Shopping: It'll bring you happiness. Getty Images Money buys happiness, says Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert, if you spend it right. As in: Avoid big purchases that you'll just get used to and fail to appreciate. And imagine what it will be like to live with a purchase after you but it. Spend well, and you'll quite likely make yourself happier. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Money can't buy happiness."This sentiment is lovely, popular, and almost certainly wrong," says Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert in a paper he coauthored.