I recently came across a brand-new study that answers a question we ordinary spectators often find ourselves wondering about:
Are the wealthy actually happy? And does being wealthier make you happier?
Quite a few studies have already shown that people’s happiness increases as their income rises (when introducing Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now in our Psychology New Knowledge Course, we cited some related research), but those studies almost never included the truly wealthy people at the very top of the pyramid.
This spectacularly well-funded study fills that gap.
In the paper’s two studies, researchers surveyed more than 4,000 wealthy people from 17 countries around the world, all with a net worth of over $1 million (Study 1 required a net worth of at least $1.5 million). These millionaires and multimillionaires had to rate their life satisfaction in the questionnaire, and also answer some questions about where their assets came from.
The broad results were as follows:
Although the absolute differences in the wealthy participants’ ratings of their own life satisfaction were very small—all clustered within a narrow range from ‘pretty satisfied’ to ‘quite satisfied’—millionaires with a net worth above $10 million (the cutoffs differed slightly between the two studies) were still a little more satisfied with their lives than those whose assets had one fewer digit (though the statistical significance was only slight). Among millionaires with a net worth between $1 million and $10 million, there was no statistically significant difference in life satisfaction.
In other words, the wealthy are all pretty happy, but multimillionaires are just a tiny bit happier than millionaires. It seems that the more-money-more-happiness rule still basically holds among people above the millionaire level.
Another finding was that wealthy people who acquired their fortunes through their own efforts were happier than wealthy people who inherited theirs.
In other words, first-generation rich people are happier than second-generation rich people.
Put these two findings together and you get this: the more money you make through your own efforts, the happier you are.
All I can say is, this conclusion… feels oddly inspirational.
References:
Donnelly, G. E., Zheng, T., Haisley, E., & Norton, M. I. (2018). The Amount and Source of Millionaires’ Wealth (Moderately) Predict Their Happiness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0146167217744766.
Note
- This Psychology New Knowledge Course series consisted of short popular-psychology essays and musings written back then to accompany the related content in Zhichao Wei: Psychology New Knowledge Course. They were published on the now-shuttered platform Fanfan; the original link no longer exists.
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