The Amount and Source of Millionaires' Wealth (Moderately) Predicts Their Happiness

Grant Edward Donnelly; Tianyi  Zheng; Emily  Haisley; Michael I. Norton

Article | Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin | May 2018

The Amount and Source of Millionaires' Wealth (Moderately) Predicts Their Happiness

by Grant Edward Donnelly, Tianyi Zheng, Emily Haisley and Michael I. Norton

Abstract

Two samples of more than 4,000 millionaires reveal two primary findings. First, only at high levels of wealth—in excess of $8 million (Study 1) and $10 million (Study 2)—are wealthier millionaires happier than millionaires with lower levels of wealth, though these differences are modest in magnitude. Second, controlling for total wealth, millionaires who have earned their wealth are moderately happier than those who inherited it. Taken together, these results suggest that, among millionaires, wealth may be likely to pay off in greater happiness only at very high levels of wealth, and when that wealth was earned rather than inherited.

Keywords: happiness; income; money; wealth; well-being; Happiness; Wealth; Money; Attitudes; Situation or Environment;

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Citation:

Donnelly, Grant Edward, Tianyi Zheng, Emily Haisley, and Michael I. Norton. "The Amount and Source of Millionaires' Wealth (Moderately) Predicts Their Happiness." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 44, no. 5 (May 2018): 684–699.

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The Amount and Source of Millionaires' Wealth (Moderately) Predicts Their Happiness

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