Mind & EverydayFact

Lottery winners are barely happier a year later than before.

In 1978 Brickman, Coates and Janoff-Bulman compared 22 lottery winners, 29 accident victims with paralysis and a control group. Winners were not measurably happier than controls and even found everyday pleasures duller. Accident victims were less happy, but far less so than expected. Later long-term data show adaptation is real but incomplete; people hardly adapt to unemployment, for instance.

Useful: Before buying, ask how it will feel after six months, not six days.

Source: doi.org

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