Relative payoffs and happiness: An experimental study

Gary Charness and Brit Grosskopf

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: Some current utility models presume that people are concerned with their relative standing in a reference group. If this is true, do certain types care more about this than others? Using simple binary decisions and self-reported happiness, we investigate both the prevalence of ``difference aversion'' and whether happiness levels influence the taste for social comparisons. Our decision tasks distinguish between a person’s desire to achieving the social optimum, equality or advantageous relative standing. Most people appear to disregard relative payoffs, instead typically making choices resulting in higher social payoffs. While we do not find a strong general correlation between happiness and concern for relative payoffs, we do observe that a willingness to lower another person’s payoff below one’s own (competitive preferences) seems correlated with unhappiness.

Keywords: Happiness; relative payoffs; social preferences; subjective well-being; Leex (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 A13 B49 C91 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999-08, Revised 2000-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Relative payoffs and happiness: an experimental study (2001)
Working Paper: RELATIVE PAYOFFS AND HAPPINESS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY (2000)
Working Paper: Relative Payoffs and Happiness: An Experimental Study (2000)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:upf:upfgen:436

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