Why Helping Others Is More Rewarding Than Helping Yourself
New research on the link between altruism and happiness
Suppose you’re given $10 that you can spend either to benefit someone else or to benefit yourself. Which course of action do you think would make you happier? A growing body of psychological research shows that, surprisingly, people are happier when they act to benefit others than when they act to benefit themselves.
For instance, in one of the earliest studies to investigate this link, participants rated their level of happiness in the morning and were then given either $5 or $20. One group of participants was assigned to the personal spending condition, being instructed to either pay for a bill, an expense, or a gift for themselves. The other group was assigned to the prosocial spending condition, being instructed to spend the funds to purchase a gift for someone else or to benefit charity. When all participants completed the task and reported on their happiness again at 5pm, researchers found that those in the prosocial spending condition were significantly happier — and it didn’t matter whether they’d received $5 or $20.
This effect has now been replicated many times by researchers, and more has been learned about the conditions under which it continues to hold. For example, spending on others…
