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Dufhues, Thomas, Möllers, Judith, Jantsch, Antje, Buchenrieder, Gertrud and Camfield, Laura 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0165-9857
(2023)
Don’t Look Up! Individual income comparisons and subjective well-being of students in Thailand.
Journal of Happiness Studies, 24 (2).
477–503.
ISSN 1389-4978
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Abstract
Empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that an individual’s position in an income stratum—more than the absolute income level—determines subjective well-being. However, studies on subjective well-being suffer from a critical methodological weakness: they use exogenously defined reference groups. Our study addresses this point by applying an innovative new survey instrument. We ask respondents to identify individual reference persons for income comparisons. We find that these reference persons come from a range of social groups. Interactions between personality traits and the direction of income comparisons lead to different levels of subjective well-being. This highlights the importance of collecting information on personality traits in research on subjective well-being. We conclude that questions about self-defined individual income comparisons can be a valuable and straightforward addition to future surveys.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Acknowledgements: This article is a contribution to the project: ‘Perceptions of inequality through social comparisons and transference on subjective wellbeing: a micro perspective on reference groups’ funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (BU1319/22-1, MO1763/8-1). Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | income comparisons,reference groups,subjective well-being,social sciences (miscellaneous) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3301 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development) |
| UEA Research Groups: | University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Gender and Development Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Impact Evaluation Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Life Course, Migration and Wellbeing |
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| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Dec 2022 11:31 |
| Last Modified: | 02 May 2024 00:02 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/90319 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10902-022-00604-4 |
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