https://happiness-science.org/ Recent content on Happiness Science Hugo en Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:10:42 +0000 https://happiness-science.org/income-happiness-situation/ Thu, 13 Nov 2025 05:00:00 +0000 https://happiness-science.org/income-happiness-situation/ Abstract People with larger incomes tend to be happier, but when in daily life does that extra happiness actually appear? Based on over 1.8 million real-time observations from 29,138 employed adults from the U.S., this report presents, to my knowledge, the first analysis of how personal income (not household income) is related to happiness measured with experience sampling. The results reveal a striking asymmetry: compared to lower earners, people with larger personal incomes were happier during virtually every activity except work, the single activity people reported most often. https://happiness-science.org/price-of-happiness/ Thu, 03 Oct 2024 04:00:00 +0000 https://happiness-science.org/price-of-happiness/ Abstract People typically think about money in raw units such as dollars. Yet research on money and happiness typically examines the association between happiness and the logarithm of income, or Log(income). This logarithmic association between income and happiness is frequently either overlooked or misunderstood. To help address this, the present report examines this association and makes five key points. First, in a large U.S. sample, the shape of the association between happiness and Log(income) was extremely systematic: from $10,000/y to over $500,000/y, average happiness rose almost perfectly linearly with Log(income), with group-level correlations of 0. https://happiness-science.org/money-happiness-satiation/ Wed, 17 Jul 2024 04:00:00 +0000 https://happiness-science.org/money-happiness-satiation/ Abstract Is there a point beyond which more money is no longer associated with greater happiness? In recent research, I found that happiness rose steadily at least up through incomes of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. But what happens beyond that – does happiness plateau, decline, or continue rising? To find out, I compare happiness from a large U.S. sample with diverse incomes (N = 33,269) to the happiness of two high net-worth samples (N = 49, N = 2,129) using a nearly identical happiness measure. https://happiness-science.org/about/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://happiness-science.org/about/ Welcome! I’m delighted to share this resource with you. For many years, I’ve devoted myself to the large-scale, scientific study of human happiness. Now, I’ve decided to share the latest research findings here, in an accessible online format. I hope you find it interesting. About Dr. Killingsworth Dr. Matt Killingsworth studies the nature and causes of human happiness. He is the founder and director of trackyourhappiness.org, a large-scale project that uses smartphones to measure real-time happiness in people around the world. https://happiness-science.org/research/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://happiness-science.org/research/ Updates from Dr. Matt Killingsworth To be notified when new scientific findings are released, and receive occasional notes on related happiness research and tools, enter your email below. https://happiness-science.org/privacy-policy/ Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000 https://happiness-science.org/privacy-policy/ We take your privacy seriously. When you sign up for email updates and/or the research waitlist, we collect your email address solely to send you updates, research findings, and other content relevant to our work. By providing your email, you consent to receiving these emails from us. We do not share your email with third parties, except for service providers who assist us in managing user data, developing our software, and sending email to you.