Giving Away Cash Makes You Happy... and Transforms Lives
The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 14.6K Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
YOU can boost your happiness and transform the lives of people in one African village with a cash gift by going to givedirectly.org/happiness
Giving money to others makes you happier than spending the same cash on yourself. That's been proved by science. But new research also shows that giving people in need cold hard cash is an amazing way to help them improve their lives. We explore why trusting people to help themselves is a cheaper and more effective way to solve poverty - and hear about Kibobo in Rwanda, where any money you donate will have a huge impact.
Read more about Kibobo at givedirectly.org/happiness
Former British politician Rory Stewart used to manage billions of dollars in aid money - and like other international donors thought poor people needed to be told what to do with charitable gifts. He was shocked how effective no-strings-attached cash turned out to be, and now promotes "giving directly". He was also surprised how good giving away even small amounts of money made him feel.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pushkin. |
| 0:07.0 | Hey happiness. |
| 0:10.0 | Hey happiness Lab listeners, you're probably pretty used to me dispelling the myth that money can buy happiness, |
| 0:19.0 | but this episode is a bit of an exception. |
| 0:22.0 | Today I'll be telling you that sometimes cold hard cash no strings attached can really do amazing things, |
| 0:28.0 | like transforming lives. |
| 0:30.0 | In fact, I'll be giving you the chance to use a small amount of your own cash to make a huge difference to hundreds of families. |
| 0:37.0 | Cabobo, I think, is a great place of people want somewhere to support. |
| 0:41.0 | People there are living in really desperate situation. They lack almost everything. |
| 0:46.5 | But more on that in a moment. The holiday season is upon us, that most wonderful time of the year, And there are indeed lots of wonderful happiness-inducing activities about to take place, |
| 0:57.0 | from festive decorating to family gatherings to parties. |
| 1:01.0 | But this wonderful time of the year is also known for another |
| 1:04.6 | happiness boosting tradition, giving and I don't just mean wrapping gifts. This is |
| 1:09.9 | the season to help people in need. The importance of generosity has even been codified |
| 1:14.8 | into one of my favorite annual occasions, Giving Tuesday. The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, |
| 1:20.0 | coming after consumption-oriented Black Friday in Cyber Monday is now a day when many charities launch fundraising campaigns and many people commit to donating to good causes. |
| 1:30.0 | Traditionally on Giving Tuesday, we've brought you an episode about the happiness benefits of charity, |
| 1:35.0 | but we don't just focus on any old giving. |
| 1:38.0 | No, we want people to give as effectively as possible. |
| 1:41.0 | The reason why we're spending money on charity let's say is because we really want to help. We want to do some good. And very few of us would say, well, I want to do good but not that much good. |
| 1:51.0 | This is Josh Green, a Harvard psychology professor and one of the |
| 1:54.5 | brains behind giving.org. Most people don't know this. The most effective |
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