Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism by Christopher Snowdon

Author:Christopher Snowdon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: London Publishing Partnership
Published: 2014-12-19T18:11:38+00:00

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21 It is also a myth that lottery winners are less happy than the general population. The evidence shows that they are typically happier or as happy as non-winners (Brickman et al. 1978; Eckblad and von der Lippe 1994; Kuhn et al. 2008). The belief that lottery winners are miserable probably stems from well-reported examples of winners who get divorced, imprisoned or are declared bankrupt. This myth consoles those who have not won. They nevertheless continue to buy tickets.

22 This finding is routinely misrepresented in both the popular and academic press. The average happiness score of the paraplegics was 2.96 out of five, compared with 4.0 out of five for the lottery winners. The authors argue that these scores are higher and lower (respectively) than might be expected. This is arguably true, although it is rare for people to give very high or very low scores in surveys of this kind. It is certainly not the case, as is often claimed, that the scores were virtually identical. Oswald and Powdthavee (2006) provide stronger evidence that unexpected disability does not greatly reduce life satisfaction in the long term. Smith et al. (2005) add the further observation that disabled people’s well-being declines by less if they have an above-average income.

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