What a fun couple of days in Chicago - enjoyed some great food, friends, and research conversations 🤑 #uic #depaul

Yes, there are going to be situations where joint accounts may not be ideal - we discuss these important caveats in our paper!

For sure - we acknowledge important caveats like these in the paper (which I mention in the article as well).

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, there's nothing more romantic than merging finances! ❤️

Check out my recent interview in the @nytimes.com:
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...

You can find our @jcrnews.bsky.social research here: doi.org/10.1093/jcr/...

(9) We thank our entire review team for constructive feedback throughout the review process + a major league professional sports team and the National Park Service for sharing data.

#ConsumerPsychology #BehavioralResearch #Happiness #Income

(8) This research reveals the flaws in how we think about happiness, human needs, and income. 🧠✨

Bottom line: Perception is not reality!

(7) When we ask people directly, we find that:
✅the priority level assigned to various human needs does NOT systematically vary by income AND
✅ income either has no effect on actual happiness OR the opposite effect such that lower-income consumers report greater happiness.

(6) Here’s the catch: these lay theory-driven inferences are faulty!

(5) This lay belief leads to income-based inferences.

People BELIEVE that low-income consumers do (and should) prioritize their physical needs first, but high-income consumers (who have presumably already fulfilled their physical needs) can prioritize their psychological needs.

(4) We show that people hold a lay belief that human needs must be fulfilled in a linear, step-by-step way.

In other words, people must completely satisfy their lower-level physical needs (food, water) before fulfilling their higher-level psychological needs.

(3) Across a series of different domains, we show that relative to themselves, people expect low-income individuals to enjoy psychological consumption experiences LESS and high-income individuals to enjoy them MORE.

Why?

(2) Does income impact happiness from life’s experiences?💡

We find that people BELIEVE income determines how much people will enjoy “psychological consumption experiences” like visiting a park or attending a comedy show, concert, or sporting event.

New paper alert 🚨

Excited to share that our new paper, "When and Why Consumers (Erroneously) Believe Income Impacts the Enjoyment of Consumption Experiences," has been published in @jcrnews.bsky.social!

Check it out here: tinyurl.com/happyjcr

A quick🧵

No worries - I know how it goes! Thanks for sharing our work 💪🏼

Thanks for posting! We actually find that consumers believe that wealthier people will enjoy these experiences *MORE* than ourselves or lower-income people. And it’s due to which needs we think they do (and should) prioritize.