STUDY REVEALS SMALL SOCIETIES WITH THE LEAST MONEY IS THE HAPPIEST

The adage "you can't buy happiness with money" may not always be entirely accurate. Despite the widespread perception that countries with higher incomes are among the happiest on Earth, a recent survey revealed that low-income people living in small towns frequently report feeling just as happy, if not happier, than their high-income counterparts. To compile their data, the scientists in charge of the global survey examined almost 3,000 people at 19 locations located on five continents. 

The question, "All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life on a scale from 0 to 10?" was included by the researchers as a metric for understanding happiness, even though the study's original goal was to investigate how climate change was affecting small-scale communities, many of which were Indigenous.

The stage of obtaining information was extremely difficult. The communities the researchers visited were all isolated, with occasional treks through African grasslands and deserts, South Asian mountains, and South American jungles. The group also conducted interviews with randomly chosen people from more than 100 small villages after translating the surveys into their native tongues.

The researchers arrived at their estimation of income by adding up the value of the household items that the individual had bought since many of the people they interviewed did not have a daily fixed income and frequently depended on their local ecosystems for survival and food. This metric translated into an average daily earnings per person of a few US dollars for many communities. The researchers discovered that many of the respondents felt just as satisfied as those in more developed regions of the world, even though they only made a few dollars a day.

According to Eric Galbraith, one of the lead researchers on the study, some communities even reported "very high levels of satisfaction (above 8 out of 10) that exceeded the national average in many wealthy countries" in the survey. Notably, these results contradict the notion that the happiest nations on Earth are frequently those with the highest incomes. The Easterlin paradox, which states that a rise in society's wealth does not always translate into an increase in society's happiness over time, may help to partially explain this. It's also possible that, in the past, academics have overemphasised the relationship between wealth and happiness, giving the impression that the two variables are closer than they actually are. 

The Cantril ladder method, which the World Happiness Report describes as a method that "asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0," is another question format that is frequently used in studies like this one. On a scale of 0 to 10, they are then asked to rate their own lives as they are right now. However, more recent research has revealed that the Cantril ladder method tends to encourage people to concentrate on their income in comparison to others, which may lead respondents to answer questions about their income rather than their quality of life.

This may help to explain why, although it's not always the case, wealthier countries typically score higher on measures of global happiness.

Ultimately, when it comes to measuring happiness, there might be something even more valuable than money: the significant impact that social relationships have on the lives of many people.

Humans are highly social animals, and as such, they are highly attuned to the security of their place in society and the support that comes from others, according to Galbraith. This is mostly determined by how well one gets along with others and how one evaluates their social status. However, social status and wealth are not always correlated. Furthermore, while many members of the communities we studied live in impoverished conditions, they are not impoverished in the sense that they lack basic necessities, and spending a large portion of their days in close proximity to the natural environment is something that numerous studies have shown to be beneficial to well-being.

Read the full study on PNAS.