BackStage

There has been a recent (well, maybe not recent, but recent to me) explosion in stories and blogs about money and happiness. A recent NYT article claims: “Maybe Money Does Buy Happiness After All.” The article describes a study by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers from the University of Pennsylvania that made this claim. Contrary to the Easterlin paradox which states that it is not income but relative income that matters for happiness (you want to have as much as the Jones), Stevenson and Wolfers used Gallup poll information to show that the wealthiest nations have the highest life satisfaction.

From the NYT article:

If anything, Ms. Stevenson and Mr. Wolfers say, absolute income seems to matter more than relative income. In the United States, about 90 percent of people in households making at least $250,000 a year called themselves “very happy” in a recent Gallup Poll. In households with income below $30,000, only 42 percent of people gave that answer. But the international polling data suggests that the under-$30,000 crowd might not be happier if they lived in a poorer country.

When the reporter contacted “Mr.” Easterlin, his critiques were much along the same line that mine would have been. The summary from the reporter:

He agreed that people in richer countries are more satisfied. But he’s skeptical that their wealth is causing their satisfaction. The results could instead reflect cultural differences in how people respond to poll questions, he said.

Sociological as well as psychological social psychologists have long noted that emotions and moods are dependent upon the society in which we are embedded. Some cultures are populated with people, in general, who are less likely to rate things highly — no matter the question. Depending on how the questions are worded, some may not want to say they have high life satisfaction because such a comment is not culturally appropriate. Furthermore, how the heck do we know that it is the wealth that is causing this increased life satisfaction? It could be a whole slew of things — job satisfaction, higher rates of education, etc., etc., etc. Etc. is purposely a vacuous term here because it could be anything!

I think what we need are cross-cultural experiments (or even just one culture to begin with!). Have people do the same job. Have these people in different pay conditions. Perhaps have this over a period of time. Are those that paid more happier? You can vary things like autonomy — stand over the shoulder of one group and leave the other alone to do the work. Let’s see then who is happiest.

Anyone at a university with a lab who wants to do some co-authoring on this? Hmm. Cause I need more projects.

Bloggy relatedness:

Everyday Sociology

PsychBlog

Predictably/Irrational