Income and Emotional Well-Being: A Conflict Resolved
Matthew A. Killingsworth, Daniel Kahneman, Barbara Mellers
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2023
Abstract
An adversarial collaboration that reconciles Kahneman & Deaton's (2010) $75,000 plateau with Killingsworth's (2021) finding of well-being rising indefinitely with income, testing both hypotheses on the same data.
Methodology
Joint re-analysis of large-scale experience-sampling data using pre-registered tests, examining how the income–well-being relationship differs across the distribution of happiness.
Findings
For most people, emotional well-being continues to rise with income well beyond prior thresholds; the earlier plateau appears only for an unhappy minority, whose well-being flattens once income relieves the misery associated with low income. Both prior results were partly right, applying to different subpopulations.
Applied nudge
Segment before generalizing: the income–happiness link differs across groups, so 'money stops mattering' is false for most and true for a minority—tailor well-being interventions to the subgroup, not the average.
Citation
Killingsworth, M. A., Kahneman, D., & Mellers, B. (2023). Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved. PNAS, 120(10), e2208661120.
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