Relative strength really is everywhere! If you don’t believe us, take a look at the Wealth Report at the Wall Street Journal. They discuss research from professors who were puzzling over the fact that people tended not to be any happier even though they were making more money, although generally money tends to enhance happiness. Why did that happen?
…the researchers decided to dig deeper into what is called the “reference-income hypothesis,” a fancy way of saying that wealth is relative. If an entire country gets richer at the same time, individuals wouldn’t necessarily feel wealthier, since their relative positions in society hadn’t changed.
It turns out that your happiness hinges much more on your relative position than on your absolute position on the income scale. This explains how you can be miserable even on a high income if your idiot brother-in-law makes more money than you. The people in your comparison set are what counts.
…[researchers] found that the person’s rank within the comparison set was a stronger predictor of happiness than absolute wealth. “If absolute income matters, as we increased our income, everybody should get happier at a national level, but we don’t seem to,” Mr. Boyce said. “So what we are showing is that in terms of life satisfaction, rank is a better predictor than absolute wealth.”
Source: www.despair.com
Posted by Mike Moody 
