PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Social comparisons drive income's effect on happiness in states with higher inequality

Social comparisons drive income's effect on happiness in states with higher inequality
2021-04-13
(Press-News.org) CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- In a state with greater income inequality, the happiest place to occupy is not at the pinnacle of the income distribution, as one might think, but somewhere in the middle that provides clear vantage points of people like ourselves, a new study suggests.

According to sociologist Tim Liao of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, it's the ability to compare ourselves with people of similar backgrounds, both people who earn more and others who earn less, that determine how our income affects our happiness - not the absolute amount we earn.

"Contrary to popular belief, more income does not necessarily make people happier. The actual amount a person earns doesn't matter much in terms of happiness," Liao said. "People who can make both upward and downward comparisons - especially with others in the same gender and ethno-racial group - are in the best position as far as their subjective well-being."

In the study, published in the journal Socius, Liao found that in states where incomes were relatively equal, individuals' happiness was affected less by their incomes because their economic positions were less clearly defined, making social comparisons less meaningful.

While there has been significant research on happiness and income inequality, much of that work was based on aggregate-level income inequality and global measures of happiness that did not capture the relationship at the individual level, he said.

Recent research suggests that social comparison theory, the premise that people's self-evaluations are based on their comparisons with others whom they perceive to be better or worse off, might play a key role.

Liao wanted to explore whether people's placement in the income distribution mattered - that is, if those who could conduct these upward and downward social comparisons were happier than outliers who were much more affluent or poorer than their peers.

Since individuals select the people they use as benchmarks for social comparisons, Liao also wanted to investigate which demographic group - gender, ethnicity/race or both of these - was most relevant.

Because no single survey was available that provided data on happiness along with income and demographic characteristics, Liao linked the data from two national surveys, both conducted in 2013, that involved many of the same respondents. Liao's sample included more than 1,900 people.

The 2013 American Time Use Survey was the most recent survey with well-being questions and provided Liao with a measure of each person's happiness. For that study, participants kept a time diary for a single day, rating on a seven-point scale how happy they felt while performing three randomly chosen routine activities. The ratings were added together to achieve a composite score representing each person's happiness level.

"Assessing a person's happiness as they go about their daily activities - a concept social scientists call 'experienced happiness' - may more accurately reflect their overall contentment with life than their responding to survey questions that ask them to rate how happy they are in general subjective terms," Liao said.

Using participants' annual income and demographic data from the Current Population Survey, Liao modeled income inequality at the state and individual levels.

He developed a measure at the individual level by comparing individuals' annual incomes with those of peers within the same gender, ethno-racial and gender/ethno-racial groups in their state.

Liao found that the gender/ethno-racial grouping was the most salient for social comparisons because individuals' inequality scores were more analogous in this array than when they were grouped either by gender or ethnicity/race alone.

In examining links between individuals' inequality scores and happiness within each group, Liao found that individuals with higher inequality scores than their peers also had lower happiness scores.

That is, people whose incomes were significantly higher or lower than their peers - meaning they could only make social comparisons upward or downward rather than in both directions - were less happy overall.

Likewise, Liao found that as income inequality within a state increased, the negative association between one-directional social comparisons and happiness also increased.

Liao said the findings confirm the importance of social comparison theory in research on happiness and income inequality.

And the same analytic method could be applicable in investigations of other social concerns at the individual level, he said, such as the connections between inequality and adverse mental and physical health outcomes.

INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Social comparisons drive income's effect on happiness in states with higher inequality

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Basketball Mathematics scores big at inspiring kids to learn

Basketball Mathematics scores big at inspiring kids to learn
2021-04-13
New study with 756 1st through 5th graders demonstrates that a six-week mashup of hoops and math has a positive effect on their desire to learn more, provides them with an experience of increased self-determination and grows math confidence among youth. The Basketball Mathematics study was conducted at five Danish primary and elementary schools by researchers from the University of Copenhagen's Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports. Over the past decades, there has been a considerable amount of attention paid to explore different approaches to stimulate children's learning. Especially, there has been a focus on how physical activity, separated from the learning activities, can improve children's cognitive performance ...

Scientists identify severe asthma species, show air pollutant as likely contributor

2021-04-13
Asthma afflicts more than 300 million people worldwide. The most severe manifestation, known as non-Th2, or non-atopic childhood asthma, represents the majority of the cases, greater than 85%, particularly in low-income countries, according to Hyunok Choi (https://health.lehigh.edu/faculty/choi-hyunok), an associate professor at the Lehigh University College of Health (https://health.lehigh.edu/). Yet, whether non-Th2 is a distinct disease (or endotype) or simply a unique set of symptoms (or phenotype) remains unknown. "Non-Th2 asthma is associated with very poor prognosis in children and great, life-long suffering due to the absence of effective therapies," says Choi. "There is an urgent need to better understand its mechanistic origin to enable early diagnosis and to stop the progression ...

Rescuing street art from vandals' graffiti

2021-04-13
WASHINGTON, April 13, 2021 -- From Los Angeles and the Lower East Side of New York City to Paris and Penang, street art by famous and not-so-famous artists adorns highways, roads and alleys. In addition to creating social statements, works of beauty and tourist attractions, street art sometimes attracts vandals who add their unwanted graffiti, which is hard to remove without destroying the underlying painting. Now, researchers report novel, environmentally friendly techniques that quickly and safely remove over-paintings on street art. The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2021 is being held online April 5-30. Live sessions will be hosted April 5-16, and on-demand and networking ...

Study links structural brain changes to behavioral problems in children who snore

2021-04-13
WHAT: A large study of children has uncovered evidence that behavioral problems in children who snore may be associated with changes in the structure of their brain's frontal lobe. The findings support early evaluation of children with habitual snoring (snoring three or more nights a week). The research, published in Nature Communications, was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and nine other Institutes, Centers, and Offices of the National Institutes of Health. Large, population-based studies have established a clear link between snoring and behavioral problems, such as inattention or hyperactivity, but the exact nature ...

Ancient ammonoids' shell designs may have aided buoyancy control

Ancient ammonoids shell designs may have aided buoyancy control
2021-04-13
Ammonoids, ancestors of today's octopus, squid and cuttlefish, bobbed and jetted their way through the oceans for around 340 million years beginning long before the age of the dinosaurs. If you look at the fossil shells of ammonoids over the course of that 340 million years, you'll notice something striking--as time goes on, the wavy lines inside the shell become more and more complex, eventually becoming frilled almost like the edges of kale leaves. Fossil of Menuites oralensis with external shell removed to reveal intricate suture patterns. These ...

Habitual snoring linked to significant brain changes in children

2021-04-13
Children who regularly snore have structural changes in their brain that may account for the behavioral problems associated with the condition including lack of focus, hyperactivity, and learning difficulties at school. That is the finding of a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), which was published today in the journal Nature Communications. The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and nine other Institutes, Centers, and Offices of the National Institutes of Health. To conduct study, the researchers examined MRI images collected from more than 10,000 children aged 9 to 10 years enrolled in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development ...

Past Global Changes Horizons - a new paleoscience magazine for teenagers and young adults

Past Global Changes Horizons - a new paleoscience magazine for teenagers and young adults
2021-04-13
Past Global Changes Horizons is a scientific review of why the study of Earth's history is important, and uses comics, pictures, and drawings that support short papers with strong messages about past sciences and how to prepare for a changing future. Articles cover different environments across the planet, from caves to oceans, and from Antarctica to the Rift valley in Africa. Each of the 18 contributions addresses a scientific question and includes appealing and understandable figures or images, without sacrificing scientific rigor. Tips and suggestions for further research and discussion topics are also included, meaning Horizons is ...

Crop rotations with beans and peas offer more sustainable and nutritious food production

2021-04-13
Growing more legumes, like beans and lentils, is potentially a more sustainable and nutritious approach to European agriculture, shows a new study in END ...

Five research-backed steps to a pro-vaccination social media campaign

Five research-backed steps to a pro-vaccination social media campaign
2021-04-13
PITTSBURGH, April 13, 2021 - What can vaccine proponents, clinicians and public health communicators learn from "anti-vaxxers?" A lot, according to new guidance for pro-vaccination social media events written by University of Pittsburgh health scientists. The five-part guidelines, published today in the journal Vaccine, arose from an analysis of a grassroots pro-vaccination campaign organized last year by popular physician and social media personality Zubin Damania, M.D., colloquially known as "ZDoggMD." Unexpectedly, more than three-quarters of the tweets associated with the ...

1 in 4 parents give youth sports low rankings for enforcement of COVID-19 guidelines

1 in 4 parents give youth sports low rankings for enforcement of COVID-19 guidelines
2021-04-13
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- For young athletes, the new normal on soccer fields and basketball courts means temperature checks before practice, wearing masks through games and a sparse in-person fan base. But that hasn't kept children and teens from playing. Close to a fourth of parents say their child has participated in school, travel, or community sports during the fall or winter months, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at the University of Michigan. And while the majority of parents give their child's sports organization high marks for communication about safety protocols, one in four rate their sports ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Global analysis reveals how biochar supercharges composting and cuts greenhouse gases

Blocking a cellular switch could prevent lung-scarring disease

Planet formation depends on when it happens: UNLV model shows why

Deep sleep supports memory via brain fluid and neural rhythms

Biochar and iron additives show promise for reviving degraded peatlands and locking away carbon

Cancer cells reactivate embryo-like gene editors to fuel growth

AI analysis of world’s largest heart attack datasets opens way to new treatment strategies

Decoding dangers of Arctic sea ice with seismic, radar method

Counting bites with AI might one day help prevent childhood obesity

Utah chemists discover enzyme that could help build next-generation GLP-1 drugs

Surprising bacteria discovery links Hawaiʻi’s groundwater to the ocean

New grants for schools offer CPR training and resources to make campuses safer

30 NFL players urge fans to join Nation of Lifesavers, learn lifesaving CPR

Study finds humans outweigh climate in depleting Arizona's water supply

Old-school material could power quantum computing, cut data center energy use

Vanderbilt scientist tackles key roadblock for AI in drug discovery

Overheating bat boxes place bats in mortal danger during heatwaves

Study shows medical-legal partnerships aid recovery for patients with violent injuries

Learning the language of lasso peptides to improve peptide engineering

Social conflict among strongest predictors of teen mental health concerns

New framework can improve the planning stage of surgical quality improvement projects

Research shows anger, not fear, shifts political beliefs

Gale and Ira Drukier Prize in Children’s Health Research awarded to pediatric rheumatologist at Boston Children’s Hospital

UNF chemistry professor awarded NSF Grant to advance laser-based measurement technology

Research shows how Dust Bowl-type drought causes unprecedented productivity loss

Non-hibernating pikas' protein restriction tweaks their gut microbiome to help them survive the winter, when winter-active herbivores often struggle to find dietary protein

Not for hearing but for symbiosis

Disconnected cerebral hemisphere in epilepsy patients shows sleep-like state during wakefulness

Incentivizing risk to inspire investments in clean innovation for aviation

Stinkbug leg organ contains symbiotic fungi to shield eggs from parasitic wasps

[Press-News.org] Social comparisons drive income's effect on happiness in states with higher inequality