Take three people. All are unmarried, 33-year-old women who live in the United States. One makes an annual salary of $40,000, another makes $120,000, and the third makes $200,000. Who do you think is the happiest?
According to a recently released study (paywall) in the burgeoning field of happiness research, the two higher-earning women are likely to report more satisfaction with their lives than the one who makes $40,000. But, perhaps surprisingly, the psychologists who conducted the study find that the one making $200,000 is probably no happier than the one making $120,000. This is because both the $120,000 and $200,000 women have incomes above $105,000, which according to their research is the point at which greater household income in the US is not associated with greater happiness. The technical term for this cutoff is the income “satiation point.”
The study is based on a life-satisfaction survey conducted on over 1 million people as part of the Gallup World Poll. Respondents across the world were asked to rate their lives on a scale of 0-10, where 0 is the “worst possible life” and 10 is the “best possible life.” (This author would give himself an eight.)
read more
