Does wealth make you happy? It’s an old question, but always relevant. Before
1945 no one had TV, computers or mobile phones. Are we happier now that we have
them? Edited by Ed Diener and Eunkook Suh, Culture and Subjective Well-Being
(MIT Press, $45, ISBN 0262041820) has some fascinating answers to this
and similarly piercing questions. For example, while the perceived inequality of
incomes is an important factor, if you are poor you may feel worse about it if
you are in a rich country than in a poor one. Curiously, the poorest of some
societies with huge rich-poor divides,…
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Space
The best sci-fi novel in 2026 so far – plus 6 other great reads
Culture
Life
The 17 best popular science books of 2026 so far
Culture
Life
Our verdict on The Selfish Gene: An unpopular piece of popular science
Culture
Comment
Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is still supremely relevant today
Culture
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles
1
If you aren't terrified by this heatwave, you should be
2
Woman with Alzheimer's starts conversing again after taking psilocybin
3
The race to understand how and when Thwaites glacier will collapse
4
Lost books by ancient philosophers recovered from 'unreadable' scrolls
5
How menopause radically changes the brain – and what happens after
6
Our verdict on The Selfish Gene: An unpopular piece of popular science
7
You should turn off fans when it's too hot – but how hot is too hot?
8
Phages could enable us to hijack vaccine immunity to kill cancer cells
9
We’ve uncovered a master gene that switches on human development
10
The best sci-fi novel in 2026 so far – plus 6 other great reads
