Money can't buy you happiness may be an old saying, but an in-depth research analysis by Cambridge University proves that's no longer the case.
The study investigated a grand total of 77,000 bank transactions amongst its 625 volunteers and found that, unsurprisingly, when money was spent, people were generally happier. The study correlated purchases against five major personality traits and worked from there.
The study found that people's purchases matched up to their personality traits, i.e. someone rated in the study as a highly conscientious person would spend more money annually on health and fitness than someone that wasn't. Extroverts, for example, were more likely to spend money on alcohol in social situations and eating out whilst others felt happier settling bills.
It's no secret that people's personalities are linked with how they spend money, as other studies have shown.
One of the study's researchers, Sandra Matz, found that "findings suggest that spending money on products that help us express who we are as individuals could turn out to be as important to our well-being as finding the right job, the right neighbourhood or even the right friends and partners."
"By developing a more nuanced understanding of the links between spending and happiness, we hope to be able to provide more personalised advice on how to find happiness through the little consumption choices we make every day."
Another researcher on the study, Joe Gladstone, said that "studies had found a weak relationship between money and overall wellbeing. Our study breaks new ground by mining actual bank-transaction data and demonstrating that spending can increase our happiness when it is spent on goods and services that fit our personalities and so meet our psychological needs."
