The Pursuit Of Happiness; Financial Basis Of Happiness Or Vice Versa

Does money promote happiness? This is one of the most discussed question for last decades, within the arise of annual income, after world wars, economical cirisis etc.. As human beings, we care about money, because of its utility and what money can procure to us. According to evalutionary approach, food comes first in the level of importance as a primary reinforcer, that is ready to consume and it meets with the needs of organisms, and money is defined as a secondary reinforcer which isn’t wastable, but it procures these products to go short (Briers, Pandelaere, Dewitte & Warlop, 2006). Hence, we can say that money is as important as food, because of its power to provide these needs, and we have already conditioned to gain money to ameliorate our life conditions. For example once you have high level of income or money, you will more likely to reach health services, healthy nutrients, safe house etc. than others. But there is a paradox here; while having money is possitive for health, but not the desire of money (Vohs, Mead & Goode, 2008). Because having money (possession) has positive health consequences to possess  balanced diet, safe home, health services etc. But desire for money or remanding the concept of money result with negative health consequences, which avoids interpersonal relationships or prosocial behaviors, that are closely associated with the happiness of individuals (Vohs, Mead, & Goode, 2008).

          Recent studies demonstrated that social relationships are one of the most robust predictors of the happiness such as having intimate relationships, friendships etc. (Mogilner, 2010).  Beyond the biological needs, human being is called as a social animal by Aristotales who needs to commit with somewhere or somebody. After providing physiological and safety needs, we need to socialize, and interact with the other people because of our makeup and characteristics (Dunn, Aknin, & Norton, 2008). Also, social psychologist Maslow (1943) who created the  hierarchy of needs, explained that the need of love and belonging is cruical for human beings, after supplying our physical and security needs (but still we need money to reach them). Within the supplying physical needs, does money promotes happines of individuals?

          According to study of Deaton and Kahneman (2010), they have found correlational relationship between the level of income and the aspects of well-being, but not the happiness. In this study, it was investigated the subjective well-being of individuals which is characterized by 2 concepts; emotional well-being and life evaluation. Emotional well-being is defined with daily life events and felts emotions (sadneess, anger, joy etc.), which is quiet important to predict life satisfaction of individuals. And it is found that annual income has a meaningful significance to predict the emotional well-being of individuals, until 75.000 dollars per year. Also it is shown that, annual income didn’t found related to predict emotional well-being of individuals,  if the annual log income more than 75.000 dollars per year. Also this study, demonstrated that lower income groups whose annual income is below 75.000 per year were in worse situation,  they have emotional pain which is related with poor health conditions as a consequence of low annual log income. So that, we can say ‘money improves the subjective well-being of individuals and their satisfaction with life, but money doesn’t promotes the happiness of individuals’.

          The level of happiness is assumed to increase, within the arise of annual national income by prohibiting emotional pain as a consequence of poor health conditions (Oishi, Kesebir, & Diener, 2011; Deaton, & Kahneman, 2010). In the study of Oishi, Kesebir and Diener (2010), it is demonstrated that the level of happiness didn’t raise up from 1972 to 2008, although the rise of household income. According to people from lower socio-economic status, happiness is explained by general trust and perceived fairness. People with lower socio-economic level remarked that the inequal distribution of national income with the idea of ‘‘rich getting richer’’. And, they also explained this enlarged income disparity with the sense of decreased general trust and perceived fairness, opposite to arise of national household income. At the same time, people from high-income groups indicated ‘they  were happier in the years with more income inequality than in the years with less income inequality’. In the end, among people from  high-income group, income inequality wasn’t linked together with perceived fairness or general trust, also happiness didn’t found associated for the high-income group.

          Contrary the belief that earning money has strong impact on happiness, it found that ‘how to spend money’ is even more important than the earned ‘size of money’ to predict happiness of individuals (Dunn, Akninn, & Norton, 2008). However, the previous studies represented that even merely remanding the money concepts makes people less likely to show altrustic behaviours such as helping to others, making donation, or spending time with beloved ones, etc., that are robustly associated with happiness (Vohs, Mead, & Goode, 2008). In the mean time, money can be used as beneficial tool to reach some prosocial goals. In the study of  Dunn, Akninn, and Norton (2008), it is found that personal spending wasn’t associated with happiness, but prosocial spending (spending money on others) was highly associated with the experienced greater happiness, even after the period of prosocial behaviour.

Hilal Üney

References:

Briers, B., Pandelaere, M., Dewitte, S., & Warlop, L. (2006). Hungry for money: the desire for caloric resources increases the desire for financial resources and vice versa. Psychological science, 17(11), 939–943. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01808.x

Deaton, A., & Kahneman, D., (2010). “High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107 (38): 16489-16493.

Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., & Norton, M. I. (2008). Spending money on others promotes happiness. Science, 319(5870), 1687–1688. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1150952

Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396. https://https://doi.org/10.1037/h0054346

Mogilner, C. (2010). The Pursuit of Happiness: Time, Money, and Social Connection. Psychological Science, 21(9), 1348–1354. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610380696

Oishi, S., Kesebir, S., & Diener, E. (2011). Income inequality and happiness. Psychological science, 22(9), 1095–1100. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611417262

Vohs, K. D., Mead, N. L., & Goode, M. R. (2008). Merely Activating the Concept of Money Changes Personal and Interpersonal Behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(3), 208–212. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00576.x