A study by researchers at the universities of Warwick and Cardiff suggests that money only makes you happier if it makes you richer than those around you and improves your social rank.
This apparently helps explain why people in wealthy countries have
seemingly not got any happier as they've got richer: because their pesky
neighbours have been getting richer too.
So, to make a nation happier it doesn't necessarily help to make it wealthier, the researchers argue.
It would suggest to me that equality was perhaps a greater indicator of overall happiness than wealth as at least your not actively unhappy as a result of other people being wealthier than you.
The research, based on data in the British Household Panel Survey, is published in the journal Psychological Science.
(Pic: Rex Features)
So, to make a nation happier it doesn't necessarily help to make it wealthier, the researchers argue.
It would suggest to me that equality was perhaps a greater indicator of overall happiness than wealth as at least your not actively unhappy as a result of other people being wealthier than you.
The research, based on data in the British Household Panel Survey, is published in the journal Psychological Science.
(Pic: Rex Features)
Leave a comment