Norton said that in a study at the University of British Columbia, students that were given money and spent it on others became happier, while students that were given money and spent it on themselves were not any happier. Norton said that the same effect was found in Uganda.
Taking your peers out for a drink after work isn't wasted time, Norton said. In fact, work teams that spend money on happy hours perform better at work, according to research cited by Norton.
"Money often makes us feel very selfish and we do things only for ourself," Norton said, but "spending on other people has a bigger return for you than spending on yourself."
And buying a small gift for your mom can make you just as happy as giving to an ambitious charity project.
"The specific way that you spend on other people isn't nearly as important as the fact that you spend on other people in order to make yourself happy," Norton said. "You don't have to do amazing things with your money to make yourself happy. You can do small trivial things and yet still get these benefits from doing this."
Norton's research is not the first to find that money leads to happiness, up to a certain point. People in households that earn more than $50,000 per year are more satisfied with their quality of life than people in households that earn less than $50,000 per year, according to a recent Marist poll.
A study by Princeton University also found that a larger paycheck leads to a happier life, up to an income of $75,000 per year. After earning that amount, money has no effect on happiness, according to the study.
Of course, the happiness threshold is higher in cities with a higher cost of living, according to The Wall Street Journal. That threshold was $163,000 per year in New York City in 2010, compared to $62,000 in Pueblo, Colo., according to the WSJ.
brad pitt on 13 Mar 12U.S. Senate Committee hearing on NASA budget and space program By Amanda Doyle, 12 March 2012 Neil deGrasse Tyson gives evidence to the U.S. Senate Committee March 7 2012 U.S. Senate Committee hears submissions on NASA's 2013 budget request & U.S. space program The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation has been hearing submissions regarding NASA's 2013 budget request and on the priorities, plans and progress of the U.S. space program. Witnesses appearing before the Committee on March 7 included Charles F Bolden Jr, NASA's Administrator, and Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist and well known commentator on space exploration. Bolden, who flew on four space shuttle missions after a career in the Marine Corps, was appointed to lead NASA in 2009 after being nominated by President Obama. Administrator Bolden outlined the space agency's achievements in 2011 and updated the Committee on the status of current missions. His statement outlined how the requested budget of $17.7 billion for 2013 would be allocated and concluded by stating: "NASA's FY 2013 budget request of $17.7 billion represents a substantial investment in a balanced program of science, exploration, technology and aeronautics research. Despite the constrained budget environment facing the Nation, this request supports a robust space program that keeps us on a path to achieving a truly audacious set of goals. NASA is working to send humans to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars, to observe the first galaxies form, and to expand the productivity of humanity's only permanently-crewed space station. We are making air travel safer and more efficient, learning to live and work in space, and developing the critical technologies to achieve these goals. The coming year will include the first commercial cargo flights to the ISS, a nuclear powered robot the size of a small car landing on the surface of Mars, and the launch of the Nation's next land observing satellit
