The Conversation discussed how winning large sums of money influences people.
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Together with his colleagues, Poudthavi discovered that thosewhoever wins 500 pounds (about 50 thousand rubles) and more, with a high degree of probability, will become self-employed, will begin to be treated in private clinics. Also, such lucky ones are less adhering to the idea of equal opportunities for all, they become more conservative.
That being said, there are quite contradictory studies regarding a person's happiness when winning the lottery.For example, the results of an analysis of data on the health of 16,000 British winners (the average amount of winnings is several thousand pounds) showed that wealth had a significant impact on people's mental health after two years, and it had a positive effect.At the same time, a recent study of 223 people who won an average of $22,500 found no significant association between happiness and a prize.
Also by economists Erik Lindquist, RobertOstling and David Cesarini conducted one of the largest studies to date on the impact of very large winnings on a person’s emotional state – several hundred thousand dollars. During the analysis, scientists studied data on the mental health of more than 2.5 thousand winners in the Swedish lottery with an average prize amount of 106 thousand dollars (7.5 million rubles). It turned out that for five or more years after winning, their overall life satisfaction was higher than that of others (who won less or did not win at all).
At the same time, Nattawood Poudthavi emphasizes,that the parameter “life satisfaction” is a person’s assessment of his own life. Beyond this, there is “perceived well-being,” which refers to the positive emotions we experience on a daily basis. It turned out that the mental health of the winners did not improve much after winning, and they did not experience more positive emotions every day.
Nobel laureates came to similar conclusionsDaniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton Awards. They found that when winning more than 75 thousand dollars (5.3 million rubles), indicators of “evaluative well-being” (life satisfaction, etc.) increase, but “perceived well-being” (“well-being in life”) – No. The second includes happiness and mental health. Also, scientists have not found evidence that winning 100 thousand dollars (7.1 million rubles) significantly increases people’s satisfaction with their health, relationships, housing, neighborhood and society as a whole.