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Living among the affluent: boon or bane?
Louis Tay1, Mike Morrison2, Ed Diener3
1Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University stay@purdue.edu.
Psychological Science
|April 24, 2014
Summary
National income impacts happiness, but not always positively. While richer nations boost life satisfaction, they also increase negative daily emotions like worry and anger, affecting overall subjective well-being.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Economics
- Cross-cultural Psychology
Background:
- Personal income is a known predictor of subjective well-being (SWB).
- The influence of national income on individual SWB, beyond personal income, remains less understood.
- Cross-cultural variations in the relationship between income and happiness warrant investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if national income influences subjective well-being (SWB) independently of personal income.
- To explore how national income affects different facets of SWB, including life satisfaction and daily emotional experiences.
- To examine moderating factors, such as national wealth and residential mobility, in the income-SWB relationship.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional multilevel analysis was employed.
- Data from 838,151 individuals across 158 nations were analyzed.
- Statistical models controlled for personal income to isolate the effects of national income.
Main Results:
- Higher personal income consistently correlated with increased SWB.
- National income positively impacted life satisfaction but negatively affected daily emotional well-being (increased worry and anger).
- The positive association between personal income and SWB was stronger in wealthier nations, potentially due to cultural norms valuing money.
Conclusions:
- National income exerts a complex influence on individual happiness, with both positive and negative consequences.
- The wealth of a nation affects life satisfaction and daily emotional states, highlighting the importance of macro-level economic factors.
- Individual SWB is moderated by national economic context and personal characteristics like residential mobility.
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