Giving Tuesday: Why Giving Money to Others Makes us Happier
Social psychologist Lara Aknin and Harvard professor Josh Greene reveal how pro-social spending, from donating to effective charities to buying time, significantly boosts personal happiness. They discuss optimal ways to give, emphasizing connection, autonomy, and impact, and celebrate listeners raising nearly $500,000 for charity.
Deep Dive Analysis
10 Topic Outline
Introduction to Effective Altruism and Giving Multiplier
Money's Relationship with Happiness and Well-being
Defining Pro-Social Spending and its Correlational Link to Happiness
Experimental Evidence for Pro-Social Spending's Impact
Cross-Cultural and Developmental Universality of Giving's Benefits
Generosity in the Workplace and its Ripple Effects
The Positive Feedback Loop of Generosity and Happiness
Maximizing Happiness from Pro-Social Spending
Addressing Counter-Intuitive Aspects of Pro-Social Spending
Conclusion and Call to Action for Future Giving
4 Key Concepts
Effective Altruism
This concept suggests that individuals should try to help and save lives by donating money to the most effective charities, ensuring every cent donated maximizes impact by addressing issues of enormous importance.
Pro-social spending
This refers to using one's money to benefit other people. It can range from formal donations to charities (one-off or systematic) to more interpersonal acts like treating a friend to coffee or taking a colleague out for dinner.
Hedonic Adaptation
This psychological phenomenon explains why buying more for ourselves often leads to expecting more and feeling unsatisfied, as the well-being boost from acquiring new possessions is typically short-lived.
Psychological Universal
This term describes a finding that is detectable in most humans around the globe. The emotional rewards of giving are considered a psychological universal, observed across diverse cultures and early in human development.
13 Questions Answered
Happiness Lab listeners, with matching funds, collectively raised $470,000 for charity through Giving Multiplier in less than a year.
Choosing wisely can make your impact a hundred or even a thousand times more effective than simply giving more money, by supporting charities that maximize impact or address critical issues.
Research shows money can buy happiness, especially when used to buy time (e.g., meal prep services) or to benefit others, rather than just acquiring possessions.
Pro-social spending involves using money to benefit other people, ranging from formal donations to charities to informal acts like treating a friend to coffee or taking a new colleague out for dinner.
Correlational studies indicate that the more money people spend on others, the happier they report feeling, even when controlling for household income, whereas spending on oneself does not predict happiness.
Yes, experiments show that people who purchase items for a sick child report higher levels of happiness than those who buy the exact same items for themselves, even with small amounts of money.
Yes, research has found consistent evidence for this phenomenon in diverse cultures (e.g., South Africa, Uganda, Vanuatu) and even in children under the age of two, suggesting it's a psychological universal.
When employees spend small bonuses on colleagues, they report higher happiness, recipients are happier, and their teams become more productive, suggesting generosity builds relationships and a positive atmosphere.
Giving in ways that allow for greater social connection, exercising autonomy (personal choice) in giving, and seeing the clear impact of one's donation can lead to a bigger happiness boost.
Giving in ways that allow for greater social connection, such as interacting with the recipient, collaborating with other donors, or connecting with the cause itself, leads to a larger emotional reward.
When people have the personal choice and volition to decide if, how, and when they want to give, they experience greater enjoyment and happiness from the act, rather than when they feel obligated or forced.
People enjoy giving more when they can see that their valuable resource is having a clear and positive effect on someone else's life, realizing they have measurably improved others' lives.
No, when given a choice to spend money on themselves or others, the overwhelming majority of people believe they would be happier spending on themselves, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.
11 Actionable Insights
1. Practice Pro-Social Spending
Consistently spend money to benefit other people, whether through formal donations or interpersonal acts like treating friends, as this is a robust predictor of higher happiness levels, even when controlling for income.
2. Donate to Effective Charities
When donating money, choose highly effective charities that maximize impact, as strategic giving can multiply your contribution’s effect on helping people or preventing catastrophes by a hundred or even a thousand times.
3. Prioritize Socially Connected Giving
Maximize your happiness boost from giving by finding ways to increase social connection, such as giving in person to see recipients, participating in collaborative campaigns with other donors, or connecting with the cause itself.
4. Ensure Autonomy in Giving
To enhance the happiness derived from generous acts, ensure you have a sense of personal choice and volition in when, how, and how much you give, even if it means reframing an obligation as a personal decision.
5. Focus on Measurable Impact
Choose to give in ways where you can clearly see or receive evidence of the positive impact your contribution is having on others’ lives, as this measurably improves your feelings of satisfaction and enjoyment.
6. Spend Money to Buy Time
Use money to outsource “pesky tasks” you prefer not to do, such as meal prep, to free up your time for more enjoyable activities and people, which can lead to a significant boost in well-being and relieve frustration.
7. Utilize Giving Multiplier
Use platforms like givingmultiplier.org to donate to your favorite cause while simultaneously contributing to highly effective charities identified by experts, potentially with matching funds, to maximize overall impact.
8. Visualize Charitable Impact
When donating to charities where you don’t know the beneficiary, actively seek out or imagine how your gifts are helping others to enhance the emotional rewards and personal satisfaction of giving.
9. Mentally Envision Impact
If direct feedback on the impact of your giving is not immediately available, mentally transport yourself or “time travel” to imagine how your contributions might be helping others, which can still unlock significant emotional rewards.
10. Strengthen Relationships Through Giving
Engage in pro-social spending as a means to forge and strengthen social connections with others, recognizing that humans are social creatures and this is a clear and robust path to greater personal happiness.
11. Challenge Selfish Spending Intuitions
Recognize and actively counter the common intuition that spending money on yourself will bring more happiness; instead, understand that spending on others is a more robust and counter-intuitive path to well-being.
5 Key Quotes
I think people are kind of stunned to learn how much farther your money can go, how much more impact you can have if you can pick the right charity, right?
Josh Green
People say money can't buy happiness, but research shows that's not quite true.
Dr. Laurie Santos
Even here, early in development, we're seeing that humans feel good about giving and giving even when it's costly.
Lara Aknin
So there seems to be this really fascinating and heartwarming positive feedback loop between generosity and happiness.
Lara Aknin
The overwhelming majority of people think that they would be happier spending on themselves.
Lara Aknin