“Money Can’t Buy Happiness” Is Bullshit, According To Science

Alex Buscemi9 years ago

“Money can’t buy happiness” is one of those expressions that we all know is bullshit, but we go along with it anyway because it makes people feel better about their shitty predicaments. It’s like saying, “Well at least you gave it your all.”

Now, we have cold hard science to back up a simple fact: life is pretty fun when you can afford to buy fun shit.

The study also delves into what different people buy to make them happy based on their personality traits.

From 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).

For example, “eating out in pubs” was rated as an extroverted and low conscientiousness (impulsive) spending category, whereas “charities” and “pets” were rated as agreeable spending categories.

There you have it. Whether you’re an introvert, an extrovert, or a people-pleaser, you need that moola to enjoy the world around you. The scientist adds that the materials we surround ourselves with can be as integral to who we are as the people we surround ourselves with.

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.

“Personalized advice on how to find happiness” through our “consumption choices”? Sounds like the biggest plug for targeted advertising I’ve ever heard.

There’s no getting around it. We are all materialistic as fuck. Buddah can take his “happiness through inner peace and wisdom” and shove it right up his fat broke ass. Capitalism is the true path to enlightenment..

[via ITV]

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