High status for all? Cheating the zero-sum mechanism of happiness

Igor Galochkin ()

Microeconomics from EconWPA

Abstract: We state the following hypotheses: 1) Happiness depends on social rank – a term from primatology meaning the place in group hierarchy which determines mating chances, number of offspring and food share; this dependence explains the correlation between relative income and subjective well-being in humans. 2) There are mechanisms of cheating the ranks, which boost happiness of all. 3) Intelligence is a happiness- boosting tool, which should be more developed by low-rank individuals. We report the results of a series of queries, which support hypotheses 1) and 2) and leave 3) unclear.

Keywords: subjective well-being; happiness; social rank; relative income; intelligence; zero-sum; utility; sexual success; leadership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 D2 D3 D4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-mic
Date: 2005-01-03
Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 9

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wpa:wuwpmi:0501001

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