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

Spending as little as $US5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found.

Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others -- even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.

"We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn," said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia.

They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness, report their annual income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity.

"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," Dunn said in a statement.

Dunn's team also surveyed 16 employees at a company in Boston before and after they received an annual profit-sharing bonus of between $US3000 and $US8000.

"Employees who devoted more of their bonus to pro-social spending experienced greater happiness after receiving the bonus, and the manner in which they spent that bonus was a more important predictor of their happiness than the size of the bonus itself," they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

They gave their volunteers $US5 or $US20 and half got clear instructions on how to spend it. Those who spent the money on someone or something else reported feeling happier about it.

"These findings suggest that very minor alterations in spending allocations -- as little as $US5 -- may be enough to produce real gains in happinesson a given day," Dunn said.

研究人员日前称，金钱可以买到快乐，但前提是你得把钱花在别人身上。

英国哥伦比亚大学和哈佛商学院的研究小组发现，每天只需为别人花5美元，就能大大提升快乐感。

研究人员对630多名美国人所做的实验表明，即使实验对象认为为自己花钱会更快乐，但实际结果显示，他们为别人花钱时其实更加快乐。

英国哥伦比亚大学的心理学家伊丽莎白?杜恩说：“我们试图证明‘人们的花钱方式与挣钱多少至少同等重要’。”

研究人员让600名志愿者评价自己的总体幸福感，报告年收入以及详细的月支出情况，包括应付账单、为自己及他人购买礼物支出以及慈善捐献。

杜恩在一份声明中说：“无论他们挣多少钱，为别人花更多钱的人称自己的快乐感增强，而为自己花较多钱的人则没有这种感受。”

杜恩的研究小组还对波士顿一家公司的16名员工领到年终奖之前和之后的情况进行了调查，年终奖金额从3000美元到8000美元不等。

研究人员在研究报告中提到：“这些员工领到奖金后，将较多钱花在别人身上的人快乐感更强，他们支配这笔钱的方式比奖金本身的多少对快乐感的影响更大。”该研究报告在《科学》期刊中发表。

研究人员向志愿者们分发了5美元至20美元金额不等的钱，并向其中一半人说明了该如何花这些钱。结果发现，将钱用于别人或其它事情的人感到更快乐。

杜恩说：“这些研究结果表明，每天只需稍稍改变支出分配——哪怕为别人花5美元，就能得到更多快乐。”