Study: Giving gifts makes people happier than receiving them

Two American psychologists have shown that giving gifts makes us happier than receiving them. The joy of giving something lasts longer than receiving the gift. In other words, to see someone who gladly shares our gifts generates a more intense and enduring emotion. This was demonstrated by two researchers from Chicago University's Business Booth School and the Callogg Management School at Northwestern University, Professor Ed O'Brien and Professor Samantha Kassir.

Both scientists came to this conclusion after the involvement of 100 university students and about 500 volunteer people. In the first case, they gave students $5 a day for five days; boys, selected by chance, can buy something for themselves every day (always the same) or donate it to charity. At the end of each day, they had to write the degree of happiness on a piece of paper.

The statistical analysis of the data showed that the boys who donated always kept up the same level of happiness, while those who could buy something showed an example of the bottom line of “joy” experienced. The decline in happiness due to the achievement of the same thing for successive days was expected by scientists, as it relates to the psychological concept of “hedonic fit”. In simple terms, it is used to gain a certain benefit and no longer benefit from it in terms of emotional and psychological well - being. After all, the paradox of the Eastern paradox (Easterlin Paradox), also known as the paradox of happiness, shows that as we increase our incomes and our economic well - being, our happiness grows to a certain level and then begins to sit down with a crucial downward image.

The donation, however, is not subject to these boundaries, and the satisfaction you experience is always fresh and busy. If you want to maintain happiness over time, past research shows that we must take a break from what we are consuming and experience something new. Our research reveals that the type of situation is far more important than we think: repeated act of giving, even in identical ways with the same topic, can continue to give us joy as if it were the first “, Professor O'Brien said.

In the second experiment, the two researchers received the same results as the first test, including in this case about 500 internet users in an online game. By resolving a mystery of words, players could earn 5 cents; even in this case, those who won can choose whether to keep the money for themselves or donate it. As in the first experiment, donors maintained the happiness of keeping the small (small) price longer. The donation, according to O'Brien and Kassir, improves our social reputation and reinforces our sense of social connection and belonging to a community, so when we give something, we feel so good. Details of research were published in the Society's specialized scientific journal on Psychological Sciences.