The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Can money buy happiness? Scientists say it can.

March 8, 2023 at 10:04 a.m. EST
(Extreme-Photographer/Getty Images)
4 min

It’s a question that philosophers, economists and social scientists have grappled with for decades: Can money buy happiness?

For most people in the United States, the answer is, seemingly, yes.

Two prominent researchers, Daniel Kahneman and Matthew Killingsworth, came to this conclusion in a joint study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, overturning the dominant thinking that people are generally happier as they earn more, with their joy leveling out when their income hits $75,000.