At this time of year the ringing of the tills in shopping centres is almost as loud as the chiming of Christmas bells and the tinkling of Santa's sleigh. Despite the recession we are predicted to spend £48.9 billion over the festive period this year. However, despite the old adage 'money can't buy you love', some research I came across this week shows that money may just be able to buy you happiness.
Although most studies of happiness find that having more money doesn't necessarily make you happier, how you spend your money does appear to have an influence. This research[1] found that spending money on other people has a more positive impact on our happiness than if we spend the money on ourselves. This was found to be the case across the country, which throws into questions the stereotypes about tight-fisted Yorkshire folk. Even though when I go Christmas shopping I tend to buy one present for myself for every gift I buy, I shouldn't find this too surprising. Altruism; the good feeling we get when we do something for someone else, can and does make us feel more positive emotions.
So, for those of you who haven't finished your Christmas shopping yet, don't think of it as a chore; a hellish experience full of thronging crowds and stressful decisions. Think of it as an opportunity to make yourself (and others if you get the right gift!) feel happy - albeit after you've finished making stressful decisions - within the thronging crowds! And, in the spirit of the recession, if that doesn't work, you can always just make do with a kind deed for someone this Christmas. I suspect random acts of kindness work in exactly the same way, only cheaper, with fewer crowds and guaranteed to keep you feeling good until New Year.
[1] Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness, Elizabeth W. Dunn 1 ,* , Lara B. Aknin 1 and Michael I. Norton 2
The relationship between money and well-being is unusual. The common wisdom is that the more we have the happier we become. However, consider this analogy. Over the Christmas period, it is tradition to stuff our faces with turkey and chocolates until we feel satisfied and happy (and probably sick). Come January though, I for one will be glad to see the back of it and will avoid probably avoid eating the stuff for several months...alright, maybe not the chocolates, but you get my point. As humans, we tend to consume something to the point where our needs are met and then we take a break.
Not so, it seems, with money. To quote Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, "the desire for food is limited in every man by the narrow capacity of his stomach. But the desire of [money] seems to have no limit or certain boundary."
Economists and psychologists have been wrestling with the relationship between money and happiness for decades. Humans devote much of their time and energy to earning it, seemingly motivated by the belief that money will have a substantial impact on their overall life satisfaction. However, given the current economic crisis is leading most organisations to freeze pay increases and withdraw bonus packages, this is undoubtedly going to lead to feelings of frustration and anxiety.
Research shows that people tend to drastically overestimate the impact that income has on well-being. For example, recent research in the Journal of Positive Psychology, found that people are notoriously bad at predicting the levels of happiness associated with differing levels of income. It is true that individuals who live on or below the poverty line tend to display lower levels of well-being - i.e. it hurts to be cold, hungry and tired. However, once people have achieved a threshold level of income to buy their way out of hardship, then our prediction that money and happiness grow together breaks down. Studies actually show that increases in income have increasingly less of an impact on actual levels of happiness.
So, why do we hold on to the erroneous belief that more money means more happiness? Why do we continue to stuff our pockets when we would not continue to stuff our faces?
The answer to these questions will be a continuing topic of debate amongst economists, psychologists, philosophers and...well, everyone for many years to come. However, what I do know is that people tend to attribute too much emphasis to this one variable, and overlook the plethora of other variables that positively impact global life satisfaction (love, friendship, esteem, variety, achievement, challenge, recognition...the list goes on). Perhaps the festive period is a chance for all of us to take stock and consider what really matters (in between mouthfuls of turkey).
In my neck of the woods it has felt like a pretty poor spring to date. The weather has been overcast, dreary and very wet, which is all highly reminiscent of the last year when summer was effectively rained off.
In our use of language there is a connection made between weather and mood. Gloomy, depressed, cold, sunny, bright, warm are adjectives that are applied to personalities as well as the weather.
Most of us experience feelings of gloominess and lethargy during the winter months, but for some it is more than just feeling a little tired and grumpy. An estimated half a million people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) every winter. Symptoms include sleep problems, lethargy, overeating, depression, anxiety, loss of libido and mood changes. The main treatment for SAD is exposure to a very high intensity light bulb, although the onset of spring and the longer days usually make symptoms disappear.
But it's not just SAD sufferers who benefit from the longer days; the majority of us tend to be more positive and have a stronger sense of well-being as spring and summer approach. Our mood is better or higher when:
- Humidity is low
- Sunlight is high
- Barometric pressure is high
The effect of temperature on mood is more variable. Our mood is typically better as the temperature goes up but if it gets too hot our mood declines. Furthermore, aggression also increases as temperatures increase, but again declines if it goes too high.
A good spring with sunny weather and higher temperatures boosts our mood more that it would in the summer when these conditions are less of a novelty. A poor spring then means we don' get that surge of positive energy and increased sense of optimism.
Overall the message is a simple one: at this time of year in particular make the most of any good weather you get. We spend over 90% of our time indoors so getting out, if only for half an hour, can have a positive impact.
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