Money-happiness ties depend on definition

URBANA, Ill., July 30 (UPI) -- An Illinois researcher who co-wrote a study on the link between money and happiness said the answer lies in the personal definition of "happiness."

Ed Diener, a retired psychology professor at the University of Illinois who co-wrote the international study with Weiting Ng of the Singapore Institute of Management and James Harter and Raksha Arora of the Gallup Organization, said the research involved more than 136,000 people in 132 countries, representing about 96 percent of the world's population, Canwest News Service reported Friday.

"Money has a large effect on how people evaluate their lives," Diener said. "But the answer to the money-happiness question depends on what one means by happiness."

Diener said money was found to be closely tied to "life satisfaction," a measurement of happiness using long-term goals.

"People spend most of their time making and spending money and it's one of the big long-range goals for most people," he said. "And so it affects life satisfaction."

However, he said happiness, when defined as enjoyment of day-to-day life, was found to be more closely tied to learning, friendships and social interactions.

"People throughout our time on Earth have needed others to survive and so it makes sense that people feel good when they are with supportive people," Diener said. "And, with our big brains, people have survived by knowing things and using what they know."