Income Reliably Predicts Daily Sadness, but Not Happiness: A Replication and Extension of Kushlev, Dunn, and Lucas (2015)
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Kushlev, Dunn, and Lucas (2015) found that income predicts less daily sadness—but not greater happiness—among Americans. The present study used longitudinal data from an approximately representative German sample to replicate and extend these findings. Our results largely replicated Kushlev et al.’s results: Income predicted less daily sadness (albeit with a smaller effect size) but was unrelated to happiness. Moreover, the association between income and sadness could not be explained by demographics, stress, or daily time use. Extending Kushlev et al.’s findings, new analyses indicated that only between-persons variance in income (but not within-persons variance) predicted daily sadness—perhaps because there was relatively little within-persons variance in income. Finally, income predicted less daily sadness and worry, but not less anger or frustration—potentially suggesting that income predicts less “internalizing” but not less “externalizing” negative emotions. Together, our study and Kushlev et al.’s study provide evidence that income robustly predicts select daily negative emotions—but not positive ones.
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Just a handful of studies have examined the relationship between income and experienced well-being.
“By contrast, just a handful of studies have examined the relationship between income and experienced well-being (11–14), which is how good or bad a person feels during the moments of their life.”
From Experienced well-being rises with income, even above $75,000 per year (2021) · cites this paper as [14]
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- Authors
- Hudson, N. W., Lucas, R. E., Donnellan, M. B., & Kushlev, K.
- Affiliations
- Michigan State University (US)
- Texas A&M University (US)
- University of Virginia (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hudson, Nathan W.
- Venue
- Social Psychological and Personality Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-07-09
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 828-836
- ISSN
- 1948-5506 (ISSN-L)
- 1948-5514
- PMC
- PMC5728426
- OpenAlex
- W2461153924
- Cited by
- 32
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 7.26
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Social Psychological and Personality Science (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (R01AG040715)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Employment and Welfare Studies
- Keywords
- income, happiness, negative emotions, worry, replication
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