Are lottery winners really less happy?

[Champ]

People get more satisfaction earning their cash, study finds

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:53 p.m. ET May 13, 2004

ATLANTA - It’s nicer when you actually earn it.

Lottery winners, trust-fund babies and others who get their money without working for it do not get as much satisfaction from their cash as those who earn it, a study of the pleasure center in people’s brains suggests.

Emory University researchers measured brain activity in the striatum — the part of the brain associated with reward processing and pleasure — in two groups of volunteers. One group had to work to receive money while playing a simple computer game; the other group was rewarded without having to earn it.

The brains of those who had to work for their money were more stimulated.

“When you have to do things for your reward, it’s clearly more important to the brain,” said Greg Berns, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral science. “The subjects were more aroused when they had to do something to get the money relative to when they passively received the money.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4971361/

[GOPisEvil]

1. I'd be happy to be a test subject for this study!

Give me a few million, and I'll tell you how happy I am. :D

[Champ]

3. lol

me too. :D

[Florida_Geek]

4. Me to,,,

Working in Monroe LA is interesting.

[terrya]

2. There have been stories of lottery winners who's lives have been ruined.

As much as I would like to be a lottery winner and find out, it might be a case of the old adage: "Be careful for what you wish for. Because you may get it"

[regularguy]

5. I'm pretty certain that $1 million would improve my life,.. I'm also

fairly confident the $100 million would destroy me.

[kmla]

6. It is my firm belief that money cannot buy happiness....

... but it makes misery infinitely more tolerable.

If you were a grouchy, grumpy crabass before winning the lottery, chances are AFTER winning the lottery, you will be a RICH, grouchy, grumpy crabass. You will succeeded only in elevating your set of gripes (What? I have to pay taxes on all of this money that I did not earn? Why, that is bullshit! etc., etc.)

Me? If I won the lottery, I would still be a smartass. But a wealthy one.:D

[Burma Jones]

7. Money cannot buy happiness

But, if you're smart, having it can free up a lot of your time in order to pursue it. Some trust funders I know do not treat cash as something that provides satisfaction in the first place. Satisfaction comes from other pursuits, hedonistic or spiritual.

After having lived in Northern Westchester NY amongst many idle rich, I can honestly say that a lot of people will go to incredible lengths to be unhappy. The teen suicide rate amongst the rich is a lot higher than I thought it would be. There is a lot to be said for the School of Hard Knocks....

[pagerbear]

8. This study doesn't sound completely objective to me

Based on the blurb excerpted here. What was the background of the study participants?

While on a general level I do agree that having a healthy relationship between work and reward is a good thing, there are all sorts of work and all sorts of reward. And our backgrounds have a lot to do with what kinds of work we're comfortable doing and what kinds of reward we're comfortable accepting.

We've all heard anecdotes about people whose lives became unmanageable after winning lots of loot. That sort of story sells newspapers. My suspicion is their lives weren't terrific beforehand. I'd be willing to bet a sudden windfall takes whatever your life is and amplifies it. I rather suspect that there are people who have won lotteries who are living nice lives.

Just my two cents. Your mileage may vary.

[emad]

9. Only when the Homeless Persons' Unit of their local council

steals their winning ticket:

27/01/1996 £10,055,900 33 Christine Winter & Colleagues - Camden Council Workers

http://www.national-lottery.co.uk/player/p/winners/facts.jsp

NOT much publicised was the fact that it went to court and they had to admit that it wasn't their winning ticket in the first place.....