Money May Not Buy Happiness – Holds True

Remarkably high levels of happiness or well-being were reported by people of low-income countries where money plays a minimal role, as per a study led by McGill and the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technologies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), published in the journal PLOS One. The low economic growth societies/communities with the lowest levels of monetization are not usually included in global happiness surveys. The degree of happiness reported by them was similarly comparable to that found in Scandinavian countries which typically rate highest in the world.

This challenges the fact that economic growth will automatically raise life satisfaction among low-income populations. Hence high levels of subjective well-being can be simply achieved with minimal monetization.

Happiness being Explored

The team explored two very low-income countries – the Solomon Islands and Bangladesh for the reason behind their well-being by spending time in several small fishing communities, in both rural and urban areas, with varying degrees of monetization.

The interviews were conducted among 678 people (85% male due to cultural norms in Bangladesh) ranging in age between their mid-20s and early 50s (average age of about 37), both in person and through phone calls at unexpected moments. This helped elicit the information about what constituted happiness for the study subjects, as well as get a sense of their passing moods, their lifestyle, fishing activities, household income, and level of market integration.

Impact of Monetization on Happiness

It was observed that urban residents of Bangladesh, where money was in greater use, reported lower levels of happiness.

"Our study hints at possible ways of achieving happiness that is unrelated to high incomes and material wealth. This is important, because if we replicate these results elsewhere and can pinpoint the factors that contribute to subjective well-being, it may help us circumvent some of the environmental costs associated with achieving social well-being in the least developed nations", says Eric Galbraith, a professor in McGill's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the senior author on the study.

A higher amount of time spent with family rendered happiness among the people in less monetized places. However common recognizing factors of industrialized countries such as social and economic factors played a bigger role with increasing monetization.

The study had also reported that early stages of monetization may be detrimental to happiness. Although the technology and access to information from faraway cultures with different lifestyles were found to affect the people's sense of their well-being as per other studies, this was not the case for communities involved in the present study.

"This work adds to a growing realization that important supports for happiness are not in principle related to economic output. When people are comfortable, safe, and free to enjoy life within a strong community, they are happy - regardless of whether or not they are making any money", says Chris Barrington-Leigh, a professor in McGill's Bieler School of the Environment.

Source-Medindia