Friday's Mega Millions jackpot has gone up to a record-breaking $970 million. On Saturday, Powerball will have a drawing for a $430 million jackpot. A winning ticket for either lottery will be life-changing, but some of the popular theories about the fate of lottery winners aren't necessarily accurate, according to a study published in May.
The study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, examined 3,362 Swedish lottery winners who scored at least $100,000, and surveyed them about their well-being five to 22 years after they hit the jackpot.
The study was conducted in Sweden and the lottery prizes were not in the high millions, but New York University economics professor Dr. Daniel Cesarini – a co-author of the study – says he does not believe the results would differ significantly if he were to study Americans who won multi-million dollar prizes.
"The prizes for the Mega Millions are way bigger that anything we studied. We looked at people who won up to $2 million," he said. "I'm sure that people who win much larger prizes wrestle with certain challenges that you wouldn't wrestle with if you win a $1 million."
Cesarini also believes his work with Swedish lottery winners is likely to be broadly applicable. He says a different study of American lottery winners showed similar reactions to his findings.
"It's hard to say if the results would be different if we conducted the study in America," he said "My guess would be that the results would not be radically different. There are some ways in which money might help in the United States compared to Sweden, for example heath care, but I would not be shocked if someone did a similar study in the U.S. and reached broadly similar conclusions, but there are some reasons to expect in certain ways results could differ."
Here are some misconceptions about the fate of lottery winners that Cesarini's study appears to debunk.
People who win big lottery jackpots blow their money in a few years
Cesarini said that a common misconception is that the more a person wins in the lottery, the more likely he or she is to spend it all.
An often-cited — but incorrect — anecdote about lottery winners falsely attributed to the National Endowment for Financial Education claims that about 70% of people who suddenly receive a windfall of cash will lose it within a few years. In January 2018, the National Endowment for Financial Education set the record straight and said that statistic was not backed up by any of their research.
Examples of the "curse of the lottery" abound — from the West Virginia man whose daughter and granddaughter died of overdoses after he won $315 million in 2002, to the Kentucky man who claimed a $27 million prize in 2001 and lost it all by 2006.
Cesarini says he and his fellow researchers found that lottery winners who won larger sums of up to $2 million actually retained their wealth well over a decade after the jackpot.
"We saw that people who won large sums of money were still wealthier 10 years after the fact, compared to people who won small sums of money," he says. "Also, if you look at things like labor supply – the people who win large sums of money do cut down on work but it's quite rare for them to quit altogether. They cut down mostly in the form of taking longer vacations."
Cesarini says people expect that a lot of winners immediately squander their wealth, but that is rare.
He adds: "What we see consistently is that they work a little bit less, but they spend the money quite intelligently. But that's not to say that nobody has wrestled with self-control problems and using the money in ways that are not conducive to their best interest. But, I think that their behavior is a lot more governed than you might believe if you're reading popular accounts of what happens."
All that money makes people miserable later in life
Researchers found happiness and mental health for people who won at least $100,00 in the lottery did not change significantly, but contrary to popular belief there was no proof it made any of the participants less happy.
Overall, the money won led to positive long-term satisfaction, and researchers found that there was a connection between a financial life satisfaction and long-term overall life satisfaction.
"Large-prize winners experience sustained increases in overall life satisfaction that persist for over a decade and show no evidence of dissipating with time," the study said.
People who win the lottery are happier every day
Researchers in this study measured life satisfaction by asking about participants' feelings of their overall life quality. Happiness was measured by asking about day-to-day feelings.
Cesarini says to study happiness, researchers asked participants questions like, "Do you smile a lot?" "Do you laugh a lot?" or "Do you feel happy today?"
Winning the lottery didn't seem to change overall happiness.
Where it did make a difference was life satisfaction. Researchers got at that by asking things like, "How happy are you with family and friends?" or "How happy are you with your finances?"
"We asked people about life satisfaction overall, an evaluative measure, and that's where we saw the strongest effects of lottery wealth," Cesarini says. "We also asked about their happiness, and for happiness we found there's no strong evidence that lottery winners are happier in the long run, but there is strong evidence that they are more satisfied with their lives in the long run."
I would be okay with being as happy as I am now and debt-free
Been one BUSY week for Todd and all his staff!
Heck, I have revised my donation list twice already since Wednesday...
I can say that When I win the BIG ONE I will smile a lot!
A pot will fix all my problems instantly.
How could it not?
My mental illness would be immediately cured.
Will glad submit for a study on lottery winners...just need to hit it big. I'm sure it is can of worms winning big, but willing to find out myself!
I wouldn't go quite THAT FAR
I asked the guy if he’d be ready tomorrow to cash my billion dollar ticket. He smiled then laughed then said yeah sure. I’m not sure he meant it.
There is something funny about this amount. Which would be interesting for this type of study. A billion dollars. Think about it. I wonder if anybody can. Yeah they say sure I can, I’d buy this I’d do that, etc etc. But all that stuff is small change to a billion dollars honestly. It’s too big of a number for most human minds to comprehend. We don’t come from billion dollar thoughts. We come from small hunter gatherer populations. So in that sense the lotteries with their ‘changes’ to the odds have succeeded. Saying more second prizes with higher odds, and we willingly accept it, hence a billion dollars, because we are not capable of thinking about such a large amount. And most likely none of us ever will. It’s just like the federal deficit. Nobody cares because we’re not capable of thinking about it.
Although doing the media availability and the photo celebrity is not mentioned I believe that I would be happy doing both.
I am happy to read this study and change my beliefs.
Well surprise surprise, just raised it to $1 billion/ $565.6 Million. Tuesday's Rollover is $1.6 Billion/$905 million.
I have read about this survey earlier. I think it’s a good study but I think it might be another result if conducted in another country. Sweden ranks high like other nordic countries in wellfare and I think happiness might not increase much because we already are so happy over here.
It would go a long way to make my life of chronic illness more comfortable ............
I would be grateful ..........
Sorry you are suffering!! But.......
The back seat of a Mulsanne Mulliner would definitely make you more comfortable. Just the smell of the soft supple hides could put you to sleep!
People who win big lottery jackpots blow their money in a few years
The media loves misery and loves to spread it far and wide, giving people the illusion that the misery is very common. I recently came across an article about 21 winners who blew it all, making you think there was this lottery curse and it was a real common risk. Except when I looked at the specifics, they dug up stories from the 1980s and from other countries like Canada and the UK. Out of the 21, 11 were from the US. So it's not that common. Yes it does happen but rarely because I'm sure there are a lot more than 21 people in 3 different countries who've won substantial jackpots since the 80s. You don't hear about them because they likely prefer not to flash their life to the world, and there's nothing for the media to muckrake. And when you read some of the stories of the losers, they were dumb. I mean, who leaves hundreds of thousands of dollars in their car? Other losers tried to hide their winnings from spouses and work colleagues and got caught - the lottery didn't curse them, greed did.
"Winning the Lottery does NOT change a person it magnifies who they already are!" , unknown author.
I have my order ready to submit to the local dealer, should I win!
Dove Grey!
When you make these statements, use the words "I" and "some" instead of "we" and "most". And throwing hunter/gatherer into the mix doesn't make it any more accurate. We evolved, as did our brains. Some more than others. But we all evolved.
We've evolved with the capability to create engineering marvels and study the universe. We've mapped our genes, seeded rain clouds, gone to the moon, modified DNA and grown animals in artificial uteri. Yet you think that the concept of $1 billion is too much for us mere mortals to fathom? Seriously?
DLE isn't a good example. He was an ex addict whose wife caused him to have a relapse. He went broke feeding his drug habit. He's not really a lottery curse story. He's more of a "don't do drugs" story.
Was able to take a look at the Bentayga recently. It's lovely. wouldn't mind getting one
There are far more than 21 ppl in the U.S. who've gone broke after winning the lottery so that's really not the issue. It's the people who lose it all who love to cry to the media that there's a lottery curse and that's the reason for what happened to them. The media simply plays up on the story because it sells. Common people love reading about the downfall of others. The misconception of a curse was making the rounds before the media latched on to it.
YES HE IS, this is the comment that was responded to.
"Winning the Lottery does NOT change a person it magnifies who they already are!" , unknown author.
Teddi, my comment is spot on, how so you ask? Well David was the one that said " he's past was behind him." Here was a new man, converted, ready to weather any storm, come what may. If he fell off the wagon because of the wife, that is the " revealing" right there. He was weak, unstable. Given that he said his fortune would last, he lied. You know l have love for you child, but you wrong on this one.
David Lee Edwards probably met Shawna Maddux in a bar. Those are, "Meat markets". Good for drinking buddies but not conducive to marriage material.
David was a High School dropout. Strike one.
A felon. Strike two.
Chose a woman who was addicted to illegal drugs. Strike three.
You are out!
Lots of people here have all sorts of suggestions how the winners should spend their money and even critical how collect the winnings, but at the end of the day, it is their money. Some say there are more doppers per captia in Kentucky than any other state. Don't know if that's true, but David Edwards sure went out of the way to prove it.
"You can't give a drunk $50, it will kill him" ---- Frankie Balou.
Seriously, is it really worthwhile offering your opinions about someone you never met?
The solitary issue l had with DLE, was that he left his child with no money to her name. Here was a guy that " had it all" yet he was selfish enough to think of himself & himself only. Look, you into drugs, want that crap coursing it's way through your veins, want to push that dust into your nostrils, go ahead. But have a brief moment of sanity to draw up a will & set aside money for your offspring.