In the journal Psychological Bulletin, researchers described an association between people’s subjective socioeconomic status – how they perceive their own income, education, and occupation standing in comparison with others – happiness. They found that comparison is key to money's link to happiness, contradicting decades of research showing a weak relationship between money and happiness, particularly in wealthy society. Study leader SMU Assistant Professor of Psychology Jacinth Tan points out that social comparison can lead to unhappiness when a person determines their status compares less favourably to others. “Our findings also suggest that improving from past levels of material resources alone is insufficient for increasing happiness. Even if people today are earning higher wages or attaining higher educational levels than their parents or compared to 10 years ago, there is going to be limited impact on their happiness if they are not doing at least as well as, if not better than others at the present. In people’s minds, social mobility is not simply the ability to ascend one’s own socioeconomic ladder, but also to ascend the ladder of the broader, collective society,” Assistant Prof Tan explained.
