Inequality and social rank: income increases buy more life satisfaction in more equal countries
Christopher J. Boyce, Gordon D.A. Brown, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Edika G. Quispe-Torreblanca and Alex M. Wood
How do income and income inequality combine to influence subjective well-being? We examined the relation between income and life satisfaction in different societies, and found large effects of income inequality within a society on the relationship between individuals? incomes and their life satisfaction. The income?satisfaction gradient is steeper in countries with more equal income distributions, such that the positive effect of a 10% increase in income on life satisfaction is more than twice as large in a country with low income inequality as it is in a country with high income inequality. These findings are predicted by an income rank hypothesis according to which life satisfaction is derived from social rank. A fixed increment in income confers a greater increment in social position in a more equal society. Income inequality may influence people?s preferences, such that in unequal countries people?s life satisfaction is determined more strongly by their income. ? 2020 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
1 April 2021
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 47(4) , pp.519-539, 2021
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167220923853
This Journal article is published under the centre's Community Wellbeing programme.