It is a query that economists, psychologists and armchair philosophers have grappled with for hundreds of years: Can cash purchase happiness?

Now, new analysis from a Nobel Prize-winning economist and fellow researchers offers a contemporary reply. Cash does seem to spice up happiness — a minimum of for most individuals — as much as earnings of $500,000, based on the brand new paper revealed on this month within the Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences journal. 

That contradicts earlier analysis from one of many economists concerned within the new examine, Daniel Kahneman, who in 2010 revealed an influential examine with fellow Nobel Prize-winner Angus Deaton. The 2010 examine discovered that cash might solely enhance happiness up to a degree — about $75,000 in annual earnings. Past that determine, the researchers concluded, cash had little impression.

That notion that happiness tops out at $75,000 grew to become so standard that Dan Worth, the founding father of bank card processor Gravity Funds, determined in 2015 to spice up the minimal salaries of his staff to $70,000 — chopping his personal wage to take action. The transfer introduced him reward as an innovator and enterprise chief within the course of. (Worth later stepped down after allegations of a sample of abusing girls.)

But new findings counsel that, for most individuals, happiness does enhance with larger earnings — as much as $500,000 a yr. The analysis might have real-world implications for tax insurance policies or compensation methods, co-author Matthew Killingsworth of the College of Pennsylvania stated in an announcement concerning the newest findings.

“Within the easiest phrases, this means that for most individuals bigger incomes are related to better happiness,” Killingsworth famous.

“Adversarial collaboration”

The brand new examine stems from a course of known as “adversarial collaboration,” or when researchers with conflicting findings search to resolve their dispute by way of joint analysis. 

On this case, Kahneman paired up with Killingsworth after the latter’s analysis contradicted his 2010 findings. 

With co-author Barbara Mellers, additionally of the College of Pennsylvania, they ran a brand new experiment, asking 33,391 working U.S. adults with a median family revenue of $85,000 to reply questions on their sense of well-being. 

Their new findings counsel that, for most individuals, happiness does enhance with larger earnings, as much as $500,000 a yr — though members above that revenue have been “fairly uncommon,” offering an absence of complete information for that group, the examine notes.

“Wealthy and depressing”

But there’s a smaller group of individuals for whom larger incomes do not make a lot of a distinction, the researchers discovered. For this “sad group” the connection between happiness and revenue is completely different, with extra cash failing to enhance their sense of well-being as soon as they’ve hit $100,000 in annual earnings, based on the examine.

These folks could also be affected by life occasions that overwhelm any enchancment that cash would possibly convey, the researchers posited. 

“This revenue threshold might signify the purpose past which the miseries that stay aren’t alleviated by excessive revenue,” Kahneman, Killingsworth and Mellers wrote. “Heartbreak, bereavement, and medical despair could also be examples of such miseries.”

Or, as Killingsworth stated within the assertion, “[I]f you are wealthy and depressing, more cash will not assist.”

On the flip facet, there’s a group termed the “happiest 30%,” whose emotions of well-being sharply speed up as soon as they earn over $100,000, the examine discovered.

That does not imply that cash can clear up all one’s issues, Killingsworth stated. And certainly, different analysis into the science of happiness has discovered that different elements of life, from neighborhood to hobbies, has a measurable impression on contentment.

However cash can contribute to a happier life, he added.

“Cash is simply one of many many determinants of happiness,” he stated within the assertion. “Cash just isn’t the key to happiness, however it could possibly in all probability assist a bit.”