From Tal Ben Shahar’s “Happier”
Is There a Correlation Between Wealth and Happiness?
- “Studies have shown that the relationship between wealth and happiness is very different from what most of us would expect. In extensive cross-cultural and longitudinal studies of happiness, psychologist David Myers found a very low correlation between material wealth and happiness, except in cases of extreme poverty where people’s basic needs were not being met. Moreover, although for the last fifty years the population in many countries has become wealthier, studies reveal no increase, and often a decrease, in levels of happiness.” (p. 56)
- “The belief that high income is associated with good mood is widespread but mostly illusory. People with above-average income are relatively satisfied with their lives but are barely happier than others in moment-to-moment experience, tend to be more tense, and do not spend more time in particularly enjoyable activities. Moreover, the effect of income on life satisfaction seems to be transient. We argue that people exaggerate the contribution of income to happiness because they focus, in part, on conventional achievements when evaluating their life or the lives of others.” (p. 56)
- “Surprisingly, some people feel more depressed once they have attained material prosperity than they did while striving for it. The rat racer is sustained by the hope that his actions will yield some future benefit, which makes his negative emotions more bearable. However, once he reaches his destination and realizes that material prosperity does not make him happy, there is nothing to sustain him. He is filled with a sense of despair and hopelessness, because there is nothing else to look forward to, nothing that will allow him to envision a future in which he would be happy.” (p. 57)
- “There are countless examples of highly successful people who experienced depression and turned to alcohol and drugs. Paradoxically, “making it” actually made them less happy, for while they may have been unhappy before realizing their dream, they were often sustained by the belief that once they got there, they would be happy. And then they get there, and the “there” that they expected is nowhere to be found. Having been stripped of the illusion that most people live under—that material prosperity and status can provide lasting happiness—they are struck by the “what now?” syndrome.” (p. 57)
- “As larger numbers of people come to perceive material wealth as an end in itself, and, thus, as more individual members of society are unhappy, society as a whole nears a state of emotional bankruptcy.” (p. 60)