Doubling your income gives you a small happiness boost. But people who recently donated to a cause they care about report the same happiness level as if they'd doubled their income, according to a Gallup survey of hundreds of thousands worldwide.
Early on, when someone's really poor, having more money makes a huge difference. The richer you get, the less difference each incremental dollar makes. This still makes a little bit of difference, and if someone doubles their wealth on average, the measurements at least suggest that they get a little bit of extra happiness for it. But what is amazing is that they have an opportunity to get much more happiness again by being generous. This is an underreported fact. I wish it was more widely known. There was a Gallup study done of a couple hundred thousand people, across the world, asking them a bunch of different questions, including things like, did you contribute to a cause that you cared about recently? Those that had recently contributed to a cause on average showed a greater level of happiness that was equal to their having doubled their income. Really? Yeah. Through giving. Through giving.
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