Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2009
Abstract:
The authors argue that the strength of the relationship between income and happiness can be influenced by exposure to organizational practices, such as being paid by the hour, that promote an economic evaluation of time use. Using cross-sectional data from the United States, two studies found that income was more strongly associated with happiness for individuals paid by the hour compared to their non-hourly counterparts. Using panel data from the United Kingdom, Study 3 replicated these results for a multi-item General Health Questionnaire measure of subjective well-being. Study 4 showed that experimentally manipulating the salience of someone’s hourly wage rate caused non-hourly paid participants to evince a stronger connection between income and happiness, similar to those participants paid by the hour. Although there were highly consistent results across multiple studies employing multiple methods, overall the effect size was not large.
Published in
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume
Volume: 35 (12):1602-1618
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167209346304
Subjects
Notes
Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*
#512941