The research was conducted by Matthew Killingsowrth at the Wharton School, where the researcher sought to find a connection between an increase in positive emotional well-being and heightened income among millionaires and billionaires.
Killingsworth was out to debunk the hedonic treadmill theory that no matter how much wealth you obtain, people adjust to normal levels of happiness and the joys money can buy aren’t as novel when you reach a certain wealth threshold.
“The results suggest that the positive association between money and well-being continues far up the economic ladder,” Killingsworth said.
The results indicated that millionaires and billionaires are happier than those earning up to $500,000 a year and that happiness doesn’t plateau the more money you make.
Before conducting this study, Killingsworth was a member of a team of scientists dedicated to challenging the notion that one can’t buy happiness. He worked alongside the late Nobel Prize-winning economist and psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who at the time believed that happiness increased with incomes until about $60,000 to $90,000 a year, at which it plateaued.
They tracked participants’ daily happiness levels via the smartphone app, Track Your Happiness. Speaking with the Washington Post, Killingsworth explained that the real-time input of the data allowed authentic results by “repeatedly pinging people at randomly-timed moments during daily life, and asking about their happiness at that moment in real-time.”
They then found this extended to people making at least $500,000 a year, and beyond.
“The magnitude of the difference between the low and high end of incomes is gigantic,” Killingsworth stressed, noting that this indicated a divide in happiness levels between the middle and upper-class people.
“Within the bounds of what money can explain, a huge amount of that difference occurs above the median income.”
Although money is a significant factor for an individual’s well-being, as it allows your essential needs such as food, shelter, and stability to be met, Killingsworth’s previous study did reveal there was a minority of wealthy people who found dissatisfaction amid increasing income.
“The exception is people who are financially well-off but unhappy. For instance, if you’re rich and miserable, more money won’t help. For everyone else, more money was associated with higher happiness to somewhat varying degrees.”
