Can Money Decrease Joy?

Researchers at the University of British Columbia conducted a study with 350 participants to investigate the relationship between money and enjoying life. The adult participants had salaries ranging from $225,000 to $10,500. They were asked to imagine how they would respond to a range of pleasure yielding experiences such as going on a romantic vacation or discovering a waterfall while hiking.

They were asked to indicate in which ways they would savor the pleasure:

Display positive emotions
Staying in the moment
Sharing the experience
Anticipating or reminiscing about it

Responses from the participants were plotted according to salary levels. The results showed the wealthier people reported savoring the scenarios less. In addition, the participants were shown images of money during the imagining of the two scenarios, and that also decreased the amount of pleasure they enjoyed. A related study showed participants images of money while they were eating chocolate, and the study subjects enjoyed the chocolate less.

Psychology Professor Elizabeth Dunn said of the study, “Our previous research suggested that people tend to spend money on things that don’t make them happy, now we see that the very idea of money can reduce our ability to enjoy the little pleasures of daily life.”

Another recent study suggests there is some happiness related to having money, but the effect is limited. Barbara L. Fredrickson from UNC-Chapel Hill commented on the research, “But positive feelings like enjoyment and laughing can do a whole lot more for people. They can help people grow and learn and become a more resilient, better version of yourself.”

Having enough money to meet one’s needs is a requirement, because stress generally results when things like food, water, shelter and healthcare are missing. However, this research does point to one of the downsides of material excess. Once your needs are met, too much attention on money might be a burden. There is actually a field called happiness economics which attempts to understand the relationship between happiness and money.

Image Credit: emdot

Read more: Health, Mental Wellness, happiness, money, research

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Emma S.

2:27PM PST on Nov 15, 2011

Maybe the negative associations with money were to do with the thought of its lack - or of having to do lots of accounts and budgeting?

I read a report of an experiment where they looked at lottery winners before and a year after their win. They asked people to rank their happiness out of ten. At the end of the year, people had returned to pretty much the same level they'd been at before. (Mind you, I've never understood how this worked. How did they find people who were going to be lottery winners?)

send a green star

Ann E.

9:04AM PDT on Sep 1, 2010

Interesting article but caution is advisable regarding drawing conclusions from a single study. 350 people is a slim basis on which to categorize "most" people.

Mary B.

4:28PM PDT on Jul 17, 2010

Of course money can buy happiness. Haveing adequit money equates to freedom from lack.And the freedom to enjoy what you do have, as well as knowing you can have new adventures.Haveing enough money fosters creativity. Everybody should be GIVEN enough money to live on as a base line prosperity in a culture. Our country needs to print money for we the people to circulate from the bottom up, instead of print it for the global banks to loan back to us so we're always living beyond our means, just for necessities. We have been enslaved by this system for centuries so it will take time for people to get past this endoctrinated idea that we have to 'pay back' what we must have to live.

john p.

4:14PM PDT on Jul 15, 2010

Thank you!

Nicki R.

7:06PM PDT on Jul 14, 2010

This is a case of the haves versus the have-nots. If you're a "have," and all your needs are met, then everything else is fluff and entertainment, and I guess eventually you'd get bored. Lucky you. Sorry, can't relate to that scenario. I'm in the "have-not" category, with never enough money for even basic necessities, so it sounds like a very enviable luxury to me to have so much money that it might cause you unhappiness. A "problem" I'd sign up for in a heartbeat! I'm really sick of the old saying, "Money can't buy happiness." It would buy me peace of mind, a house that wasn't disintegrating, food and desperately needed health care. All those things would make me happy and hugely reduce my stress level.

gerlinde p.

1:01PM PDT on Jul 14, 2010

interesting read, thanks

Beng Kiat L.

1:57AM PDT on Jul 14, 2010

thanks

Sylvia B.

9:13AM PDT on Jul 13, 2010

I am not so sure that having more money causes unhappiness, unless the people involved have such negative attitudes that now they have the additional worry that their friends and family only want to be around them because they have a bigger bank account balance. It really depends on what each individual values most. I've had times when I had more money, followed by times when I could carely pay my bills. It really came down to looking more closely at what I valued most. While having more money would have been nice in respect to taking care of materials needs and wants, I really wanted more peace of mind and time to enjoy the people and things in my life, instead of feeling so overworked and stressed out. My mom talked about how nice it would be to own a motor boat, never mind that she hardly goes to the lake in the summer anyway; it was simply "to have it", even though it would sit in the yard and collect dust most of the time. This is the same person who buys fast food even though she has no money for it, whereas I buy my food from the grocery store and bring it to work with me, leftovers too. Personally, I don't mind riding in someone else's boat, but I would not know what I'd do with my own, so having extra money to buy this "toy" does not make sense.

It basically comes down to the value system more than anything else, and if anyone who suddenly comes into money does not have that in place, they are in for a world of hurt.

Past Member .

9:32AM PDT on Jul 12, 2010

I grew up very poor. As soon as I had financial income from odd jobs around the neighborhood, I started contributing to the family. As a teen going to school full time and working part time I supported my family as much as I could because no one else was working and bills needed to be paid. I paid for 2 years of my older sister's college. I paid for my own college. Up until this year I worked 1 full time job and several part time jobs. I worked weekdays, weekends and evenings.

This year I have a partner, soon to be husband. I don't have to work every day of the week now.

It's a shame I was not part of this study because money excites me. I enjoy things more the more money I have coming in. If I can get money for eating chocolate, trust me, I enjoy the chocolate more! Heck, I don't even like chocolate, but if you give me money to eat it, I will absolutely LOVE it!!

Antoinette R.

3:50AM PDT on Jul 12, 2010

I come from a low-income family, middle class and I believe strongly that wealthy teenagers (my peers) lack the ability to appreciate the finer things in life (family, love, and nature).
This may sound bold but I feel our current currency feeds the greed of many nations and all for what paper. Blood spilled over paper. At least back in the day, many indigenous people had currencies that weren't as harmful to the environment (for example: in the Americas before the 1400s gave us our downward spiral, they used cacao beans) *many believe chocolate was brought to the Americas but on the contrary, the Europeans merely added sugar to the Native American bitter drink -- just thought i would throw that in there lol --