The quest for Happiness

Here's the question: What would make you happier? Buying something for you or for someone else?

If you're like most people, you would have said "yourself." This was the question posed to people during a study reported on NPR yesterday. Most people said they would be happier to buy something for themselves.

The second part of the study put this statement to task: They gave a group of people money (of various amounts). 1/2 of them were supposed to use the money on themselves, and the other 1/2 were to use the money on someone else.

When they questioned the study participants they found ... that the group who bought something for someone else were happier in the end.

The study showed that humans don't really know what makes them happy. And maybe this is why people continue to shop and consume, because they think that inside those shopping bags lie the happiness they were searching for. And this quest for happiness is what fires up the advertisers -- "buy this and you will be happy."

Wait, no you won't.