satisfying moments in my life have not been the excitement of closing a great deal or the reaping of
profits from it. They have been when I was able to help others in need... There’s no denying that I
am a deal junkie, but I also have developed an addiction for giving. The more one gives, the better
one feels; and the better one feels about it, the easier it becomes to give.”
This is an extension of the idea that otherish givers build willpower muscles, making it easy to
give more, but is it possible that Huntsman actually made money by giving it away? Remarkably,
there’s evidence to support this claim. The economist Arthur Brooks tested the relationship between
income and charitable giving. Using data from almost thirty thousand Americans in the year 2000, he
controlled for every factor imaginable that would affect income and giving. He adjusted for
education, age, race, religious involvement, political beliefs, and marital status. He also accounted
for the number of times people volunteered. As expected, higher income led to higher giving. For
every $1 in extra income, charitable giving went up by $0.14.*
But something much more interesting happened. For every $1 in extra charitable giving, income
was $3.75 higher. Giving actually seemed to make people richer. For example, imagine that you and I
are both earning $60,000 a year. I give $1,600 to charity; you give $2,500 to charity. Although you
gave away $900 more than I did, according to the evidence, you’ll be on track to earn $3,375 more
than I will in the coming year. Surprising as it seems, people who give more go on to earn more.
Jon Huntsman Sr. may be on to something. Research shows that giving can boost happiness and
meaning, motivating people to work harder and earn more money, even if the gift isn’t on the colossal
scale of Huntsman’s. In a study by psychologists Elizabeth Dunn, Lara Aknin, and Michael Norton,
people rated their happiness in the morning. Then, they received a windfall: an envelope with $20.
They had to spend it by five P.M., and then they rated their happiness again. Would they be happier
spending the money on themselves or on others?
Most people think they’d be happier spending the money on themselves, but the opposite is true. If
you spend the money on yourself, your happiness doesn’t change. But if you spend the money on
others, you actually report becoming significantly happier. This is otherish giving: you get to choose
who you help, and it benefits you by improving your mood. Economists call it the warm glow of
giving, and psychologists call it the helper’s high. Recent neuroscience evidence shows that giving
actually activates the reward and meaning centers in our brains, which send us pleasure and purpose
signals when we act for the benefit of others.
These benefits are not limited to giving money; they also show up for giving time. One study of
more than 2,800 Americans over age twenty-four showed that volunteering predicted increases in
happiness, life satisfaction, and self-esteem—and decreases in depression—a year later. And for
adults over sixty-five, those who volunteered saw a drop in depression over an eight-year period.
Other studies show that elderly adults who volunteer or give support to others actually live longer.
This is true even after controlling for their health and the amount of support they get from others. In
one experiment, adults either gave massages to babies or received massages themselves.
Postmassage, those who gave had lower levels of stress hormones—such as cortisol and epinephrine
—than those who received. It seems that giving adds meaning to our lives, distracts us from our own
problems, and helps us feel valued by others. As researchers Roy Baumeister, Kathleen Vohs,
Jennifer Aaker, and Emily Garbinsky conclude in a national survey of Americans, “meaningfulness
was associated with being a giver more than a taker.”
There’s a wealth of evidence that the ensuing happiness can motivate people to work harder,
michael s
(Michael S)
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