If you want to feel good about yourself, give some money away. That’s the gist of a new study from Harvard Business School presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Researcher Michael Norton’s findings suggest that the act of giving away money makes people who aren’t rich feel wealthier and, therefore, happier and more satisfied with their lives. Based on his studies Norton, an associate professor of marketing, calculated that giving away $500 increased feelings of wealth as much as did earning an extra $10,000. In other words, the act of giving away money fosters the idea that being able to do so must mean that you’re better off than you thought you were. This increases your sense of power, which may lead to feeling happier because the donations “fulfill a deeper desire to signal wealth,” Norton explained. He noted that other studies have found that actually having a lot of money doesn’t necessarily make you happy.
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