When It Comes to Wealth, There's No 'Happiness Plateau'

"Does money buy happiness?" is one of our most-asked existential questions, and not only does Matt Killingsworth believe the answer is a resounding "yes"—he says the more you have, the happier you may be. According to new research by the senior fellow at UPenn's Wharton School, there apparently is no "happiness plateau," or point at which "more money is no longer associated with greater happiness," per the Guardian. Killingsworth and his team administered a life satisfaction survey to more than 33,000 US adults between the ages of 18 and 65 with annual incomes of at least $10,000, and the researchers first found that the so-called happiness gap between affluent and middle-income participants—those with an average annual income of between $70,000 and $80,000—was larger than that between middle- and low-income subjects.

Not only that, but the scientists busted a long-held assumption that once people attain enough money to be comfortable, their happiness flatlines. Instead, millionaires and billionaires were found to be "substantially and statistically significantly happier than people earning over $500,000 each year," per the Guardian, which notes that these findings refute a high-profile 2010 study that found a happiness plateau takes hold with people who reach an income of $75,000. "The results [of this new study] suggest that the positive association between money and well-being continues far up the economic ladder," Killingsworth says, per Bloomberg.

Killingsworth regularly studies happiness, including via his trackyourhappiness.org research project. He was able to put together this most recent non-peer-reviewed study thanks to data from the super-rich (ie, folks who have a median net worth of between $3 million and $8 million), which isn't often easily accessible. As for what's the underlying driver in the cash-happiness relationship, Killingsworth doesn't think it's material items themselves that make rich people happy. "A greater feeling of control over life can explain about 75% of the association between money and happiness," he says, per the Guardian. "When people have more money, they have more control over their lives. More freedom to live the life they want to live." (More discoveries stories.)