New study finds money doesn't predict happiness

[New Sancai Compilation and First Release] They say money can’t buy happiness—and now a new study of indigenous people around the world backs that up.

Researchers reported February 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that people living in small-scale societies at the edges of the modern world lead lives that are just as happy and content as those in wealthy, technologically advanced countries.

Eric Galbraith, professor and lead researcher at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said: "Surprisingly, many people with very low monetary incomes have very high average levels of life satisfaction, with scores similar to those of Rich countries are similar.”

The researchers point out that this runs counter to the idea that economic growth is the only way to increase the well-being of people in low-income countries.

Global surveys have found that people in wealthier countries tend to report higher life satisfaction than people in poorer countries, the researchers said in a background note.

However, researchers say these global polls often ignore people in societies where currency exchange plays a minimal role in daily life and whose livelihoods depend directly on nature.

For the study, researchers surveyed nearly 3,000 people from indigenous or primitive communities in 19 locations around the world.

Researchers said only 64% of households surveyed had cash.

However, the researchers noted that the average life satisfaction score across all communities was 6.8 out of 10, with four communities scoring above an average of 8, which is comparable to well-being in wealthy Scandinavian countries. .

"This is the case despite the history of marginalization and oppression that many societies have experienced," the researchers wrote.

Based on these results, the team concluded that human societies can sustain very satisfying lives without necessarily requiring large amounts of material wealth.

Victoria Reyes-Garcia, an anthropologist and senior fellow at the institute, said: "The often observed strong correlation between income and life satisfaction is not universal, which is evidence that industrialized economies The wealth generated is not necessary for a happy human life." PhD in Environmental Science and Technology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.

The researchers said they couldn't explain why life satisfaction was high in these communities.

Previous research has shown that family, community, relationships, spirituality and connections to nature contribute to this well-being, "but the factors that are important may vary significantly between societies, or conversely, a small set of factors may be the same everywhere." Dominant," Galbraith said.

"I hope that by learning more about what makes life satisfying in these diverse communities, it may help many others live more satisfying lives," Galbraith added in a university news release , while solving the sustainable development crisis.”

(Compiled by: Wang Jimin)

(Editor: Jiang Qiming)

(Source of the article: Compiled and published by New Sancai)