It is More Blessed and Happy to Give than Receive

Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else, researchers report.

The Bible counsels that it's better to give than to receive. Science agrees. People who made gifts to others or to charities reported they were happier than folks who didn't share, according to a report in the journal Science.

A team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found from their experiments that Americans were measurably happier when they spent money on others--even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.

"Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not," they said in a statement. "These findings suggest that very minor alterations in spending allocations--as little as $5--may be enough to produce real gains in happiness on a given day."

It could also hold a key as to why people are less happier even though U.S. is a rich society. "Indeed, although real incomes have surged dramatically in recent decades, happiness levels have remained largely flat within developed countries," they wrote.