The 136-country analysis found a positive association between charitable giving and well-being in 120 countries. This was not statistically significant in every country, and observational data do not establish causation. Cross-cultural coverage is useful, but it does not make the result universal or guarantee an individual benefit.
In 2013, Lara Aknin, Christopher Barrington-Leigh, Elizabeth Dunn, John Helliwell, Justine Burns, Robert Biswas-Diener, Imelda Kemeza, Paul Nyende, Claire Ashton-James, and Michael Norton answered that question with the largest dataset ever assembled on prosocial spending and subjective well-being. Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, their study drew on the Gallup World Poll, 234,917 respondents across 136 countries, from Iceland to Burundi, from Japan to Paraguay.