Happiness can still be bought for money: a scientist has named a specific figure
For thousands of years, people have been asking themselves: can money buy happiness? The idea that money can't buy happiness is deeply rooted in society. However, a new study calls this into question, claiming that money can still buy happiness, IFLScience reports.
Matthew Killingsworth, a senior research fellow at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, concluded in his new paper that the claim that happiness is not about money is false. He found that the level of happiness increased steadily up to an income of several hundred thousand dollars a year. But what happens after that? Does happiness stabilize, decline, or continue to grow?
The results of the study show that money can buy happiness, and living in poverty triples the risk of depression and anxiety. At the same time, unexpected luck significantly improves our short-term happiness. According to Killingsworth, from a psychological point of view, a regular salary is like winning the lottery, and a higher annual income is associated with overall happiness and well-being.
In his study, Killingsworth compared the data of three groups of respondents, a total of 33,000 people:
- low-income people
- middle-income people;
- extremely wealthy people.
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The results of the analysis show that rich people are significantly happier than those who earn more than 500,000 per year. Moreover, the difference between rich people and those with an average income was almost three times greater than between people with middle and low incomes. This casts doubt on the idea that middle-income people reach the peak of their money-happiness curve.
The researcher also notes that the absolute difference in happiness between the richest and poorest people was extremely large. Thus, the author of the study concluded that the connection between the amount of money and happiness remains, no matter how high you have climbed the economic ladder.
Killingsworth also emphasizes that the connection between happiness and wealth is not limited to the ability to buy more material goods. He believes that this connection is deeper: wealth has more to do with the sense of security that comes with having more money. A greater sense of control over life can explain about 75% of the relationship between money and happiness.
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