The Myth of More: Why It Won’t Make You Happier

Photo Credit: Gabrielle Esperdy

We’re taught that, in almost every area of life, having more is the key to happiness.

Not satisfied with your job? That’s because you want more money.

Unhappy with your home? You want more space.

Bored of your gadgets and DVDs and computer games? You want more of them.

As you’ve probably experienced in your own life, though, simply having more doesn’t tend to make you any happier. If you’ve ever received a pay raise – only to end up increasing your spending too – you’ll know that if you aren’t satisfied on $40,000 you’re unlikely to be satisfied on $50,000.

And if you’ve ever bought a new gadget or game, convinced that it’s going to make you happy, you’ll have noticed how quickly the thrill of “new” wears off. Read the Rest of This Article »

Why “Free” Costs You a Lot More Than You Think

Image Courtesy of Vintage Roadside’s @ Flickr

Did the word “free” in the title grab your attention?

We live in the internet age, where we’re growing more and more accustomed to getting things for free. Whether it’s information from blogs and online newspapers, services like email and Twitter, or images, videos and music tracks, it’s all free and it’s there for the taking.

The problem is, “free” could be costing you a lot more than you think.

“Free” Short-Circuits Your Brain

In his book Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely discusses the power of “free” – and how it seems to short-circuit our logical thinking:

In one trial of one study we offered students a Lindt Truffle for 26 cents and a Hershey’s Kiss for 1 cent and observed the buying behavior: 40 percent went with the truffle and 40 percent with the Kiss. When we dropped the price of both chocolates by just 1 cent, we observed that suddenly 90 percent of participants opted for the free Kiss, even though the relative price between the two was the same. We concluded that FREE! is indeed a very powerful force. Read the Rest of This Article »