TY - JOUR AU - Aknin,Lara B. AU - Barrington-Leigh,Christopher P. AU - Dunn,Elizabeth W. AU - Helliwell,John F. AU - Biswas-Diener,Robert AU - Kemeza,Imelda AU - Nyende,Paul AU - Ashton-James,Claire E. AU - Norton,Michael I. TI - Prosocial Spending and Well-Being: Cross-Cultural Evidence for a Psychological Universal JF - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series VL - No. 16415 PY - 2010 Y2 - September 2010 UR - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16415 L1 - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16415.pdf N1 - Author contact info: Lara B.. Aknin Department of Psychology University of British Columbia 2136 West Mall Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 CANADA E-Mail: laknin@psych.ubc.ca Christopher P. Barrington-Leigh Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and Department of Economics University of British Columbia 997 - 1873 East Mall Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z1 CANADA E-Mail: cpbl@wellbeing.econ.ubc.ca Elizabeth W. Dunn Department of Psychology University of British Columbia 2136 West Mall Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4 CANADA E-Mail: edunn@psych.ubc.ca John F. Helliwell Vancouver School of Economics University of British Columbia 997-1873 East Mall Vancouver BC V6T 1Z1 CANADA Tel: 604/822-4953 Fax: 604/822-5915 E-Mail: john.helliwell@ubc.ca Robert Biswas-Diener Centre for Applied Positive Psychology Sir William Lyons Road Coventry CV4 7EZ UK E-Mail: jayajedi@comcast.net Imelda Kemeza Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science Mbarara University of Science and Technology P.O. Box 1410 Mbarara, Uganda E-Mail: imeldakemeza@yahoo.com Paul Nyende Department of Mental Health and Community Psychology Makerere University Institute of Psychology P.O.Box 7062 Kampala, Uganda E-Mail: pgnyende@yahoo.com Claire E. Ashton-James Department of Psychology University of Groningen P. O. Box 72, 9700 AB Groningen, Netherlands E-Mail: C.E.Ashton-James@rug.nl Michael I. Norton Marketing Unit Harvard Business School Boston, MA 02163 E-Mail: mnorton@hbs.edu AB - This research provides the first support for a possible psychological universal: human beings around the world derive emotional benefits from using their financial resources to help others (prosocial spending). Analyzing survey data from 136 countries, we show that prosocial spending is consistently associated with greater happiness. To test for causality, we conduct experiments within two very different countries (Canada and Uganda) and show that spending money on others has a consistent, causal impact on happiness. In contrast to traditional economic thought—which places self-interest as the guiding principle of human motivation—our findings suggest that the reward experienced from helping others may be deeply ingrained in human nature, emerging in diverse cultural and economic contexts. ER -