Are you more interested in other people's pay packets than your own? Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty
How rational are you when it comes to money? A piece published in the LA Times suggests we have some funny ideas when it comes to cash. It recalls a series of experiments which seem to show that rather than just being concerned with the pound in our own pockets, we are looking over our shoulder to see what other people are getting.
One of the pieces of research the author cites suggests that people would rather earn $50,000 (£25,000) a year while everyone else is earning $25,000 than earn $100,000 while everyone else earns $250,000. On the face of it this sounds crazy, and seems to back up research done last year which showed men were happiest with their pay rises if they got more than their colleagues.
But is it really that daft? After all, despite researchers asking their guinea pigs to imagine that the cost of goods and services would remain the same, regardless of what they earn, is that really likely? If everyone else is earning more than you, the cost of living - or the level of it - is likely to rise. This is a point made by Doug4.7, posting on snopes.com.
Posting on RichardDawkins.net, kraut says:
I guess the attitude is ingrained in a society based on greed and money as a status symbol and the sole measure of success. Rather earn twice the average than less than halve what the biggest earners make, even if the latter gives you more freedom from monetary concerns.
But 42nd picks up on the idea that our attitude to money is something that has evolutionary roots, saying
This behavior is perfectly rational if a person wants prestige i.e. to be better than others, which is very important when it comes to mating, which is pretty much the meaning of life (at least from a genetic perspective). So wanting to be better off than others instead of being better off in absolute terms is not irrational in the same way as, say, believing in ghosts.
So what do you think - is valuing relative wealth above absolute wealth irrational, or the height of common sense?
