Lara Beth Aknin is a Canadian professor of social psychology at Simon Fraser University, and associate editor of the World Happiness Report.[1]
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After earning her PhD from the University of British Columbia, Aknin joined the faculty of psychology at Simon Fraser University in 2012.[2] That year, she published "Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children" with J. Kiley Hamlin and Elizabeth Dunn, which supported the idea that humans may have evolved to find giving rewarding.[3]
In 2014, Aknin, Michael Norton and Elizabeth Dunn co-published a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and CIHR funded review of whether spending money had a positive effect on people's happiness.[4] The following year, her contributions to the field of social psychology earned her the President’s New Researcher Award from the Canadian Psychological Association[5] and a fellowship at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.[2] By 2019, she received a SSHRC grant for her project, “Can Repeated and Reflective Giving Nurture Canada's Next Generation of Philanthropists?”[6] She was also honoured by the university for her research and contributions to social Psychology with the title "Distinguished SFU Professor."[7]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she served as chair of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Task Force of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission.[8]
- Dunn, Elizabeth W.; Aknin, Lara B.; Norton, Michael I. (21 March 2008). "Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness". Science. 319 (5870): 1687–1688. Bibcode:2008Sci...319.1687D. doi:10.1126/science.1150952. PMID 18356530. S2CID 29589887.
- Aknin, Lara B.; Barrington-Leigh, Christopher P.; Dunn, Elizabeth W.; Helliwell, John F.; Burns, Justine; Biswas-Diener, Robert; Kemeza, Imelda; Nyende, Paul; Ashton-James, Claire E.; Norton, Michael I. (April 2013). "Prosocial spending and well-being: Cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 104 (4): 635–652. doi:10.1037/a0031578. ISSN 1939-1315. PMID 23421360. S2CID 5403883.
- Aknin, Lara B.; Dunn, Elizabeth W.; Norton, Michael I. (1 April 2012). "Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion: Evidence for a Positive Feedback Loop between Prosocial Spending and Happiness". Journal of Happiness Studies. 13 (2): 347–355. doi:10.1007/s10902-011-9267-5. ISSN 1573-7780. S2CID 32032719.
- Aknin, Lara B.; Hamlin, J. Kiley; Dunn, Elizabeth W. (14 June 2012). "Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children". PLOS ONE. 7 (6): e39211. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...739211A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0039211. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3375233. PMID 22720078.
- Dunn, Elizabeth W.; Aknin, Lara B.; Norton, Michael I. (February 2014). "Prosocial Spending and Happiness". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 23 (1): 41–47. doi:10.1177/0963721413512503. ISSN 0963-7214.
- Aknin, Lara B.; Norton, Michael I.; Dunn, Elizabeth W. (1 November 2009). "From wealth to well-being? Money matters, but less than people think". The Journal of Positive Psychology. 4 (6): 523–527. doi:10.1080/17439760903271421. ISSN 1743-9760. S2CID 9911004.
- Aknin, Lara B.; Dunn, Elizabeth W.; Whillans, Ashley V.; Grant, Adam M.; Norton, Michael I. (1 April 2013). "Making a difference matters: Impact unlocks the emotional benefits of prosocial spending". Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 88: 90–95. doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2013.01.008. ISSN 0167-2681. S2CID 55775819.
- Anik, Lalin; Aknin, Lara B.; Norton, Michael I.; Dunn, Elizabeth W. (6 August 2009). "Feeling Good About Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior". Social Science Research Network. SSRN 1444831.
- Aknin, Lara B.; Broesch, Tanya; Hamlin, J. Kiley; Van de Vondervoort, Julia W. (August 2015). "Prosocial behavior leads to happiness in a small-scale rural society". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 144 (4): 788–795. doi:10.1037/xge0000082. ISSN 1939-2222. PMID 26030168.
- Aknin, Lara B; Van de Vondervoort, Julia W; Hamlin, J Kiley (1 April 2018). "Positive feelings reward and promote prosocial behavior". Current Opinion in Psychology. 20: 55–59. doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.08.017. ISSN 2352-250X. PMID 28837957.
- Shariff, Azim F.; Wiwad, Dylan; Aknin, Lara B. (May 2016). "Income Mobility Breeds Tolerance for Income Inequality". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 11 (3): 373–380. doi:10.1177/1745691616635596. ISSN 1745-6916. PMID 27217250. S2CID 12557460.
- Aknin, Lara B.; Sandstrom, Gillian M.; Dunn, Elizabeth W.; Norton, Michael I. (10 February 2011). "It's the Recipient That Counts: Spending Money on Strong Social Ties Leads to Greater Happiness than Spending on Weak Social Ties". PLOS ONE. 6 (2): e17018. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...617018A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0017018. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 3037397. PMID 21347326.
