Money and happiness: Rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction

Boyce, Christopher J., Brown, Gordon D. A. and Moore, Simon Christopher ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5495-4705 2010. Money and happiness: Rank of income, not income, affects life satisfaction. Psychological Science 21 (4) , pp. 471-475. 10.1177/0956797610362671

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Abstract

Does money buy happiness, or does happiness come indirectly from the higher rank in society that money brings? We tested a rank-income hypothesis, according to which people gain utility from the ranked position of their income within a comparison group. The rank hypothesis contrasts with traditional reference-income hypotheses, which suggest that utility from income depends on comparison to a social reference-group norm. We found that the ranked position of an individual’s income predicts general life satisfaction, whereas absolute income and reference income have no effect. Furthermore, individuals weight upward comparisons more heavily than downward comparisons. According to the rank hypothesis, income and utility are not directly linked: Increasing an individual’s income will increase his or her utility only if ranked position also increases and will necessarily reduce the utility of others who will lose rank.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Dentistry
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:	rank ; relative income ; life satisfaction ; social comparisons ; money ; happiness
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
ISSN:	0956-7976
Last Modified:	05 Jan 2024 02:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/15781

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