One key to happiness might be whether you make more than your peers, regardless of whether that income is six figures or just a mediocre take-home, a new study finds.
This concept of "doing better than the Joneses" is well established among children: A toy gets ditched as soon as a shinier toy in the hands of another child is spotted. But some researchers have often thought that when it comes to adults and money, things works differently, in that the more money one has, regardless of how it stacks up, the more resources can be acquired to generate happiness.
However, the new study suggests income and happiness are indeed like child's play.
We tend to be happy "as long as we've got more than the people around us," said study researcher Christopher Boyce in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick in England. "You might buy a new car. But if your neighbor has just bought the very same car, that new car doesn't seem as good as it once was if you were the only one to have that car."
3 comments:
Interesting. I was chatting with a friend recently, who used a quote by (I think?) John Locke, about money being like shoes---if income is too small, they "gall and pinch", but if it's too large, one trips and stumbles. Then there's the old "enough is as good as a feast" proverb, which has always made sense to me.
I've never been rich, nor anywhere close, but neither have I ever wanted materially for the essentials of life---food, education, warm winter coats. And I've always been happy. Would I be any happier if I could afford a yacht, or a luxurious vacation home on Lake Como, or a $100,000 horse? I guess we'll never know!:):)
We've always had friends who had lots more money than we do, as well as some who have a lot less. I've never been able to detect much difference in the general *bien-etre* levels of either extreme.
Coincidentally, we watched "Citizen Kane" again the other night, which is a cautionary tale if ever there was one: maybe you CAN be "too rich." Of course, a viewing of "Grapes of Wrath" would demonstrate that you can also be too poor, but...well, I agree, "enough" is okay.
Still wouldn't mind winning the lottery, though...
I dunno, I think I'd like to try out Locke's assertion and see if I tripped over having a ton of dough....
That reminds me of a woman I sat next to on a plane who whined about how hard it was having three houses (one in Portugal, and two in the US) when I could barely pay the rent on my apartment. I guess she was tripping up?
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