Money could buy happiness if your purchases fit your personality, according to a new study that examines nearly 77,000 actual UK bank spending transactions. The study, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, revealed that people who spent more money on purchases that aligned¹ with their personality traits reported greater life satisfaction. Spending-personality fit was more strongly associated with life satisfaction than were either total income or total spending.

 

The study was conducted by researchers at Cambridge Judge Business School and the Psychology² Department of Cambridge University in collaboration³ with a UK-based multinational⁴ bank. Customers were asked whether they would complete a standard personality and life satisfaction questionnaire, and to consent to their responses being matched anonymously⁵ for research purposes with their bank transaction data.

 

The final study was based on 76,863 transactions of 625 participants--none of whose names is known to the authors. The study whittled⁶ down 112 spending categories automatically grouped by the bank into 59 categories that had at least 500 transactions over a six-month period.

 

The study matched spending categories on the widely recognized "Big Five" personality traits--openness to experience (artistic versus⁷ traditional), conscientiousness⁸ (self-controlled vs easygoing), extraversion (outgoing vs reserved), agreeableness (compassionate vs competitive), and neuroticism⁹ (prone to stress vs stable).

 

For example, "eating out in pubs" was rated as an extroverted¹⁰ and low conscientiousness (impulsive) spending category, whereas "charities" and "pets" were rated as agreeable spending categories. Further examples can be found below.

 

The researchers then compared the participants' actual purchases to their personalities¹¹ using this scale, and found that people generally spent more money on products that match their personality. For example, a highly extroverted person spent approximately £52 more each year on "pub nights" than an introverted person. Similarly, a highly conscientiousness person spent £124 more annually¹² on "health and fitness" than a person low in conscientiousness.

 

And the data showed that those who bought products that more closely matched their personalities reported higher satisfaction with their lives, and this effect was stronger than that of their total income or total spending.

 

The study was authored by Sandra Matz, a PhD candidate in the Psychology Department of the University of Cambridge; Joe Gladstone, a Research Associate at Cambridge Judge Business School; and David Stillwell, University Lecturer in Big Data Analytics & Quantitative¹³ Social Science at Cambridge Judge Business School.

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