work. Now I know that is a very scientific article that I just posted, so I’ll do you the favor of breaking it down so you can understand it.
You see, by “they found people who spent more on purchases that matched their personality were happiest” they mean people who spent money on things they liked were happier. By “things” they could mean food, activities, movies, maybe even alcohol. Now you see, people who spent money on things they don’t like were not as happy. WOAH, did I just blow you mind? Hold onto your britches, because I deciphered another toughy from the research: People who like going out spent more money going out to bars than those who do not like going out to bars.
It’s just really enlightening stuff that I’m glad Sandra dug to the bottom of. I now know my key to happiness is to do more things I like and spend more money on things I like. Truly, truly incredible stuff.
PS: Try to frown on a WaveRunner.