The surprising side effects of winning the lottery now proven by science
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Some of the 16 winners in a $448 million USA Powerball understandably got very excited about their win.
Would you get excited about your jackpot win? Sure you would, it's quite natural.
Lottery winners go through certain stages of excitement, happiness and satisfaction, say British researchers. But they found the patterns had some surprising side effects.
Dr Andrew J. Oswald of the University of Warwick in England, found that winners' psychological well-being dipped slightly the year they won the prize, but then more than bounced back over the next two years.
"No researcher has ever found that people are happier in the first year after winning the lottery." he says.
"My own hunch is that they have to talk themselves into believing they deserved it. It may also be that neighbors and relatives have to be dealt with in the first year, if only subconsciously, and that that is another reason the quest for immediate happiness is thwarted."
One study by Bénédicte Apouey and Andrew E. Clark of the Paris School of Economics, found that people tended to drink and smoke a little more after winning the prize, but that their overall physical health remained the same.
Kelsey Zachow is on her way to happiness with this $66 million Mega Millions win.
Their levels of stress declined over two years while their positive feelings increased, so that their general psychological well-being was significantly higher two years after winning than it had been beforehand.
Another study by Jonathan Gardner and Dr Oswald found that winners ended up much better off psychologically, and also better off than both the general population and a sample of lottery players who hadn’t won a significant prize.
So the happiness is permanent and worthwhile, as we suspected!
READ MORE:New York Times
