[en] The present study provides the first evidence that money impairs people’s ability to savor everyday positive emotions and experiences. In a sample of working adults, wealthier individuals reported lower savoring ability. Moreover, the negative impact of wealth on savoring undermined the positive effects of money on happiness. Supporting the causal influence of money on savoring, experimentally exposing participants to a reminder of wealth produced the same deleterious effect on savoring as did actual individual differences in wealth. Finally, moving beyond self-report, participants exposed to a reminder of wealth spent less time savoring a piece of chocolate and exhibited reduced enjoyment of it. The present research supplies evidence for the previously untested notion that having access to the best things in life may actually undercut the ability to reap enjoyment from life’s small pleasures.
Disciplines :
Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
Quoidbach, Jordi ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences cognitives > Psycho. de la personnalité et des différences individuelles
Dunn, Elisabeth W; University of British Columbia - UBC
Petrides, K. V.; University College London
Mikolajczak, M.; Université catholique de Louvain
Language :
English
Title :
Money giveth, money taketh away: The dual effect of wealth on happiness
Publication date :
2010
Journal title :
Psychological Science
ISSN :
0956-7976
eISSN :
1467-9280
Publisher :
SAGE Publications, New York, United States - New York