China: money isn’t buying happiness
April 27th, 2008 by Jim JustPsychological research on the happiness of societies predicts that money has the biggest positive effect on happiness among the poor. When you’re already relatively well-off, more money makes less difference.
A new study to be published in the Journal of Happiness Studies highlights a striking paradox. As the Chinese are becoming richer, they’re becoming more unhappy.
Between 1990 and 2000 millions of Chinese were pulled up out of poverty. In ten years the average rural wage in China more than tripled, while in urban areas it quadrupled.
Yet happiness hasn’t increased as expected. In 1990 28% of Chinese people described themselves as very happy, but by 2000 this figure had dropped to 12%. When asked about their satisfaction with life, the story was the same: in 1990 the average was 7.3 (out of 10), but by 2000 it had dropped to 6.5. This drop was seen across rural and urban China and in almost every income bracket.
What explains the Chinese experience of decreasing happiness and life satisfaction alongside so many being released from poverty? The answer could be the increasing disparity between rich and poor. In China, like many other societies around the world, the rich have accelerated away from the mean income level rapidly, leaving the rest of society looking on jealously. It’s just that in China it has happened very quickly and so the results are particularly pronounced.
While many Chinese are getting richer in absolute terms, they are not getting richer in relative terms; on the contrary, relatively they feel poorer. As average income levels are pulled higher by the small minority of rich and super-rich, more and more people feel poorer in comparison. As a result they feel less satisfied with life and less happy.