Global happiness levels in 2021
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Mapped: Global Happiness Levels in 2021
Easterlin defends his paradox
The crux of the Paradox is this: There is no positive correlation between the happiness trends and those in income.
[…] The starting point for understanding the Paradox is the discovery by psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman that when people evaluate a particular circumstance they have in mind a reference level, an internal benchmark against which they judge the situation (Tversky and Kahneman 1991). In many cases this benchmark is established by social comparison, that is, by the situation of others.
[Therefore] the principal reason for the contradiction [of the Easterlin paradox] is social comparison. At a point in time those with higher income are happier because they are comparing their income to that of others who are less fortunate, and conversely for those with lower income. Over time, however, as incomes rise throughout the population, the incomes of one’s comparison group rise along with one’s own income and vitiates the otherwise positive effect of own-income growth on happiness. Critics of the Paradox mistakenly present the positive relation of happiness to income in cross-section data or in short-term time fluctuations as contradicting the nil relation of long-term trends.
The Easterlin Paradox
Authors: Richard A. Easterlin, Kelsey J. O’Connor
From: University of Southern California, STATEC Research
