Guess? Money makes you happy! People who raised $10,000 in unique experiment feel happier MONTHS after spending it all, study finds

You may have been told otherwise, but money really does make you happy.

People who received a one-time five-figure gift were happier than their peers, even months after spending it all, a study found.

In a unique social experiment, University of British Columbia researchers recruited 300 people in seven countries — and gave them roughly half of $10,000.

They were followed for six months and compared with a group that lives their normal life and receives no money.

At the end of the study, people in the money group reported feeling happier regardless of how they spent it.

Lucky gains were highest among those who had the least money before the study.

Two anonymous wealthy donors, in partnership with the media organization TED, distributed $2 million of their money to 200 people around the world in the form of $10,000 PayPal transfers.

300 participants were recruited from three low-income countries – Brazil, Indonesia and Kenya – and four wealthy countries: Australia, Canada, the US and the UK. You have been randomly assigned to receive $10,000 cash or not.

Researchers calculated participants’ well-being by measuring their life satisfaction on a scale of one to seven and how often they experienced positive feelings, such as happiness, and negative feelings, such as sadness, on a scale of one to five.

Participants, ages 21-78, were recruited via Twitter in December 2020 and had incomes ranging from $0-$400,000, with a mean of $54,394.

The individuals were generally well educated, with 82 percent having a bachelor’s degree.

Not knowing what they were signing up for, they were invited to participate in a mystery experiment by filling out a preliminary survey that collected some personal information and an initial measurement of their well-being.

The tweet said the experiment was “exciting, surprising, somewhat time-consuming, potentially stressful, but also potentially life-changing.”

The lucky two-thirds of the participants received emails telling them they would receive $10,000.

The 200 people who received the money were told to spend it within three months, while the remaining 100 people did not receive any money.

Most recipients bought things like cars or used the money to renovate their homes.

In the three months after the money was paid out, all 300 participants completed monthly surveys to calculate their subjective well-being.

Six months after issuing the money, they also filled out a survey.

The group who received $10,000 each reported more satisfaction after the three months of spending than those who did not receive the money.

And after six months, the people who got the money still felt happier than before the experiment.

Lucky wins were highest for those who had the least. Residents of low-income countries were three times happier than people in higher-income countries.

Recipients who earn $10,000 a year are twice as happy as those who bring in $100,000.

Those with a household income greater than $123,000 reported no significant improvements in well-being.

Given that ninety-nine percent of people earn less, the results imply that one-time cash payments could benefit the majority of the world’s population.

The researchers recorded how the recipients of the money spent the $10,000 and are now investigating whether certain types of purchases led to the greatest happiness.

The results were published in the journal PNAS.

Study co-author Ryan Dwyer told NBC News, “You can really buy a lot with $10,000 in any given place in the world. Some people have spent a lot of money to pay off their mortgage or to renovate their home.”