March 11, 2021

In “Income Robustly Predicts Self-Regard Emotions” (Emotions, 2021), Associate Professor Eddie Tong (NUS Department of Psychology) and his co-researchers found that income was a directly proportionate indicator of greater positive self-regard emotions and lower negative self-regard emotions. The relationship between income and other-regard emotions (feelings we have for other people), however, was less strong and not as easy to identify. In addition, income was just as successful as an indicator even after ten years, as the longitudinal study reflected. The mediating factor between income, positive, and negative self-regard emotions was also revealed to be a sense of control.

Using three groups of studies that included three cross-sectional East Asian samples (Study 1), a longitudinal 10-year American dataset (Study 2), and data from 162 nations from the Gallup World Poll (GWP) (Study 3), Assoc Prof Tong examined positive and negative emotions in both the emotional spheres of self-regard and other-regard emotions. In what ScienceDaily called “the most comprehensive analyses to date”, the research  included both an independent analysis and meta-analyses of at least 1.6 million people from 162 countries, examining emotions that people feel about themselves, such as pride or gratitude, and feelings that individuals had about others such as love, anger, or compassion. Unlike the more correlational data between income and self-regard emotions, there was less of a relational link between income and feelings for other people. Assoc Prof Tong also noted that being more affluent did not necessarily make a person more caring or thankful, and thus greater prosperity would not inevitably lead to a more considerate and humane society. Since the study was correlational, it also could not conclusively prove that income was a cause of such emotions or if it solely reflected a link between them.

Assoc Prof Tong concluded that demand-side policies focused on income expansion, and stimulating the economy, would plausibly benefit emotional well-being for individuals, but it was not a definite contributor to emotional cohesiveness for the society.

Read “Income Robustly Predicts Self-Regard Emotions” in Emotion here.

Read “Higher income predicts feelings such as pride and confidence” in ScienceDaily here.