Money makes people happy, but only when they are richer than their neighbors

Even if there is a stagnation or slight decrease in economic growth in a short period from a quarter to a few years, in a long span of the past several decades, in a country called "developed country" or "economic superior country" including Japan, without exception He is growing,GDPIs rising to the right and the average income of the people also rises to the right. In other words, the average household has become "rich" more than 30 years ago or 40 years ago, and you should be able to purchase what you want better than you have been able to have a comfortable life.

So why do people who can ride faster cars than they used to, can live in comfortable homes and people who have been able to take a long vacation do not feel like being "happy" from the old days? That is a natural question, but the answer is "Sunset of SanchomeNot sentimental sentiment but "Even if I get richer than last year, it makes no sense unless it gets richer than the surroundings"It was clarified by a survey conducted in the UK that it was a severe thing called" It was severe ".

Details are as below.Money only makes you happy if it makes you richer than your neighbors

Warwick UniversityIn a study by Dr. Chris Boyce of psychology department and others, in the past seven yearsBritish Household Panel Survey(British household panel survey) "income" and "living satisfaction" data. The article is titled "Money and Happiness: Rank of Income, Not Income, Affects Life Satisfaction" (Money and Happiness: Income Level rather than Income Affects Life Satisfaction)Psychological ScienceIt is scheduled to be published in a magazine.

Initially, research was initiated with the objective of clarifying the relationship between 'income' and 'life satisfaction', but then 'income rank' from 'income' (gender, age, education level, residential area, etc. are the same It was revealed that the order in the group of people) is much more strongly correlated with "life satisfaction". That is,"How much earning compared to the surroundings" is more important than "How much do you earn?"Therefore, even if the annual income rises from the previous year, it does not necessarily feel that it became happy from the previous year, and even if the annual income has been reduced since the previous year, if the colleague received a big cut It is also possible to think that the satisfaction level rises.

Dr. Boyce says, "In our survey, the ranking of the income of a person in a group affects the living satisfaction of the person most strongly, whereas the actual income of that person and the average income It turned out that there was no significant impact on the degree of satisfaction of living. Even if the annual income was £ 1 million (about 136 million yen), all the friends earned £ 2 million It seems I can not be happy if I knew there was, "he says.

"I got rich and started to go out with a wealthy friend" "When I repeatedly said that I became more rich friends because I became more rich," no matter how much I earn, It may be that you can not be "satisfied with your life".