Happiness is the Gift of Giving: Delving into the Connection Between Happiness and Gift-Giving Across Various Conditions

Influence of choices in prosocial spending and happiness

Choice has a lot to do with how we perceive our emotions. A sense of autonomy is based on whether we have control over our choices or not. For example, you have been working very hard in your job and you want to upskill by taking a certification that would help you with your work, this is an active choice you make. From the example, your boss sees you working hard and he wants you to take up a certification to upskill yourself which would make it a passive choice.

Study

Moche et al (2021) experimented to find whether choice influences happiness during prosocial spending. They examined differences between three criteria:

1. prosocial and personal spending.
2. Prosocial spending in active and passive choices.
3. There is a default setting for either prosocial spending or personal spending.

Procedure

In each case, participants of the study got an amount of money along with a bonus amount. In the control condition, the money could be spent however they wished, in the passive choice condition, the bonus would be donated to a charity, and the active choice participants had a choice to donate to the charity or keep the money. The default conditions had two groups who were either given the default prosocial option where the money would go to charity unless they wished to keep it for themselves or the default prosocial option where the money would be theirs to keep unless they wish to give it away to the charity. Of the two choices, you’re getting upskilled in both, however choosing to do it yourself instead of someone enforcing it would have a greater sense of autonomy.

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Results

The results were aligned with the first hypothesis that people feel much happier when they are involved in prosocial spending compared to personal spending. The study clearly demonstrated that happiness is the gift of giving, as individuals who participated in prosocial spending felt a greater sense of fulfillment and joy. Secondly, this study wanted to find if there is an influence of active and passive choices on prosocial spending, the results displayed that passive choice had greater perceived happiness compared to active choice. For the third hypothesis of default conditions, it was seen that changing the default, especially when people opt in to prosocial spending on the charity, yielded greater happiness compared to following the default.

Discussion

The result from the study displays that the condition of choices influences happiness when it comes to prosocial spending. We would commonly believe that active choices would produce more happiness as it’s a decision that we make, but in this study, the active decision would make a person choose between having to keep the money for themselves or donate it. This meant that there would be participants who chose to keep the money. The study did not test the happiness of participants who actively decided to donate or keep the money. However, in a comparison between passive choice (where the money would go to the charity) and active choice, the result showed that when the money was going to a charity during a passive decision, over which they had no control, it generated more happiness than actively choosing. This finding also extends to understanding the feelings when you receive a gift. It suggests that the joy of receiving, particularly in a prosocial context, can be profound, even when the recipient isn't actively involved in the decision-making process. This supports the argument that prosocial spending contributes to more happiness, even when you don’t have control over the decisions.

Conclusion

From the study presented above, it is clear that prosocial spending has a greater positive impact on happiness compared to personal spending. We examined various conditions of prosocial spending, such as spending on strong ties and weak ties, and the influence of the nature of choices on happiness and prosocial spending. The results of the paper show that no matter what conditions are set, prosocial spending equates to generating happiness on a greater scale. This underscores the profound truth that happiness is the gift of giving. Whether it’s through a passive or active choice, or whether it's for someone close or a distant connection, the act of giving itself is a powerful catalyst for happiness. Simultaneously, this research sheds light on the feelings when you receive a gift, revealing that the joy of receiving, especially in a prosocial context, can be equally profound. It's not just the receiver who benefits from generosity but also the giver, who experiences an enhanced sense of joy and contentment from the act of giving. Thus, the emotional dynamics of both giving and receiving play a crucial role in shaping our experiences of happiness.

Study 1

We saw that prosocial spending on a strong tie provided more happiness compared to spending money on a weak tie. However, it is now understood that spending money on both scenarios yielded happiness, and only the degree of happiness changes. Buying gifts (prosocial spending) creates social connectedness and therefore changing a weak tie into a strong tie, producing greater happiness in the long run.

Study 2

When there’s a choice to not participate in prosocial spending (donating), it creates a sense of unhappiness compared to when there’s no choice but to donate, which creates more happiness. Even when there’s no sense of control or autonomy; when it comes to prosocial spending, it generates happiness. We can understand how helpful prosocial spending can be for happiness even in the case where we have no active choice over our decision to do so. This helps us to understand that participating in prosocial spending (buying gifts, donating) can be very helpful to be happy in the social context.

Suprabh Kesav,
Psychology Blogger,
The Shared Secrets Lab,
GiftAFeeling Inc.

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