Financial success and the good life: What have we learned from empirical studies in psychology? : Sosophical foundations

Kent Swift, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Journal of Business Ethics

Publication Date

10-1-2007

Abstract

An empirical study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (King, L. A. and C. K. Nappa: 1998, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75(1), 156-165) concludes that people generally believe meaning and happiness are essential elements of the good life, whereas money is relatively unimportant. Yet, the authors also state that although "we do know what it takes to make a good life...we still behave as if we did not." The authors are suggesting that despite a general belief that money is relatively unimportant in creating happiness, many people continue to focus their behaviors on increasing income and wealth. This is the classic conflict between the folk wisdom that money cannot buy happiness, on the one hand, and a continued focus by many people on achieving material success on the other. The issue is of particular importance to business professionals, not only because profit maximization is the central focus of business, but also because college students often pursue business as a profession for the express purpose of maximizing personal income and wealth. In the business world a focus on personal financial success is the norm. Wealth and income are honored. The purpose of this article is to critically analyze psychological studies comparing happiness and financial success. The results are then contrasted with philosophical wisdom and religious writings comparing happiness and money. The intent is to determine whether psychological studies provide incremental insights into the connection between financial success and happiness. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

ISSN

0167-4544

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Volume

75

Issue

2

First Page

191

Last Page

199

Disciplines

Business

Keywords

Financial success, Happiness, Materialism, Well-being

Scopus ID

34548674506

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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