A study from Cambridge University appears to have confirmed something that humanity has been aware of since the very first king was crowned many centuries ago: money can buy happiness. People who are short on money like to say ‘the best things in life are free’ or ‘money can’t buy happiness’, but I’m here to spread the word today that those people are wrong as fuck.
The study found that having money to spend on (tangible) things in life that match a person’s personality traits does in fact correlate with being happy. Specifically, after combing through over 77,000 financial transactions the Cambridge University study found that the ‘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.“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
So there you have it, bros. If you want to live a happier life you need to go out and spend money on the things in life that make you happy (beer, concerts, tailgating, sneakers, watches, knives, fishing gear, etc). Whatever it is that matches up with your personality, the items that would ‘make you happy’, that’s what you should be buying in order to live a happier life.
Can Money Buy Happiness image courtesy of Shutterstock.com
For more on this study you can click on over to ITV.com!