The Relationship Between Money and Happiness
A study by Professor David Clingingsmith of the Case Western University proves that money can buy happiness at some point. They found out that a person’s income is linked to his or her emotions and views in life. Also, people tend to have lesser negative emotions with increasing salaries.
The Panel Study of Income Dynamics checked on people’s level of negative emotions by asking how frequent they experience negative feelings. Clingingsmith used this data to prove that salary increase can decrease people’s negative emotions. It shows that household income is linked to the emotions of people in a family. Though negative emotions are believed to be linked to lower income, it does not only depend on that. The results are similar to the data from the Gallup Organization in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (GHWBI) which is based on a single person’s income rather than household income. To look into their social and economic situations, a group of people was asked to rate the quality of their lives from 0, meaning the worst possible, to 10, which means the best possible. Some people naturally talk about each other’s lives and salaries so, it does not matter if they get over the negative emotions or not because they will still aim for higher salaries to avoid negative feelings. However, it is not the same for everyone. For example, a salary increase will not affect a very wealthy person’s feelings, but it will have a big effect on a poorer person’s feelings.
People work hard to improve the quality of their lives. They need to figure out the relationship between income and happiness to improve their positive emotions and achieve satisfaction in life.