Jordi Quoidbach, a Belgian psychologist and professor at the University of Liege, argues that money can prevent us from fully experiencing the joys of daily life.
Research has shown that being richer, and even the mere thought of money, can make people less likely to enjoy and appreciate the smaller pleasures in life.
In the study, participants were asked questions about their happiness levels, their actual and desired material possessions, and the extent to which they enjoyed certain activities, such as completing a task and other everyday small pleasures.
Half of the respondents were shown a picture of a pile of money before completing the questionnaire, while the other group was not shown anything.
What did the researchers find?
The results revealed that people with more money, and even those who just saw an image of a pile of money before answering the questions, valued small things less. They even consumed chocolate quicker and got less enjoyment out of it!
This reduced level of enjoyment held true for all tested small pleasures. For the group with more money, and for those thinking of money, they had less impact.
Quoidbach’s previous research has also shown that money has a minimal effect on overall happiness – which fact we mention in the book’s “PEARLS OF HAPPINESS” section. Once a person has enough money for basic needs, accumulating more money has a minimal effect on their enjoyment of life, as illustrated in the ME MAP Young Adults book (page 219):
Based the study results, it’s important to remember:
If we have more money, we can buy more enjoyable things and experiences, however, the joy we get from them tends to diminishing.
This implies that accumulating material goods is like a hamster’s wheel: we keep running and running, but we remain in the same place in terms of happiness level.
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Source: Quoidbach, J., Dunn E.W., Petrides, K.V., & Mikolajczak, M. (2010). Money giveth, money taketh away: The dual effect of money on happiness. Psychological Science, 21, 759-763. (download)
