The Meaningfulness of Saving Money
@savingsproject
It is often said that money does not seem to be a direct source of happiness. However it has been shown as a resource that enables people to engage in meaningful activities, making a salient contribution to happiness. Saving is understood as the activity of accumulating money with an intention to spend it in the future. Literature in Positive Psychology proposes that 40% of our happiness relies on the activities we do (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon and Schkade, 2005; Lyubomirsky, 2008). Given these propositions, it is interesting to consider the well-being effects of saving, since it can connect one’s present state to a meaningful future state. The current Human-Product interaction solutions do not actively explore the subjective well-being of individuals, nor do they actively foster meaningful engagement, which can result in human flourishing. In that sense, the purpose of this project is to explore concepts like ownership and usage (Beggan 1992), level of attachment (Belk 1988; Richins 1994), and goal construction (Fishback and Ferguson 2007), in order to create Human-Product Interaction solutions that can contribute to the meaningfulness of saving money. The project will be developed within the Delft Institute of Positive Design (DIoPD)
