ABSTRACT
We examine the importance of perception in the relationship between income and happiness. Using Icelandic data, we show that people’s perception of their economic standing is more telling of their happiness than their actual income. We find a stronger association between happiness and a negative perception of one’s economic standing than happiness and a positive perception.
Acknowledgments
Provision of data from the Directorate of Health in Iceland is gratefully acknowledged, as well as funding from the Icelandic Student Innovation Fund (grant no. 195999-0091), The
Icelandic Research Fund (grant no. 130611-051), and The University of Iceland Research
Fund (grant no. 1600-16203).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).