We are constantly being told “money can’t buy happiness”. According to Michael Norton, this notion is wrong. Norton explains his reasoning in the TED talk “How to buy happiness”. TED talks are conferences led by various speakers, of various backgrounds and educations, owned by a non-profit organization called Sapling Foundation that address many different topics. Norton’s topic discussed the idea that if someone believes she cannot buy happiness, she is not spending her money the correct way.
At first, this sounds selfish, but what Norton gets to is that spending money on oneself usually leads people to feel unhappy while spending money on other people, specifically, people who are in need of that money, leads to happiness. Norton and his colleagues conducted an experiment at University of British Columbia where they handed out envelopes with varying amounts of money and a card saying to either spend it on themselves or on someone else. “What did we find when we called them back at the end of the day?” he asked himself and then responded, “people who spent money on other people: [they] got happier. People who spent money on themselves: nothing happened”. Some purchases were even the same purchase. For example, one student bought a Starbucks coffee for himself and another bought a coffee from Starbucks for someone else. The person who bought the coffee for someone else said that it had made him happier.
At first, this sounds selfish, but what Norton gets to is that spending money on oneself usually leads people to feel unhappy while spending money on other people, specifically, people who are in need of that money, leads to happiness. Norton and his colleagues conducted an experiment at University of British Columbia where they handed out envelopes with varying amounts of money and a card saying to either spend it on themselves or on someone else. “What did we find when we called them back at the end of the day?” he asked himself and then responded, “people who spent money on other people: [they] got happier. People who spent money on themselves: nothing happened”. Some purchases were even the same purchase. For example, one student bought a Starbucks coffee for himself and another bought a coffee from Starbucks for someone else. The person who bought the coffee for someone else said that it had made him happier.
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| What undergraduates at U of BC bought with the envelopes they were given. SOURCE: TED talks videos |
I connect Norton’s experiment with my hypothesis because I believe when a person tries to earn money purely for himself, he will not be as successful as someone who wants to earn money for some other cause. My hypothesis: If a person starts an idea/company/business because he is unhappy, he will not be as successful as someone trying to spread his own happiness to others. To put this in perspective, I think of a baked goods table at my school. When the cause is just, I am more inclined to buy something; if I can find the money. Basically, when the end-game is all about money, it won’t make you successful nor happy. Your best strategy is to be happy with what you have and work to get others on your level. In doing this, you will be happy and successful and so will the people around you.
This is a really interesting take on the well-known quote "money can't buy happiness". I like how you integrated the viewpoint of the article with your own and legitimized your source by giving background on TED talks. Also, the conclusion did a good job of connecting this post back to your main subject of research.
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