Study: Money Really Does Make You Happy

(NewsCore) - An overflowing wallet can buy you happiness but it does not guarantee respect, a worldwide study published Thursday found.

Researchers asked 136,000 people in 132 countries around the world about what made them happy, and whether they felt respected.

They found that happiness increased with income but people still craved respect and admiration from their friends and family no matter how much money they had in the bank.

University of Illinois Professor Ed Diener, who conducted the study, said friends, family and an enjoyable job were important factors in happiness.

He said: “While it is true that getting richer will make you more satisfied with your life, it may not have the big impact we thought on enjoying life."

The surveys asked people to rate their lives on a scale that ranged from zero to 10.

Participants also answered questions about positive or negative emotions experienced the previous day.

And the poll asked respondents whether they felt respected, whether they had family and friends they could count on in an emergency, and how free they felt to choose their daily activities.

The findings were published in the July edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

(This article is provided by NewsCore, which aggregates news from around News Corporation.)