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We’re constantly exposed to contradictory messages about money and happiness. On the one hand, people often say that you can’t put a price on happiness.
However, at the same time, it’s abundantly clear that there’s a drive towards constantly earning more money and an seemingly limitless amounts of cash may splurge on everything from expensive wines to top-rated hotel rooms, showy cars and lavish meals. So is it possible that happiness really can be bought?
Journalist and author Benjamin Wallace posed just this question when he began a magazine- funded quest to sample what were allegedly the very best products that life had to offer.
In this video, he reports back on his findings, exploring whether these expensive experiences really did make him happy, and considering the related question of whether their price tags were justified.
Wallace also reveals and analyses the results of a recent study conducted by researchers at Stanford and Caltech, which sought to explain why people think that more expensive things are necessarily better.
Using fascinating data from MRI scans on people drinking clearly labelled wine, the researchers found concrete neurological differences between those who thought they were drinking expensive wine and those who thought they were drinking from an average bottle of wine.
But is it the wine itself that makes the difference, or the perception of superiority? And how does the brain respond in each case? Find out the answers to these questions and more in this smart overview of the connection between money and well-being.
