Status invisibility alleviates the economic gradient in happiness in social network experiments

Economic status is positively associated with subjective well-being (SWB), happiness and mental health, but debate persists about the determinants of SWB in circumstances involving economic inequality. Here we implemented online experiments where subjects interact financially, gain or lose wealth, report their SWB and adjust their social ties with others across time. We assigned 1,289 subjects to be initially rich or poor in 100 networked groups and manipulated wealth visibility in the groups. In the visible wealth condition, we showed subjects the wealth of their immediate neighbours, thereby allowing social comparisons, while in the invisible wealth condition, we kept such information hidden. Results show that invisible wealth condition disproportionally improves the SWB of currently poorer subjects and thus alleviated the economic gradient in SWB. Two phenomena may explain the alleviation observed in the invisible wealth condition: initially rich subjects who become relatively poorer do not experience substantial damage to their SWB, and initially poor subjects who remain poorer may still experience an SWB gain similar to those who become richer.