Eshan Maitra
The study was done by the researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). They went to the locals with only one question – “Which would you rather have more of: time or money?” After these the participants were asked few other different types of questions designed to estimate their level of happiness, reports Brian Resnick for Vox.
The result was not surprising on the first question. Of course, most people asked for money (over 64 percent). Though the all over result did not follow the deficiency psychology, hence whatever people lacked did not want it more. It was totally about a person’s mentality toward the two: Money and Time.
It’s mostly about which they value more in their life. But interestingly it was proved that, the person who values their time more than their money being more likely be happier. Even their wallets were not so green.
The team writes in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, “What matters is the value people place on each resource. Beyond the amount of these resources people have, happiness is linked to the resource people want.”
Team also found, most of the elderly and older people wanted to have more time so bad. The reason I think is very obvious. Probably they imagined themselves going back in time, when they were kids again.
The Washington Posts’ Christopher Ingraham brought up a very deep question about this point, to one of the study’s leaders, Hal Hershfield, from UCLA. “Could happiness be less a function of wanting time, and more a function of having money?”
Thankfully Hershfield replied Ingraham through email that, “By statistically controlling for already existing levels of wealth, we show that choosing time over money has a positive effect on happiness over and above wealth.”
This new finding was kind of a follow up to another research earlier this year and results back up the previous one. Done by researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada recruited more than 4,600 participants. They also found, people who put time first tended to be happier overall.