A new study says money really can buy you happiness.
Researchers at the University of British Columbia recruited 300 people across seven countries. They then gave 200 participants $10,000 while the rest didn’t receive any money.
The point was to measure how the sudden cash infusion, which was randomly distributed, impacted people’s well-being.
And the results published in the journal PNAS were less than shocking: Those who were given the onetime sum were happier than those who were not — for at least a six-month period.
“Ten thousand dollars in certain places around the world can really buy you a lot,” study co-author Ryan Dwyer told NBC News. “Some people spent a lot of the money paying down their mortgage or doing a big renovation on their house.”
Participants were from a mix of low-income nations like Brazil, Indonesia, Kenya and wealthier ones such as Australia, Canada, the US and the UK. They were recruited in December 2020 through a tweet asking for participants in an experiment that was billed as “exciting, surprising, somewhat time-consuming, possibly stressful but possibly also life-changing.”
They were also asked to fill out a survey with personal information and a sense of their well-being.
Those enlisted ranged in age from 21 to 78 and had an income span of $0 to $400,000 with an average of $54,394. And 82% had a bachelor’s degree.
The money came from two anonymous wealthy donors, who gave away $2 million of their money in $10,000 PayPal deposits to 200 people.
Those who recieved the money were told to spend it within three months and many made big purchases like cars or spent it on home improvements.
After three months, they filled out another survey that measured happiness, asking them to rank on a scale of one to seven how often they experienced positive feelings. Negative feelings were assessed on a scale of one to five.
The group who received the monetary gift generally reported higher levels of happiness than those who didn’t get anything. And after six months, they still felt happier than they did before the social experiment.
Those in poorer countries gained three times more happiness than those in wealthier nations. Participants who already had a household income of $123,00 didn’t report significant improvements.
Ultimately, researchers said it was proof that the controversial idea of wealth redistribution can improve people’s lives, and they are looking further into the specific purchases that produced the better outcomes.