Does money buy happiness? The answer in a new scientific research
The relationship between money and happiness has been investigated by science many times, but without a sufficiently clear answer. Recent scientific research conducted by Barbara Mellers, professor of psychology and marketing at the University of Pennsylvania, together with Kahneman and Killingsworth, Nobel laureates in economics, has finally solved the dilemma. (source: University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School economics journal)
Disputes
Disputes
The desire to answer this question was born in 2021, when Matthew Killingsworth (University of Pennsylvania) refuted an earlier thesis dating back to 2010 by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton (University of Princeton). In fact, the two researchers published a study stating that money does make people happy, but up to a certain threshold, that of $75,000 annually. Up to that threshold, the happiness of the subjects studied increased as income increased. Killingsworth Instead, in the 2021 publication, he stated that happiness would depend on income even beyond the $75,000 plateau
Unity is strength
Unity is strength![]()
The three researchers thus decided to join forces to answer that complicated question, realizing that the model applied by Kahneman and Deaton in 2010 was applicable only on a narrow population, namely that consisting of unhappy people, who are an exception. This finding thus confirmed the 2021 thesis of Killingsworth, which states that happiness increases as income increases even above $75,000 in annual income.
The “unhappy” population
The “unhappy” population
Wealthy but unhappy people are thus an exception that “confirms the rule”: for this group of people, happiness has been shown to increase as income increases up to $100,000 per year and then stabilizes.
The “happy” population
The “happy” population![]()
This therefore means that for most people, higher income is associated with higher happiness, says Killingsworth,senior fellow at Wharton and lead author of the article.
Contradictory cooperation
Contradictory cooperation
The ‘contradictory collaboration’ the researchers were involved in helped solve the dilemma by working through the scientific controversies or disagreements. “The two results that seemed absolutely contradictory were actually derived from data that were surprisingly consistent,” says Killingsworth.
Conclusions
Conclusions![]()
