Michael Norton

And we have science around this.

Michael Norton, this Harvard Business School professor, when asked a bunch of high net worth individuals, people worth anywhere from a million on through 100 million plus, how happy they were on a scale of one to 10.

And then he asked, how much more money would you need to be at a tent? Across the board, whether they're worth a million or a hundred million, everyone said two to three times as much.

Wow.

Those who are generous are happier than those that aren't.

Psychologists Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton and others have conducted research showing that those who are generous towards others with their money report higher levels of happiness.

And this has been found to be true across cultures, across income levels, and the same researchers have found that giving impacts happiness the most when the giver shares in the experience with the recipient.

And that's exactly what God facilitates here at church.

Today I'm sharing an episode of A Better Way to Money, a podcast from Northwestern Mutual hosted by Jennifer Borget and a show I was actually a guest on last year.

In this episode, Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton explores a question that fits right in with the conversations we have here.

Can the way you use your money make your life happier? The conversation dives into spending on yourself, saving generosity, and how aligning your spending with your values can give money greater meaning.

Here's the science of happier spending.

But today's guest has spent his career asking a different question.

Once you have money, does the way you spend it actually change how happy you are? Turns out, yes, just probably not in the way you'd expect.

Michael Norton is a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and co-author of Happy Money, The Science of Happier Spending.

His research shows that spending on other people freely, by choice, not out of obligation, tends to make us happier than spending on ourselves.

Researchers have asked a slightly different question.

What if the thing worth buying isn't a thing at all, but a few hours? A team led by Ashley Willans, working with Elizabeth Dunn, Michael Norton, and colleagues, published a study on exactly this in 2017 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

They surveyed more than 6,000 adults in the United States, Canada, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

People were asked whether they spent money to get time back, paying someone to clean, to run errands, to take over a chore they didn't enjoy.

So this book really hits on a perfect example, banger number one, right out the gate.

So this banger says, "In 2018, a paper published by Harvard Business School professor Michael Norton, researchers asked a group of millionaires, number one, 'How happy are you on a scale of one to 10?' And number two, 'How much more money would need to get you to a 10 on happiness scale?'" Commenting on the results, Norton said, "All the way up the income spectrum, basically everyone said they'd need the same thing." Pablo, guess what they said.

More money?

Yes.

And he goes on to explain, that's whether it's a guy with, a girl with one, 10, $100 million.

So how do you remember this banger fact? The Norton virus is how I do it, right? There's some software called Norton Antivirus.

Professor Michael Norton from Harvard Business School came up with the Norton virus.

Do you agree with that one? What do you think?

... started with a PSA blood test.

So we had, um, Michael Norton on talking about rituals-

Yes

... a while back.

I love this.

This is really cool, right? Professor Michael Norton from Harvard Business School with Elizabeth Dunn from the University of British Columbia.

By the way, not completely secular, nothing to do with church, okay? People, look at it.

They conducted a series of studies, published them in the prestigious journal of science, okay? So what we're looking at is data set from people that give.

So my notes here say there is a study in the Journal of Science and I don't, I don't, that's not noted, right? Anyway, there's a study.

Researchers Elizabeth Dunn, Laura Aknan, and Michael Norton, and they found that spending money on other people produced a measurably greater boost in happiness than spending the same amount of money on yourself.

Even though most participants, when they were asked at the start of the study, predicted, well, I'd be way happier blowing the wad on myself.

And this wasn't like a small or isolated effect.

And there is actual, hard peer-reviewed data to prove this glitch exists at the absolute highest levels of wealth.

Michael Norton, another researcher out of Harvard, conducted this incredible study.

He got access to a huge spectrum of millionaires.

We aren't talking about middle class people.