Research Finds That Money Can Only Buy You A Certain Type Of Happiness

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Everyone’s heard the phrase “Money can’t buy happiness,” but is it really true? While we can speculate all we want about happiness, researchers at the University of California, Irvine, conducted a survey to prove the phrase true or false. The findings from the research are interesting: they suggest that money can buy happiness, but only certain kinds. Yep, there are different kinds of happiness.

The researchers examined a number of positive emotions in relation to household income by asking questions about feelings to 1,519 Americans with a range of salaries. The questions focused on amusement, awe, compassion, contentment, enthusiasm, love and pride, in relation to activities or passions the participants identified with. For example, responses to the notion, “Nurturing others gives me a warm feeling inside” measured compassion.

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After analyzing the results, the researchers found that those with higher incomes identified more with emotions like pride, contentment and amusement — feelings that are more central to them personally and not toward others. Those with lower household incomes were found to respond to emotions like love and compassion, which focus on others. Participants in the group with lower salaries were also found to be more likely to relate to emotions like awe and a having positive attitude toward the world.

The takeaway? Money could buy happiness…but not all types of happiness. The more income you have, the more likely you are to feel more self-centered happiness, according to the survey. These findings definitely make us think…