Those who compare to friends and family most affected: study
Comparing one’s income to what friends and family make can lead to unhappiness, according to a new study analyzing data from a European survey of 19,000 people in 24 countries. Three-quarters of respondents thought it was important to compare their incomes with others, but those who did seemed less content, especially if they looked at friends and family instead of work colleagues. The poor were most affected, according to the researchers from the Paris School of Economics. The greater the importance people attached to such comparisons, the lower they ranked themselves in terms of life satisfaction, standard of living, and feeling depressed.