Money Can Buy Happiness

Aug. 4, 2017

Maybe you’ve heard that “money is the root of all evil” or that “you don’t need money to live a rich life.”

I know you’ve definitely heard “money can’t buy happiness.”

Guess what? Those sayings are all wrong.

In a recent study published by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, it turns out we can tell how much money a person has by looking at just one thing: their face.

For the study, eighty-one undergraduates were recruited and were shown eighty pictures. Their job was to determine which of the photos were of people who were “rich” (over $150,000 per year), and which photos were of people who were “poor” (under $35,000 per year).

Amazingly, the undergraduates were able to sort the faces into the correct categories 68% of the time, significantly higher than random chance.

Think about that: the sample group was able to guess right at an impressive rate, and they were able to do it on purpose.

So how could they tell who was rich and who was poor?

The rich people had happy faces.

After the study, the researchers concluded, “Even the subtlest signs of positivity in a face were strong indicators of a higher social class.” In short, the people with more money were happier.

While it’s true that money isn’t everything, it isn’t something that should be shunned either. Money can give us power to help others. Money can allow us to travel the world and make ourselves wiser. Money can allow us to help a loved one in need.

And now, according to science, we also know one thing more.

Money can buy happiness.

My book is called The Inevitability of Becoming Rich, and you can find that here.