It’s possible money can buy happiness after all. A study published Monday in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) suggests that using money to buy free time can lead to more satisfaction with life. Paying someone to knock out household chores like cleaning and cooking, or hiring the neighbor’s kid to cut the grass can be good for the psyche.
The study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School surveyed more than 6,000 adults in the United States, Denmark, Canada and the Netherlands. Respondents were asked if and how much they spent each month to buy themselves free time. They also rated their life satisfaction, and answered questions about feelings of time stress.
Across all surveys, life satisfaction was typically higher for people who regularly spend money to save time. This was true regardless of household income, hours worked per week, marital status and number of children living at home (though one limitation of the study was that very few people on the extreme low end of the income spectrum were surveyed), according to a July 24 article in The Washington Post.
Here’s $40
As a field experiment to gauge whether buying time actually causes greater happiness, the researchers randomly assigned 60 adults to spend $40 on a time-saving purchase on one weekend, and $40 on a material purchase on another weekend. Results revealed that people felt happier when they spent money on a time-saving purchase than on a material purchase.
“People who hire a housecleaner or pay the kid next door to mow the lawn might feel like they’re being lazy,” said the study’s lead author Ashley Whillans, assistant professor at Harvard Business School, in the published article. “But our results suggest that buying time has similar benefits for happiness as having more money.”
Despite the benefits, researchers were surprised to discover how few people choose to spend their money on time-saving purchases in daily life.
“Although buying time can serve as a buffer against the time pressures of daily life, few people are doing it even when they can afford it,” said Elizabeth Dunn, UBC psychology professor, in a July 24 article at sciencedaily.com. “Lots of research has shown that people benefit from buying their way into pleasant experiences, but our research suggests people should also consider buying their way out of unpleasant experiences.”
“People are notoriously bad at making decisions that will make them happier,” Whillans said. She suspects the abstract nature of time may be to blame. “We always think we’re going to have more time tomorrow than we do right now,” she said. So we’re hesitant to trade money, which is concrete and measurable, for time, which is much more uncertain.
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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