Being selfish makes you happier (Yahoo!7)

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Next time you want to pocket your spare change instead of leaving a tip behind, don’t feel guilty.

While we’re brought up to believe that “sharing is caring” and that altruism is the shortcut to happiness, prioritizing yourself over others can make you feel so damn good.

According to new research published in the journal Psychological Science, when our own self-interest is imposed on us it helps us to avoid feelings of guilt while we relish the benefits all to ourselves. That is, we really can have our cake and eat it too, but only if we're told to do so.

In the first of two studies, psychological scientists Jonathan Berman and Deborah Small tested the theory that that removing an individuals' sense of agency would remove their feeling of responsibility for an outcome, leaving them free to enjoy self-interest without feeling selfish.

In it, they gave $3 each to 216 undergraduates. One group of participants were told to donate their money to a non-profit charity (imposed-charity condition), some were told to keep the money (imposed self-interest condition), and the remaining participants were told they could do whatever they wanted with it (choice-condition).

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As the researchers hypothesized, those who were given the option to keep the money for themselves reported being happier than those who were told to donate their money or those who were given the freedom to choose what to do with it.

"Often people really want to act in a selfish manner," Berman says. "But they don't do so, because they know they would feel selfish if they did."

The researchers speculated, however, that it was possible that the self-interest choice group could have been happier because there was no choice at all, so they conducted a second experiment to see if choice really matters.

In the next study, all participants had to choose between two options. Once again, the participants were happiest when they could choose between two options that would benefit themselves and not others.

The study revealed that while freedom of choice was important to participants, it ultimately didn't make them happier; having no choice freed them from any guilt standing in the way of happiness.
Source: Science Daily

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