The Price of Happiness... the Difference Between How Men and Women Think... More on Happiness

I was not going to post until later this week, but I just had to share. (Okay, two of my projects just blew up, I don't have an interview until 1 p.m., and I have a rather large cat asleep in my lap, so figured I'd blog.)

According to a study released Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and reported on on MSNBC, the more we believe an item is worth, the happier we are with our purchase. In other words, my friends, money can buy happiness — at least temporarily. So by my calculations, a 2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Coupe, with a base price of $110,600, should go a long way towards helping me through the winter blahs. Of course, if it snows, or the roads are too icy drive on, and I cannot drive my new Aston Martin, I would be unhappy.

Quoting from the MSNBC article:

"The study's participants were hooked up to brain scan machines and instructed to take a sip from five glasses of wine, which ranged from $5 to $90 a bottle. When they were told they were drinking a glass of wine from a $90 bottle, brain scans showed increased activity in the medial orbital frontal cortex, the area of the brain that registers pleasure — even if the person was actually knocking back the price equivalent of two-buck chuck."

The takeaway: People (or their brains) believe that the more you pay for something, the better the quality, and the happier they are with their purchase (that or that two-buck chuck just makes people happy) — at least until the credit card bill shows up.

Anyone notice a problem with this? Apparently at least one psychologist did. Per her, some people may be confusing an item's worth with their own self-worth. (Really? I'm shocked. Shocked, I say.) These folks, she worries, will always be racing toward their next purchase, always inwardly questioning: Will this make me happy? And as we all know, or should know, the answer to that is almost always no, or at least after the initial buzz wears off. There are even brain scans to prove this.

My favorite quote on this subject, which I am paraphrasing, came during an IM session with my friend/client Dan, who wrote, maybe money can't buy happiness, but it sure does help numb the pain. Amen, brother.

So while (somewhat) on the topic of brains and how they work, I wanted to share this very funny clip my friend, Jill, just emailed me (thanks Jill!), about the difference between male and female brains. If you can find five minutes to watch it, do. It will definitely put a smile on your face. (More about that three paragraphs down.)

Interestingly, the clip, while very funny, is from a place called the Marriage Resource Center, which takes itself and its mission, "Helping couples create loving and lasting marriages," very seriously. So this would probably not be the time to start writing about why I think all couples should, under the guidance of an attorney, create and sign a five-year renewable contract before they can get married. But I promise to blog about it in another post.

Want to know the real secret to a happy and long-lasting marriage? Enzyte, "the #1 selling supplement in the world for natural male enhancement." At least that is what their commercials would have you believe. Me, I just find their ads highly entertaining, especially when folding the laundry, cooking my man his dinner, or cleaning house.

For those of you who have never encountered Smiling Bob, the spokesman for Enzyte (who actually never speaks), I highly recommend you check out this clip on YouTube, where Bob attends the office party dressed up as Santa, and women line up to sit on Santa's lap.

I think that's enough for this blog post. Stay tuned next week to see if my husband is still talking to me. ; ) (Hi Honey! Love ya!)