But beyond earning, taxing and spending, there is an even clearer link between money and happiness: charity. The evidence is unambiguous that donating money (and time) is one of the best ways to buy happiness. People who donate to charity are 40% more likely to say they are "very happy" than non-donors. Psychologists have even tested whether charity makes people happy using randomized, controlled experiments -- the same procedure used for testing pharmaceuticals, except that, instead of administering a drug to one group and a placebo to the other, researchers randomly assign one group to act charitably toward another. The results are clear: Givers of charity earn substantial mental and physical health rewards, even more than do the recipients of charity -- empirical evidence that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive.I think I'd be happier if I spent more time working on posts about charity and kindness.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
I Think I Need to Write More World of Good Posts
Here's a snippet from Arthur C. Brooks article in the Wall Street Journal about a year and a half ago.
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1 comment:
Very cool! It does seem consistent with the observation that people often feel more positive when they have something outside of themselves to focus on.
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