Professor Elizabeth Dunn (no relation) who led the research, said: "We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn."

"Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not."

The team then assessed the happiness of 16 employees at a firm in Boston, both before and after they received their profit-sharing bonus, which ranged between $3,000 (£1,514) and $8,000 (£4,039).

It appeared it was not the size of the bonus that mattered, but what the employees spent it on.
Those who gave more of their bonus as gifts to others, or to charity, consistently reported greater benefits than employees who simply spent money on their own needs.

In another experiment, the researchers gave 46 people $5 or $20, asking them to spend the money by five that afternoon. Half the participants were instructed to spend the money on themselves and half were assigned to spend the money on others.

Those who spent the cash on others reported feeling happier at the end of the day than those who spent the money on themselves, no matter how much they had been given.

Dr Dunn said:

This study provides initial evidence that how people spend their money may be as important for their happiness as how much money they earn. And spending money on others might represent a more effective route to happiness than spending money on oneself."

So it looks like our motto at Buy1GIVE1 of ‘Sharing the Joy' is capturing the spirit of giving in exactly the right way. And as you'll see from other notes right here, we're making that even easier (and more fun) to do.