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. …
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.
Now consider the
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Which one of the following pairs most accurately describes why the authors of passage A and passage B, respectively, mention the study by Solnick and Hemenway?
to present a view that will be argued against
to present a view for which additional evidence will be provided
Author A doesn’t argue against the study—she uses it as support. She says it illustrates one reason why societies don’t grow happier when they grow richer; what really makes people happy is growing richer relative to the people around them. This is enough to eliminate (A).
Also, author B doesn’t provide additional evidence for the study. (He doesn’t offer extra evidence that people like earning more than those around them.) Rather, what he does is offer an interpretation of the results of the study.
to present a view that will be argued against
to provide evidence for one explanation of a phenomenon
Author A doesn’t argue against the study. She accepts the results of the study, and says that those results help explain why societies don’t grow happier when they grow richer. (What really makes people happy is growing richer relative to the people around them.)
to provide evidence for one explanation of a phenomenon
to present a view for which additional evidence will be provided
This is an accurate description of why author A brings up the study. But author B doesn’t provide additional evidence for the study. (He doesn’t offer extra evidence that people like earning more than those around them.) Rather, what he does is offer an interpretation of the results of the study.
to provide evidence for one explanation of a phenomenon
to introduce the main topic to be discussed
Author A says the study offers one explanation for why societies don’t grow happier when they grow richer; what really makes people happy is growing richer relative to the people around them.
Author B brings up the study to introduce his main topic: an alternative explanation for why, according the study, people like earning more than those around them.
to introduce the main topic to be discussed
to present a view that will be argued against
Author A’s main topic isn’t the Solnick and Hemenway study. Her main topic is the question of why societies don’t grow happier as they grow richer. She just uses the study as part of her answer to that question. This is enough to eliminate (E).
Also, author B doesn’t argue against the study. He accepts the results of the study, but offers an alternative explanation for why the results are what they are.
Answer five questions and we'll estimate your score.
It takes about five minutes.
Take the free diagnostic