As for the work of University of Pennsylvania psychologist Matthew Keelingsworth, more than 33,000 working adults in the United States were asked “How do you feel now?” At random times of the day via an app. Outcome 1.7 million individual data: overall life satisfaction as well as daily emotional well-being increased with wages and annual household income of $ 80,000 (€ 66,000). Some researchers previously assumed about $ 75,000 or less, at which point emotional well-being no longer increased. Killingsworth does not place supreme value.
He cites one of the reasons why wealthy people feel they have more control over their lives. Killingsworth sees his more differentiated methodology as the reason the results differ: Test subjects were questioned in real time with a smartphone. Additionally, their emotions have been questioned to a wide extent. “It would have been possible that a better approach generally would have produced the new outcome,” comments sociologist Jan Delhey of the University of Magdeburg. He is cautious about transferring the results to Germany. Society in the United States is much more competitive and materialistic.
