Science says that money is a drug and does not bring happiness

We like to think that we control money because it seems easy to control, but in reality it is money that controls us. You just have to take a look around us to realize how the world works. Money is capable of making us rethink our own principles and everyone is vulnerable to the influence of corruption. Surely you are thinking that this is not true... Okay, everyone except you!

The psychology behind money and greed

But it is not me who affirms it, but a whole set of studies halfway between psychology, economics and sociology, investigating how we relate to money and what are the psychological consequences of owning large sums monetary.

In this sense, a team of scientists from the Jaume I University of Castellón concluded, after a study, that refusing a bribe is more stressful than accepting it. Does it still seem strange to you that many politicians and businessmen are corrupt? Seen like this, money is like a drug and, as such, it is addictive.

People change their behavior because of money

People change their behavior if there is money involved. A study from the University of North Carolina found that

if a group of subjects were offered money, they were able to increase their scores on a verbal test.

Not only that, but money is capable of making us behave like “fools”: for example, mortgaging us for life or making us buy things that are not useful. But as much as some insist on believing that money brings happiness, there are several investigations that show that once we reach our basic needs, earning more money does not make us happier.

Money also changes the way we think

Stephen Lea, a professor of psychology at the University of Exeter, thought that the theory that money is only a tool to get what we want is wrong. Well, he asked himself some questions about it: How can it be that money is often the end in itself and not the process to achieve it? Why is money capable of blinding us even against our own well-being? Why are human beings capable of having a lot of money in excess and not distributing it?

It seems, therefore, that we are not satisfied with having the necessary money to be able to subsist, but with money, as with drug, you have to keep increasing the dose. In fact, different investigations have found that the simple thought of making money activates the same brain regions as these substances.

On the other hand, research from the University of Minnesota he showed that money changes the way we think. According to the results of his study, just by looking at a photograph in which money appears, our brain acts the same as if we were to win a prize. That is, our brain areas related to mathematical memory and attention are activated considerably.

Money can make you a worse person

Surely the vast majority of people think that if one day we win the lottery, the problems will end and we will be the happiest people in the world, especially when the economy is as it is. But in a report by Manfred Kents de Vries, professor of leadership at ISEAD Business School, he claims that having a full wallet does not make you much happier.

In addition, other studies contrary to those that claim that money increases self-confidence, seem to confirm that it makes people less charitable, more unpleasant and damages relationships social.

Now, if you have money or if one day you get rich, you'd better spend the money on others. A study carried out by Michael Norton, a professor at Harvard Business School, showed that when money is spent on other people, it makes you happier than when you spend it on yourself.