Do you have to be rich to be happy? The answer is not so obvious a priori. According to an American researcher, we can prove that money objectively makes happiness.
University of Pennsylvania researcher Matthew Killingsworth decided to re-examine the question of whether happiness increases with income. Popular wisdom says money does not buy happiness. In the social sciences, on the other hand, it would seem that if: an increase in wealth is correlated with an increase in well-being.
How did he do it? Every day the question " How do you feel now ? "was asked of 33,000 people via an app. These people had a different income level, and the question was asked randomly throughout the day, with responses that could vary from" very good "to" very bad " ". Thus the researcher could follow on a daily basis with all these data the level of individual well-being of the people studied. Then, this kind of morale weather forecast was crossed with data on the annual income of the household to which each individual belonged.
The finding? Well-being, whether momentary or related to general satisfaction with life, increases as household income increases, as shown in the graph below.
This contradicts another study from 2010 which found that beyond a certain threshold, needs were met and that the increase in wealth and happiness did not follow.
One nuance, however: people who equate money with success will spend more time working, often feel more pressed for time, which has a negative impact on their well-being.
The conclusion of this study could ultimately be: money does not always buy happiness, but it contributes greatly!