“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)