[GROOVING SESSION] Does Money Really Make You Happy? The Research with Johannes Haushofer

Aug 1, 2021

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Kurt and Tim discuss the links between poverty and mental health, how higher income is linked to better well-being, and the idea of a Universal Basic Income. This is a free-flowing discussion delving into the insights from their most recent interview with Johannes Haushofer (episode #244), Assistant Professor of Economics at Stockholm University. While you are welcome to listen to this episode as a stand-alone, we recommend you download our interview with Johannes first before joining us here.

Topics You Will Learn About:

Higher income being related to better well-being.
The effects of poverty on cognitive function, creativity, stress, health and long-term outcome decisions.
Universal Basic Income; the behavior changes it could induce.
The replication crisis of research studies in psychology.
The value of Johannes studying poverty outside of WEIRD countries.

“So there was a pretty strong relationship between income and happiness, both within and across countries. Rich people are happier than poor people within the same country. But also richer countries, on average, are happier than poor countries.” ~ Johannes Haushofer quote from Behavioral Grooves podcast interview.

If you are a regular listener to Behavioral Grooves, please consider donating to our work through Patreon https://www.patreon.com/behavioralgrooves. We also love reading your reviews on the podcast, which gives other listeners social proof that we’re worth listening to!

Links

Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, “Subjective Well-Being and Income: Is There Any Evidence of Satiation?”: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.103.3.598

Episode 155: John Bargh: Dante, Coffee and the Unconscious Mind: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/john-bargh-dante-coffee-and-the-unconscious-mind/

Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Nairobi, Kenya: https://busaracenter.org

Episode 202: How Chaning Jang Works Around Not Being WEIRD: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/how-chaning-jang-works-around-not-being-weird/

Honesty Tea: https://www.honesttea.com/our-story

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz “Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are”: https://amzn.to/32ULlgD

Kurt and Tim mention our interview with Richard Nesbitt, which will be released on 8/29/21!

Behavioral Grooves Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/behavioralgrooves