Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on June 15, 2011
A new psychological study warns that economic disparities seems to make people unhappy.
Over the last 40 years, “we’ve seen that people seem to be happier when there is more equality,†says University of Virginia psychologist Dr. Shigehiro Oishi, who lead the study.
“Income disparity has grown a lot in the U.S., especially since the 1980s. With that, we’ve seen a marked drop in life satisfaction and happiness.”
The findings hold true for about 60 percent of Americans—people in the lower and moderate income brackets.
The psychologists studied survey data for more than 48,000 respondents over 37 years. Researchers examined the relationships among the answers to one question rating happiness on a three-point scale and two indicating the respondents’ sense of how fair and trustworthy their fellow Americans were.
These answers were analyzed alongside the individual’s income and a globally recognized instrument measuring national income equality in each survey year.
Investigators discovered the gap between people’s own fortunes and those of people who are better off is correlated with feelings that other people are less fair and less trustworthy, and this results in a diminished sense of well-being in general.
Read in Full:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/06/14/growing-income-inequality-tied-to-unhappiness/26909.html