Money really does buy happiness, and the correlation extends well beyond the $75,000-a-year pay threshold that had been seen as the upper limit for making an impact, according to a team of scientists including the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist who introduced the idea of a happiness plateau more than a decade ago.
Contentedness does increase steadily in line with incomes and even accelerates as pay rises beyond $100,000 a year — as long as the person enjoys a certain baseline level of happiness to begin with.
That is according to a study of 33,391 people living in the US, published on March 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. It found the effect can be observed in salaries up to $500,000, though conclusive data beyond that level was not available.
The results contradict a 2010 paper by the psychologist Daniel Kahneman and economist Angus Deaton, which suggested that happiness goes up with income until the relationship starts to “flatten” at between $60,000 and $90,000 a year.
Now Mr Kahneman has reanalysed his work in collaboration with Harvard University psychology doctoral student and former software product manager Matthew Killingsworth, who found no happiness plateau at all in a 2021 study researching the same topic.
Their new paper, which they described as an “adversarial collaboration”, did find a plateau, but only among the unhappiest 20 per cent of people, and only then when they start earning more than $100,000.
But even members of this unhappy group became happier as their income increased up to six figures. It is only at this point where the happiness effect of more money stops working and “the miseries that remain are not alleviated by high income”.
“For very poor people, money clearly helps a lot”, Mr Killingsworth told the New Scientist. “But if you have a decent income and you’re still miserable, the source of your misery probably isn’t something money can fix.”
For all other Americans outside this group, more money means more happiness, at least to some extent. And for the happiest 30 per cent of the population, the rate that happiness increases even accelerates as incomes go beyond $100,000.
That said, the researchers found that the overall emotional effect of more money on a person is small compared with other circumstances, even something as simple as two days off at the end of a week.
“An approximately four-fold difference in income is about equal to the effect of a weekend”, it said.
The people surveyed were employed adults between 18 and 65 living in the US, with a median age of 33 and median household income of $85,000 a year. The participants were questioned about their happiness several times a day using an app developed by Mr Killingsworth.
Although the survey included participants with incomes above $500,000, the researchers said it was impossible to say definitely that the effect was present for people earning more than this.
“The trend rises steadily up through the top income group [$500,000] in my data, but how much farther it extends is an open question”, he told Bloomberg News. “I am engaged in some work to solve this, but it's not done just yet.”
Day 5, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Given the problems Sri Lanka have had in recent times, it was apt the winning catch was taken by Dinesh Chandimal. He is one of seven different captains Sri Lanka have had in just the past two years. He leads in understated fashion, but by example. His century in the first innings of this series set the shock win in motion.
Stat of the day This was the ninth Test Pakistan have lost in their past 11 matches, a run that started when they lost the final match of their three-Test series against West Indies in Sharjah last year. They have not drawn a match in almost two years and 19 matches, since they were held by England at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi in 2015.
The verdict Mickey Arthur basically acknowledged he had erred by basing Pakistan’s gameplan around three seam bowlers and asking for pitches with plenty of grass in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. Why would Pakistan want to change the method that has treated them so well on these grounds in the past 10 years? It is unlikely Misbah-ul-Haq would have made the same mistake.
if you go
The flights
Fly to Rome with Etihad (www.etihad.ae) or Emirates (www.emirates.com) from Dh2,480 return including taxes. The flight takes six hours. Fly from Rome to Trapani with Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) from Dh420 return including taxes. The flight takes one hour 10 minutes.
The hotels
The author recommends the following hotels for this itinerary. In Trapani, Ai Lumi (www.ailumi.it); in Marsala, Viacolvento (www.viacolventomarsala.it); and in Marsala Del Vallo, the Meliaresort Dimore Storiche (www.meliaresort.it).
RESULT
Manchester United 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1
Man United: Sanchez (24' ), Herrera (62')
Spurs: Alli (11')
About Okadoc
Date started: Okadoc, 2018
Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Healthcare
Size: (employees/revenue) 40 staff; undisclosed revenues recording “double-digit” monthly growth
Funding stage: Series B fundraising round to conclude in February
Investors: Undisclosed
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The fake news generation
288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year
11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
Racecard
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