Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else, researchers reported.

    Spending as little as $US5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found.

    Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others -- even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.

    "We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn," said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia.

    They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness, report their annual income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity.

    "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," Dunn said in a statement.

    Dunn's team also surveyed 16 employees at a company in Boston before and after they received an annual profit-sharing bonus of between $US3000 and $US8000.

    "Employees who devoted more of their bonus to pro-social spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus, and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself," they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

    They gave their volunteers $US5 or $US20 and half got clear instructions on how to spend it. Those who spent the money on someone or something else reported feeling happier about it.

    "These findings suggest that very minor alterations in spending allocations -- as little as $US5 -- may be enough to produce real gains in happinesson a given day," Dunn said.

    研究人員日前稱(chēng)，金錢(qián)可以買(mǎi)到快樂(lè)，但前提是你得把錢(qián)花在別人身上。

    英國(guó)哥倫比亞大學(xué)和哈佛商學(xué)院的研究小組發(fā)現(xiàn)，每天只需為別人花5美元，就能大大提升快樂(lè)感。

    研究人員對(duì)630多名美國(guó)人所做的實(shí)驗(yàn)表明，即使實(shí)驗(yàn)對(duì)象認(rèn)為為自己花錢(qián)會(huì)更快樂(lè)，但實(shí)際結(jié)果顯示，他們?yōu)閯e人花錢(qián)時(shí)其實(shí)更加快樂(lè)。

    英國(guó)哥倫比亞大學(xué)的心理學(xué)家伊麗莎白•杜恩說(shuō)：“我們?cè)噲D證明‘人們的花錢(qián)方式與掙錢(qián)多少至少同等重要’。”

    研究人員讓600名志愿者評(píng)價(jià)自己的總體幸福感，報(bào)告年收入以及詳細(xì)的月支出情況，包括應(yīng)付賬單、為自己及他人購(gòu)買(mǎi)禮物支出以及慈善捐獻(xiàn)。

    杜恩在一份聲明中說(shuō)：“無(wú)論他們掙多少錢(qián)，為別人花更多錢(qián)的人稱(chēng)自己的快樂(lè)感增強(qiáng)，而為自己花較多錢(qián)的人則沒(méi)有這種感受。”

    杜恩的研究小組還對(duì)波士頓一家公司的16名員工領(lǐng)到年終獎(jiǎng)之前和之后的情況進(jìn)行了調(diào)查，年終獎(jiǎng)金額從3000美元到8000美元不等。

    研究人員在研究報(bào)告中提到：“這些員工領(lǐng)到獎(jiǎng)金后，將較多錢(qián)花在別人身上的人快樂(lè)感更強(qiáng)，他們支配這筆錢(qián)的方式比獎(jiǎng)金本身的多少對(duì)快樂(lè)感的影響更大。”該研究報(bào)告在《科學(xué)》期刊中發(fā)表。

    研究人員向志愿者們分發(fā)了5美元至20美元金額不等的錢(qián)，并向其中一半人說(shuō)明了該如何花這些錢(qián)。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，將錢(qián)用于別人或其它事情的人感到更快樂(lè)。

    杜恩說(shuō)：“這些研究結(jié)果表明，每天只需稍稍改變支出分配——哪怕為別人花5美元，就能得到更多快樂(lè)。”