Johnson, W., &Krueger, R. F. (2006). How money buys happiness: Genetic and environmental processes linking finances and life satisfaction.

Measures of wealth such as income and assets are commonly considered to be objective measures of environmental circumstances, making direct contributions to life satisfaction. Here, the authors explored the accuracy of this assumption. Using a nationwide sample of 719 twin pairs from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, the authors first noted the relative independence of most perceptions about financial status from measures of actual wealth. They then demonstrated that perceived financial situation and control over life completely mediated the association between measures of actual wealth and life satisfaction. Finally, they showed that financial resources appeared to protect life satisfaction from environmental shocks. In addition, control appeared to act as a mechanism translating life circumstances into life satisfaction.

 

 

 

Johnson, W., & Krueger, R. F. (2006). How money buys happiness: Genetic and environmental processes linking finances and life satisfaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(4), 680-691.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.4.680

 

Thomas, M., Desai, K. K., &Seenivasan, S. (2010). How credit card payments increase unhealthy food purchases: Visceral regulation of vices. Journal of consumer research, 38(1), 126-139.

 

Some food items that are commonly considered unhealthy also tend to elicit impulsive responses. The pain of paying in cash can curb impulsive urges to purchase such unhealthy food products. Credit card payments, in contrast, are relatively painless and weaken impulse control. Consequently, consumers are more likely to buy unhealthy food products when they pay by credit card than when they pay in cash. Results from four studies support these hypotheses. Analysis of actual shopping behavior of 1,000 households over a period of 6 months revealed that shopping baskets have a larger proportion of food items rated as impulsive and unhealthy when shoppers use credit or debit cards to pay for the purchases (study 1). Follow-up experiments (studies 2–4) show that the vice-regulation effect of cash payments is mediated by pain of payment and moderated by chronic sensitivity to pain of payment. Implications for consumer welfare and theories of impulsive consumption are discussed.

 

 

Thomas, M., Desai, K. K., &Seenivasan, S. (2010). How credit card payments increase unhealthy food purchases: Visceral regulation of vices. Journal of consumer research, 38(1), 126-139.

https://doi.org/10.1086/657331

 

Aknin, L. B., et al. (2012). Happiness runs in a circular motion: Evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(2), 347-355.

We examine whether a positive feedback loop exists between spending money on others (i.e. prosocial spending) and happiness. Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness. Afterward, participants chose whether to spend a monetary windfall on themselves or someone else. Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the near future. Thus, by providing initial evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and well-being, these data offer one potential path to sustainable happiness: prosocial spending increases happiness which in turn encourages prosocial spending.

 

 

Aknin, L. B., Dunn, E. W., &Norton, M. I. (2012). Happiness runs in a circular motion: Evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and happiness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 13(2), 347-355.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-011-9267-5 

 

Easterlin, R. A. (2003). Explaining happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(19), 11176-11183.

What do social survey data tell us about the determinants of happiness? First, that the psychologists’ setpoint model is questionable. Life events in the nonpecuniary domain, such as marriage, divorce, and serious disability, have a lasting effect on happiness, and do not simply deflect the average person temporarily above or below a setpoint given by genetics and personality. Second, mainstream economists’ inference that in the pecuniary domain “more is better,” based on revealed preference theory, is problematic. An increase in income, and thus in the goods at one’s disposal, does not bring with it a lasting increase in happiness because of the negative effect on utility of hedonic adaptation and social comparison. A better theory of happiness builds on the evidence that adaptation and social comparison affect utility less in the nonpecuniary than pecuniary domains. Because individuals fail to anticipate the extent to which adaptation and social comparison undermine expected utility in the pecuniary domain, they allocate an excessive amount of time to pecuniary goals, and shortchange nonpecuniary ends such as family life and health, reducing their happiness. There is need to devise policies that will yield better-informed individual preferences, and thereby increase individual and societal well-being.

 


Easterlin, R. A. (2003). Explaining happiness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(19), 11176-11183.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1633144100

 

 

 

 

 

DeVoe, S. E., &House, J. (2012). Time, money, and happiness: How does putting a price on time affect our ability to smell the roses?

In this paper, we investigate how the impatience that results from placing a price on time impairs individuals’ ability to derive happiness from pleasurable experiences. Experiment 1 demonstrated that thinking about one’s income as an hourly wage reduced the happiness that participants derived from leisure time on the internet. Experiment 2 revealed that a similar manipulation decreased participants’ state of happiness after listening to a pleasant song and that this effect was fully mediated by the degree of impatience experienced during the music. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that the deleterious effect on happiness caused by impatience was attenuated by offering participants monetary compensation in exchange for time spent listening to music, suggesting that a sensation of unprofitably wasted time underlay the induced impatience. Together these experiments establish that thinking about time in terms of money can influence how people experience pleasurable events by instigating greater impatience during unpaid time.

 


DeVoe, S. E., &House, J. (2012). Time, money, and happiness: How does putting a price on time affect our ability to smell the roses?. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(2), 466-474.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2011.11.012

 

 

 

 

 

Nawijn, J., Marchand, M. A., Veenhoven, R., &Vingerhoets, A. J. (2010). Vacationers happier, but most not happier after a holiday.

 

The aim of this study was to obtain a greater insight into the association between vacations and happiness. We examined whether vacationers differ in happiness, compared to those not going on holiday, and if a holiday trip boosts post-trip happiness. These questions were addressed in a pre-test/post-test design study among 1,530 Dutch individuals. 974 vacationers answered questions about their happiness before and after a holiday trip. Vacationers reported a higher degree of pre-trip happiness, compared to non-vacationers, possibly because they are anticipating their holiday. Only a very relaxed holiday trip boosts vacationers’ happiness further after return. Generally, there is no difference between vacationers’ and non-vacationers’ post-trip happiness. The findings are explained in the light of set-point theory, need theory and comparison theory.

 

 

Nawijn, J., Marchand, M. A., Veenhoven, R., &Vingerhoets, A. J. (2010). Vacationers happier, but most not happier after a holiday. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 5(1), 35-47.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-009-9091-90

 

MacLeod, A. K., Pankhania, B., Lee, M., &Mitchell, D. (1997). Parasuicide, depression and the anticipation of positive and negative future experiences. Psychological Medicine, 27(4), 973-977.

Background. Previous research has shown that parasuicides’ view of the future is characterized by an absence of anticipation of positive experiences rather than the presence of anticipation of negative experiences. The present study aimed to replicate this finding and examine whether it would also be found in parasuicides who were not depressed.

 

Method. Depressed parasuicides (N=27), non-depressed parasuicides (N=17) and matched controls (N=34) were assessed on their anticipation of future positive and negative experiences using an adapted fluency paradigm, where they were given a set time to generate future positive and negative anticipated experiences.

 

Results. Consistent with previous findings, parasuicides showed an overall reduced anticipation of positive experiences and no overall increased anticipation of negative experiences. However, the parasuicides did show evidence of increased negative anticipation for the immediate future. The results for depressed and non-depressed parasuicides were essentially the same.

 

Conclusion. Lack of positive anticipation in the absence of increased negative anticipation is a feature of parasuicide. Although this lack of positive anticipation can occur in depression, it appears to be an independent feature of parasuicide.

 

 

 

 

MacLeod, A. K., Pankhania, B., Lee, M., &Mitchell, D. (1997). Parasuicide, depression and the anticipation of positive and negative future experiences. Psychological Medicine, 27(4), 973-977.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S003329179600459X 

Neal, D. T., Wood, W., Wu, M., &Kurlander, D. (2011). The pull of the past: When do habits persist despite conflict with motives?.

 

To identify the factors that disrupt and maintain habit performance, two field experiments tested the conditions under which people eat out of habit, leading them to resist motivational influences. Habitual popcorn eaters at a cinema were minimally influenced by their hunger or how much they liked the food, and they ate equal amounts of stale and fresh popcorn. Yet, mechanisms of automaticity influenced habit performance: Participants ate out of habit, regardless of freshness, only when currently in the context associated with past performance (i.e., a cinema; Study 1) and only when eating in a way that allowed them to automatically execute the response cued by that context (i.e., eating with their dominant hand; Study 2). Across all conditions, participants with weaker cinema-popcorn-eating habits ate because of motivations such as liking for the popcorn. The findings reveal how habits resist conflicting motives and provide insight into promising mechanisms of habit change.

 

 

Neal, D. T., Wood, W., Wu, M., &Kurlander, D. (2011). The pull of the past: When do habits persist despite conflict with motives?. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(11), 1428-1437.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211419863

 

Aguiar, M., &Hurst, E. (2009). A summary of trends in American time allocation: 1965–2005. Social Indicators Research, 93(1), 57-64.

 

This article summarizes the findings from Aguiar and Hurst (, ) with respect to changes in time allocation—particularly leisure—within the United States during the last four decades. Included in our measure of leisure is all time people spend watching television, playing sports, socializing with friends and family, reading, engaging in hobbies, and relaxing. The results from Aguiar and Hurst indicate that leisure has increased for both men and women, since 1965, by roughly 5 and 3.5 h per week, respectively. However, most of these gains occurred prior to 1985 and the trends for women have some been somewhat reversed over the last decade.

In addition, Aguiar and Hurst (, ) show that for both men and women, leisure inequalityhas increased, particularly after 1985. Specifically, since 1965, less educated men and women have experienced substantial leisure increases, while their more educated counterparts have experienced little, if any, leisure gains. The trends in…

 

 

 

Aguiar, M., &Hurst, E. (2009). A summary of trends in American time allocation: 1965–2005. Social Indicators Research, 93(1), 57-64.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-008-9362-0

 

Ruby, M. B., Dunn, E. W., Perrino, A., Gillis, R., &Viel, S. (2011). The invisible benefits of exercise. Health Psychology, 30(1), 67-74.

Objective: To examine whether—and why—people underestimate how much they enjoy exercise.


Design: Across four studies, 279 adults predicted how much they would enjoy exercising, or reported their actual feelings after exercising.


Main Outcome Measures: Main outcome measures were predicted and actual enjoyment ratings of exercise routines, as well as intention to exercise.


Results: Participants significantly underestimated how much they would enjoy exercising; this affective forecasting bias emerged consistently for group and individual exercise, and moderate and challenging workouts spanning a wide range of forms, from yoga and Pilates to aerobic exercise and weight training (Studies 1 and 2). We argue that this bias stems largely from forecasting myopia, whereby people place disproportionate weight on the beginning of a workout, which is typically unpleasant. We demonstrate that forecasting myopia can be harnessed (Study 3) or overcome (Study 4), thereby increasing expected enjoyment of exercise. Finally, Study 4 provides evidence for a mediational model, in which improving people’s expected enjoyment of exercise leads to increased intention to exercise. Conclusion: People underestimate how much they enjoy exercise because of a myopic focus on the unpleasant beginning of exercise, but this tendency can be harnessed or overcome, potentially increasing intention to exercise.

 

Ruby, M. B., Dunn, E. W., Perrino, A., Gillis, R., &Viel, S. (2011). The invisible benefits of exercise. Health Psychology, 30(1), 67-74.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0021859