money can bring happiness

1. So I wantto talk todayaboutmoneyand happiness,whichare twothings thata lot of us spenda lot
of ourtime thinkingabout, eithertryingtoearnthemor tryingto increase them. Anda lotof us
resonate withthisphrase. Sowe see itinreligions andself-helpbooks, thatmoneycan'tbuy
happiness. AndIwantto suggesttodaythat,in fact,that's wrong. (Laughter) I'mat a business
school,sothat's what we do. So that's wrong,and,in fact,if you thinkthat, you're actuallyjustnot
spendingitright. Sothat insteadof spendingitthe wayyouusuallyspendit, maybe if youspentit
differently, thatmightworka little bitbetter. Andbefore Itell youthe waysthatyou can spendit
that will make youhappier, let'sthinkaboutthe wayswe usuallyspenditthatdon't,infact, make us
happier. We hada little natural experiment. SoCNN,alittle whileago,wrote thisinterestingarticle
on whathappenstopeople whentheywinthe lottery. Itturnsout people thinkwhentheywinthe
lotterytheirlivesare goingtobe amazing. Thisarticle'sabouthow theirlivesgetruined. Sowhat
happenswhenpeoplewinthe lottery is,numberone,theyspendall the moneyandgointodebt,
and numbertwo,all of theirfriendsandeveryonethey'veevermet findthemandbugthemfor
money. Anditruinstheirsocial relationships,infact. Sotheyhave more debtand worse friendships
than theyhadbefore theywonthe lottery. Whatwasinterestingaboutthe article waspeople
startedcommentingonthe article,readersof the thing. Andinsteadof talkingabout how ithad
made themrealize thatmoneydoesn'tleadtohappiness, everyoneinstantlystartedsaying,"You
knowwhatI woulddoif I wonthe lottery...?" and fantasizingaboutwhatthey'ddo. Andhere'sjust
twoof the oneswe saw that are just reallyinterestingtothinkabout. One personwrote in,"WhenI
win,I'm goingtobuy myown little mountain andhave a little house ontop." (Laughter) Andanother
personwrote,"Iwouldfill abigbathtubwithmoney andgetin the tub while smokingabigfat cigar
and sippingaglassof champagne." Thisisevenworse now:"ThenI'dhave a picture taken and
dozensof glossiesmade. Anyone beggingformoneyortryingtoextortfromme wouldreceive a
copy of the picture and nothingelse." (Laughter) Andsomanyof the commentswere exactlyof this
type, where peoplegotmoney and,infact,it made themantisocial. SoItoldyouthat it ruins
people'slivesandthattheirfriendsbugthem. Italso,moneyoftenmakesus feel veryselfish andwe
do thingsonlyforourselves. Well maybe the reasonthatmoneydoesn'tmake ushappy isthat we're
alwaysspendingitonthe wrongthings, andinparticular,that we're alwaysspendingitonourselves.
Andwe thought,I wonderwhat wouldhappen if we made peoplespendmore of theirmoneyon
otherpeople. Soinsteadof beingantisocial withyourmoney, whatif youwere alittle more
prosocial withyourmoney? Andwe thought,let'smake peopledoitandsee whathappens. Solet's
have some people dowhattheyusuallydo andspendmoneyonthemselves, andlet'smake some
people give moneyaway, andmeasure theirhappinessandsee if,infact,theygethappier. Sothe
firstwaythat we did this. Onone Vancouvermorning,we wentoutonthe campus at Universityof
BritishColumbiaandwe approachedpeopleandsaid,"Doyouwant to be inan experiment?" They
said,"Yes."We askedthemhowhappy theywere,andthenwe gave theman envelope. Andone of
the envelopeshadthingsinitthat said,"By5:00 pm today,spendthismoneyonyourself." Sowe
gave some examplesof whatyoucouldspenditon. Otherpeople,inthe morning,gotaslipof paper
that said, "By 5:00 pm today,spendthismoneyonsomebodyelse." Alsoinside the envelope was
money. Andwe manipulatedhowmuchmoneywe gave them. Sosome people gotthisslipof paper
and five dollars. Some peoplegotthisslipof paperand20 dollars. We letthemgo abouttheirday.
Theydidwhatevertheywantedtodo. We foundout that theydidinfact spenditin the waythat we
askedthemto. We calledthemupat nightand askedthem, "What'dyou spenditon,and how
happydo youfeel now?" Whatdidtheyspenditon? Well these are college undergrads,soalotof
whattheyspentit onfor themselveswere thingslikeearringsandmakeup. One womansaidshe
boughta stuffedanimal forherniece. People gave moneytohomelesspeople. Huge effecthere of
Starbucks. (Laughter) Soif yougive undergraduatesfivedollars,itlookslikecoffeetothem andthey
run overto Starbucksand spenditas fastas theycan. But some people boughtacoffee for

2. themselves,the waytheyusuallywould, butotherpeoplesaidthattheyboughta coffee for
somebodyelse. Sothe verysame purchase, justtargetedtoward yourselfortargetedtoward
somebodyelse. Whatdidwe findwhenwe calledthembackatthe end of the day? People who
spentmoneyonotherpeople gothappier. People whospentmoneyonthemselves,nothing
happened. Itdidn'tmake themlesshappy,itjust didn'tdomuch forthem. Andthe otherthingwe
saw isthe amountof moneydoesn'tmatterthatmuch. Sopeople thoughtthat20 dollarswouldbe
waybetterthan five dollars. Infact,itdoesn'tmatterhow much moneyyouspent. Whatreally
mattersisthat you spentiton somebodyelseratherthanonyourself. We see thisagainandagain
whenwe give people moneytospendonotherpeople insteadof onthemselves. Of course,these
are undergraduatesinCanada -- notthe world'smostrepresentativepopulation. They're alsofairly
wealthyandaffluentandall these othersortsof things. We wantedtosee if thisholdstrue
everywhere intheothersortsof things. We wantedtosee if thisholdstrue everywhereinthe world
or justamong wealthycountries. Sowe went,infact,to Uganda and ran a verysimilarexperiment.
So imagine,insteadof justpeopleinCanada, we said,"Name the lasttime youspentmoneyon
yourself orotherpeople. Describe it.How happydiditmake you?" Or inUganda, "Name the last
time you spentmoney onyourself orotherpeople anddescribe that." Andthenwe askedthemhow
happytheyare again. Andwhat we see issort of amazing because there'shumanuniversalsonwhat
youdo withyourmoney and thenreal cultural differencesonwhatyoudo as well. Soforexample,
one guy fromUganda says this. He said,"I calledagirl I wishedtolove." Theybasicallywentoutona
date, and he saysat the endthat he didn't"achieve"heruptill now. Here'sa guyfrom Canada. Very
similarthing. "Itookmy girlfriendoutfordinner. We wenttoa movie,we leftearly, andthenwent
back to herroom for ..." onlycake -- justa piece of cake. Human universal -- soyouspendmoneyon
otherpeople, you're beingnice tothem. Maybe youhave somethinginmind,maybe not. Butthen
we see extraordinarydifferences. Solookatthese two. Thisisa womanfrom Canada. We say,
"Name a time youspentmoneyonsomebodyelse." She says,"Iboughta presentformymom. I
drove to the mall inmy car, boughta present, gave ittomy mom."Perfectlynice thingtodo. It's
goodto get giftsforpeople thatyouknow. Compare thatto thiswomanfrom Uganda. "I was
walkingandmeta long-time friend whosesonwassickwithmalaria. Theyhadno money,theywent
to a clinicand I gave herthismoney." Thisisn't$10,000, it's the local currency. So it'sa verysmall
amountof money,infact. But enormouslydifferentmotivationshere. Thisisareal medical need,
literallyalife-savingdonation. Above,it'sjustkindof,Iboughta giftformy mother. What we see
againthough is that the specificwaythatyouspendon otherpeople isn'tnearlyasimportant asthe
fact that youspendonother people inordertomake yourself happy, whichisreallyquite important.
So youdon't have to do amazingthingswithyourmoneytomake yourself happy. Youcando small,
trivial thingsandyetstill getthese benefitsfromdoingthis. These are onlytwocountries. We also
wantedtogo evenbroaderandlookat everycountryinthe worldif we couldto see whatthe
relationshipisbetweenmoneyandhappiness. We gotdata fromthe GallupOrganization, whichyou
knowfromall the political pollsthathave beenhappeninglately. Theyaskpeople,"Didyoudonate
moneytocharity recently?" andtheyaskthem, "How happyare youwithyourlife ingeneral?" And
we can see whatthe relationshipisbetweenthosetwothings. Are theypositivelycorrelated?Giving
moneymakesyouhappy. Or are theynegativelycorrelated? Onthismap,greenwillmeanthey're
positivelycorrelated andredmeansthey're negativelycorrelated. Andyoucansee,the worldis
crazilygreen. Soinalmosteverycountryinthe world where we have thisdata, people whogive
moneytocharity are happierpeople thatpeoplewhodon'tgive moneytocharity. Iknow you're all
lookingatthat redcountry inthe middle. Iwouldbe a jerkandnot tell youwhatit is, butin fact,it's
Central AfricanRepublic. Youcan make up stories.Maybe it'sdifferentthere forsome reasonor
another. Justbelowthatto the rightis Rwandathough, whichisamazinglygreen. Soalmost
everywhere we look we see thatgivingmoneyawaymakesyouhappier thankeepingitforyourself.

3. What aboutyour worklife,whichiswhere we spendall the restof ourtime whenwe're notwiththe
people we know. We decidedtoinfiltratesome companiesanddoa verysimilarthing. Sothese are
salesteamsinBelgium. Theyworkinteams;theygoout andsell todoctors and try to getthemto
buydrugs. Sowe can lookandsee howwell theysell things asafunctionof beinga memberof a
team. Some teams,we give people onthe teamsome moneyforthemselves andsay,"Spendit
howeveryouwantonyourself," justlikewe didwiththe undergradsinCanada. Butotherteamswe
say,"Here's15 euro. Spenditonone of yourteammatesthisweek. Buythemsomethingasa giftor
a presentandgive itto them. Andthenwe can see,well now we'vegotteamsthatspendon
themselves andwe've gotthese prosocial teams whowe givemoneytomake the teama little bit
better. The reasonI have a ridiculouspinatathere isone of the teamspooledtheirmoneyand
boughta pinata, and theyall got aroundand smashedthe pinataandall the candy fell outandthings
like that. A verysilly,trivial thingto do, butthinkof the difference onateamthat didn'tdo that at
all, that got 15 euro,putit intheirpocket, maybe boughtthemselvesacoffee, orteamsthathad this
prosocial experience where theyall bondedtogethertobuysomethinganddoa groupactivity.
What we see isthat, infact, the teamsthat are prosocial sell more stuff thanthe teamsthatonlygot
moneyforthemselves. Andone waytothinkaboutit is forevery15 euroyougive people for
themselves, theyputitintheirpocket,theydon't doanythingdifferentthantheydidbefore. You
don't getany moneyfromthat. You actuallylose moneybecause itdoesn'tmotivate themto
performanybetter. Butwhenyougive them15 euroto spendontheirteammates, theydosomuch
betterontheirteamsthat youactuallygeta huge winoninvestingthiskindof money. AndIrealize
that you're probablythinkingtoyourselves, thisisall fine, butthere'sacontextthat'sincredibly
importantforpublicpolicy andI can't imagine itwouldworkthere. Andbasicallythatif he doesn't
showme that it workshere, Idon't believeanythinghe said. AndIknow whatyou're all thinking
aboutare dodgeball teams. (Laughter) Thiswasahuge criticismthatwe got to say, if youcan't show
it withdodgeball teams,thisisall stupid. Sowe wentoutandfoundthese dodgeball teams and
infiltratedthem. Andwe didthe exactsame thingasbefore. Sosome teams,we give peopleonthe
teammoney,theyspenditonthemselves. Otherteams,we give themmoney tospendontheir
dodgeball teammates. The teamsthatspendmoneyonthemselves are justthe same winning
percentagesastheywere before. The teamsthatwe give the moneytospendoneachother, they
become differentteams and,infact,theydominate the leaguebythe time they're done. Acrossall
of these differentcontexts -- yourpersonal life,youworklife, evensillythingslike intramuralsports
-- we see spendingonotherpeople hasabiggerreturnforyou than spendingonyourself. AndsoI'll
justsay, I thinkif youthinkmoneycan'tbuy happiness you're notspendingitright. The implicationis
not youshouldbuythisproductinsteadof that product and that's the way tomake yourself happier.
It's infact, that youshouldstopthinking aboutwhichproducttobuy foryourself andtrygivingsome
of itto otherpeople instead. Andwe luckilyhave anopportunityforyou. DonorsChoose.orgisa
non-profitformainlypublicschool teachersinlow-income schools. Theypostprojects, sotheysay,
"I wantto teach HuckleberryFinntomyclassand we don't have the books," or "I wanta microscope
to teachmy studentsscience andwe don'thave a microscope." Youand I can go on andbuy itfor
them. The teacherwritesyoua thankyou note.The kidswrite youa thankyou note. Sometimes
theysendyoupicturesof themusingthe microscope. It'san extraordinarything. Gotothe website
and start yourself onthe process of thinking,again,lessabout"How can I spendmoneyonmyself?"
and more about"If I've got five dollarsor15 dollars, whatcanI do to benefitotherpeople?" Because
ultimatelywhenyoudothat,you'll findthatyou'll benefityourself muchmore. Thankyou.
(Applause)