Money, love, and happiness

I've posted about the relationship between wealth and happiness at least once in the past (see my post, "Money can't buy me love, but can it buy me happiness?").  The current research suggests that there is indeed a positive association between subjective wellbeing (i.e. happiness) and income, though that relationship peaks at a certain level of income, around $75,000-$95,000, depending on the particular study.  In other words, above that income threshold, more money isn't going to make you significantly happier.

With that in mind, I was intrigued by a recent article on CNN.com by Allison Morrow, entitled "We've been wrong about a key contributor to human happiness".  Morrow discusses a recent study (not yet published) by Matt Killingsworth, a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, who found that the so-called "happiness plateau" is actually much higher than previously noted in other studies.  In his latest study (see "Money and Happiness" Extended Evidence Against Satiation"), Killingsworth analyzed a large U.S. database with over 33,000 individuals and found that (1) high net-income individuals were significantly happier than people earning $500,000 per year and (2) the difference in happiness between wealthy and middle-income participants was nearly three times larger than the difference between middle- and lower-income participants.  Killingsworth concluded that the positive association between wealth and happiness continues far above the previously documented income threshold.

There are a couple of really important caveats here.  First, the study has not been published, so it hasn't been subject to peer review (review by other experts in the field to determine if the results of the study are suitable for publication).  While I recognize that the peer review process isn't perfect, I hesitate to make any definitive statements in its absence.  Notably, Killingsworth published similar findings suggesting that happiness continues to rise above the previously identified income thresholds in 2021 ("Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year").  Second, this is only one study among several others that have previously identified an income threshold.  Again, I would expect that Killingsworth would discuss his findings in the context of other research findings in the Discussion section of a published manuscript.  Third, and perhaps most importantly of all, Killingsworth finds that there is a correlation between wealth and happiness, and establishing correlation between two observations isn't the same (it's actually far from it) as finding that one observation caused the other.  Killingsworth admits that there are other things that likely impact happiness, and when asked whether money can buy happiness, he responds, "There isn't one silver bullet - this one secret trick that the doctor is going to tell you is key."