SFU President's Faculty Lecture Series: Dr. Lara Aknin

Dr. Lara Aknin is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University and fellow with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Lara’s research interests include prosocial behavior, generosity, money, and happiness. Her work has shown that money can buy happiness … if you spend it on other people rather than yourself. Doing Good, Feeling Good Although many perspectives of human nature argue that people are selfish, a growing body of research suggests that humans not only help others, they experience a boost in happiness from doing so. In this talk, I’ll present evidence demonstrating that people feel better when spending money on others than when spending on themselves. These findings have been replicated in rich and poor countries around the world, in vastly different cultural contexts, and even amongst some of our youngest givers – children under the age of two. Together, these findings suggest that doing good can lead to feeling good.