Well-being rises across the entire income spectrum

Feelings of well-being at any given moment improve with increasing household income, even above $75,000 per year, a study finds. Past research has suggested that the moment-to-moment sense of well-being, known as experienced well-being, does not improve any further beyond an annual income of $75,000, but that study had methodological limitations, such as relying on retrospective reports of emotions on a single occasion, and using a binary scale of experienced well-being. Matthew Killingsworth revisited the question in a study with several methodological advantages. The author analyzed 1,725,994 real-time reports of experienced well-being from 33,391 employed US adults. Prompted by their smartphones, the participants used a continuous scale to answer the question “How do you feel right now” at random times during their waking hours. The results show that experienced well-being rises linearly with the logarithm of household income. The slope of the association between well-being and log income is nearly identical above and below $80,000. Larger incomes are disproportionately associated with reduced negative feelings below $80,000, but increased positive emotions for higher earners. Moreover, individuals’ sense of control over their lives accounts for 74% of the association between income and well-being. According to the author, the threshold at which money loses its power to boost well-being may be higher than previously thought.

Article #20-16976:


“Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year,” by Matthew A. Killingsworth.

MEDIA CONTACT:


Matthew Killingsworth,

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA;

tel: 617-869-2492;

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[email protected]

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