The research was done at a small Boston-area medical supply company, where employees received bonuses averaging about $5,000. The researchers measured their levels of happiness before and after receiving the money. What they found, said Norton, was that “the size of the bonus you get has no relation to how happy you are, but the amount you spend on other people does predict how happy you are."
The researchers used a five-point scale, asking people, “Do you feel happy in general?” There were five answers provided: yes, most of the time, sometimes, rarely, or no. They found that people could expect to go up a full point on the scale if they spent about a third of the bonus on others, Dunn said. She calls this “prosocial” spending. She continued with the example of Tim and Dan: They both answered the question that they were happy “sometimes” before receiving the bonus. If Dan spent a third of his bonus “prosocially" and Tim spent none in this way, the researchers would expect that after spending their bonuses, Dan would be happy “most of the time." This is exactly what happened.