PrepTest 141 - Section 3 - Passage 3 - Question 17

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Passage A

Research concerning happiness and wealth reveals a paradox: at any one time richer people report higher levels of happiness than poorer people in the same society report, and yet over time advanced societies have not grown happier as they have grown richer. …

Phenomenon · People are richer now, but not happier

Apparently, people are comparing their income with some norm, and that norm must be rising along with actual income. Two phenomena—habituation and rivalry—push up the norm.

Hypothesis · Habituation and rivalry cause increases the norm against which people compare their income

When our living standards increase, we love it initially but then we adjust and it makes little difference. For example, if we ask people with different incomes what income they consider sufficient, the "required income" correlates strongly with their actual income: a rise in actual income causes a roughly equivalent rise in required income. We can also look at reported happiness over time. Job satisfaction depends little on the absolute level of wages but rises if wages rapidly increase.

We do not have the same experience with other aspects of our lives. We do not foresee how we adjust to material possessions, so we overinvest in acquiring them, at the expense of leisure.

Habituation · We adjust to higher incomes and require more

Studies show that a rise in actual income causes an equivalent rise in the income that people say is enough.

Now consider the phenomenon of rivalry. In a study conducted by Solnick and Hemenway, people were asked to choose between two options, with all prices held constant:.

A. You earn $50,000 a year while everyone else earns $25,000;.

B. You earn $100,000 a year while others make $200,000.

The majority chose the first. They were happy to be poorer, provided their relative position improved.

And indeed, how people compare to their "reference group"—those most like them—is crucial for happiness. In East Germany, for example, living standards have soared since 1990, but the level of happiness has plummeted because people now compare themselves with West Germans, rather than with people in other Soviet bloc countries.

Rivalry · People compare themselves to others

Study by S and H show people prefer being richer than their reference group compared to poorer, even if their absolute income is higher when they're poorer than their reference group. So, people aren't getting happier despite earning more, because their reference group is also earning more.

Passage B

Does the Solnick and Hemenway study mean that we care most about one-upmanship? Perhaps out of our primeval past comes the urge to demonstrate our superiority in order to help ensure mating prospects, keeping our genetic lines going. Still programmed like this, we get unexplainable pleasure from having a bigger house than our neighbors.

P10

This theory may sound good and is commonly heard, but it is not the explanation best supported by the evidence. Rather, the data show that earning more makes people happier because relative prosperity makes them feel that they are successful, that they have created value.

Question · Does S and H study show that we like winning over our neighbors?

P11

If two people feel equally successful, they will be equally happy even if their incomes differ greatly. Of course, people who earn more generally view themselves as successful. But it is the success—not the money per se—that provides the happiness. We use material wealth to show not just that we are prosperous, but that we are prosperous because we create value.

Answer · Real explanation is that relative prosperity makes people feel they've created value

So, the rivalry explanation is not the best supported.

P12

What scholars often portray as an ignoble tendency—wanting to have more than others—is really evidence of a desire to create value. Wanting to create value benefits society. It is a bonus that it also brings happiness.

Elaborate on answer · Happiness is based on feeling of contributing value

People who earn more are happier, but it's because the higher income makes them feel like they contribute more value. People aren't happier because they're beating other people.

Passage Style

17.

The author of passage B would be most likely to regard the conclusion that the Solnick and Hemenway study points to the existence of a "phenomenon of rivalry" (first sentence of the fourth paragraph of passage A) as

Question Type

Author’s attitude

Implied

This question asks about author B’s attitude toward a conclusion reached by author A, so we can’t use the split approach here. We need to answer this one after reading passage B. Author A says the Solnick and Hemenway study points to a “phenomenon of rivalry” because it shows that people don’t actually want to be richer; they just want to make more than other people. Author B’s attitude toward this is revealed in P12. He doesn’t think people are competing to make more than each other; he thinks people just want to know they’re creating value. So his attitude toward author A’s conclusion is one of disagreement.

ungenerous in its view of human nature and mistaken in its interpretation of the evidence

Strongly supported by P10 and P12. Author B argues that to view the Solnick and Hemenway study as evidence of rivalry is to take an “ignoble” (i.e., ungenerous) view of human nature. He also argues that it’s the wrong conclusion, and that the study is really evidence that people want to create value for society.

54%

flattering in its implications about human nature but only weakly supported by the available evidence

Anti-supported. Author B argues that to view the Solnick and Hemenway study as evidence of rivalry is to take an “ignoble” (i.e., unflattering) view of human nature.

10%

plausible in its account of human nature but based largely upon ambiguous evidence

Ant-supported. Author B argues that to view Solnick and Hemenway study as evidence of rivalry is to incorrectly take an “ignoble” view of human nature. He also never suggests that basing a conclusion on their study means basing it on “ambiguous” evidence. He accepts the results of the study itself without critique, but says those results support a different, non-rivalry-related conclusion.

16%

unflattering in its implications about human nature but more or less valid in the conclusions drawn from the evidence

Anti-supported. Author B argues against author A’s conclusion that the Solnick and Hemenway study points to rivalry and one-upmanship. He says the study actually points to a desire to create value for society.

13%

accurate concerning human nature and strongly supported by the evidence

Anti-supported. Author B argues that to view Solnick and Hemenway study as evidence of rivalry is to incorrectly take an “ignoble” view of human nature. He says that the study instead serves as evidence that people want to create value for society.

PrepTest 141 - Section 3 - Passage 3 - Question 17

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