Jenny Olson

What a fun couple of days in Chicago - enjoyed some great food, friends, and research conversations 🤑 #uic #depaul

Yes, there are going to be situations where joint accounts may not be ideal - we discuss these important caveats in our paper!

For sure - we acknowledge important caveats like these in the paper (which I mention in the article as well).

Sharing Bank Accounts Can Deepen a Couple’s Relationship (Gift Article) Fewer couples are combining their bank accounts. But that trend may not promote partners’ overall financial health, experts say.

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, there's nothing more romantic than merging finances! ❤️

Check out my recent interview in the @nytimes.com:
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/09/b...

You can find our @jcrnews.bsky.social research here: doi.org/10.1093/jcr/...

(9) We thank our entire review team for constructive feedback throughout the review process + a major league professional sports team and the National Park Service for sharing data.

#ConsumerPsychology #BehavioralResearch #Happiness #Income

(8) This research reveals the flaws in how we think about happiness, human needs, and income. 🧠✨

Bottom line: Perception is not reality!

(7) When we ask people directly, we find that:
✅the priority level assigned to various human needs does NOT systematically vary by income AND
✅ income either has no effect on actual happiness OR the opposite effect such that lower-income consumers report greater happiness.

(6) Here’s the catch: these lay theory-driven inferences are faulty!

(5) This lay belief leads to income-based inferences.

People BELIEVE that low-income consumers do (and should) prioritize their physical needs first, but high-income consumers (who have presumably already fulfilled their physical needs) can prioritize their psychological needs.

(4) We show that people hold a lay belief that human needs must be fulfilled in a linear, step-by-step way.

In other words, people must completely satisfy their lower-level physical needs (food, water) before fulfilling their higher-level psychological needs.

(3) Across a series of different domains, we show that relative to themselves, people expect low-income individuals to enjoy psychological consumption experiences LESS and high-income individuals to enjoy them MORE.

Why?

(2) Does income impact happiness from life’s experiences?💡

We find that people BELIEVE income determines how much people will enjoy “psychological consumption experiences” like visiting a park or attending a comedy show, concert, or sporting event.

New paper alert 🚨

Excited to share that our new paper, "When and Why Consumers (Erroneously) Believe Income Impacts the Enjoyment of Consumption Experiences," has been published in @jcrnews.bsky.social!

Check it out here: tinyurl.com/happyjcr

A quick🧵

No worries - I know how it goes! Thanks for sharing our work 💪🏼

Thanks for posting! We actually find that consumers believe that wealthier people will enjoy these experiences *MORE* than ourselves or lower-income people. And it’s due to which needs we think they do (and should) prioritize.