Can we be happy by giving money away?

Money can buy happiness, but only if we spend it on others, say researchers behind a three-
part psychology experiment. It is the latest in a line of recent studies suggesting that
happiness depends on experiences and interactions with others, not our income and
possessions. There's something inexplicably satisfying in witnessing people unwrap a gift
and respond with unadulterated amazement and happiness. You have made them smile,
and that's worth far more than money or any material item.

Money can't buy happiness, unless you spend it on others. Research has shown that giving
makes us far happier than receiving. Thus, in a way, we are actually being both selfish and
selfless by giving to others. Numerous studies have shown that giving money to others or to
charity will put a much bigger smile on your face than spending on yourself.

In a new study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of

Zurich in Switzerland told 50 people they’d be receiving about $100 over a few weeks. Half
of the people were asked to commit to spending that money on themselves, and half were
asked to spend it on someone they knew. So before doling out any money, they brought
everyone into the lab and asked them to think about a friend they’d like to give a gift to and
how much they would hypothetically spend. They then performed functional MRI scans to
measure activity in three regions of the brain associated with social behavior, generosity,
happiness and decision-making. Their choices—and their brain activity—seemed to depend
on how they had pledged to spend the money earlier. Those who had agreed to spend
money on other people tended to make more generous decisions throughout the
experiment, compared to those who had agreed to spend on themselves.

On the other hand, there are studies that suggest that philanthropy is bad because it
encourages dependence on those who have less money than those who have more money,
so they propose to end this method of help. However, philanthropy is an ideology that
proposes to give money that we have left to charity and not money that we could use in us,
also according to the studies presented above, this improves our happiness and makes us
feel better with ourselves.

Can we be happy by giving money away? The answer to this question is positive, everything
presented above demonstrates that giving money to others is better than spending it on
ourselves, studies have shown that even brain activity shows greater satisfaction, and this
can be seen reflected in everyday situations such as Give gifts to others.