“This research provides the first evidence that money interferes with people’s ability to savor positive emotions and experiences. In a large sample of working adults, we found that wealthier individuals reported lower savoring ability. Indeed, the negative impact of money on savoring undercut other emotional benefits provided by money. We found that experimentally exposing participants to a reminder of wealth produced the same negative effect on savoring as actual wealth did, a result supporting the notion that money causally influences savoring. Moving beyond self-report, we observed that a reminder of wealth led participants to devote less time to savoring a piece of chocolate and to exhibit reduced enjoyment from this small pleasure of everyday life.”
—Jordi Quoidbach, et al. “Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away: The Dual Effect of Wealth on Happiness.” Psychological Science XX(X) 1 –5 (2010). (source)
Image: Victor Dubreuil: Barrels of Money (1897) (source)