Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/301401 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Happiness Studies [ISSN:] 1573-7780 [Volume:] 25 [Article No.:] 83 [Publisher:] Springer [Place:] Heidelberg [Year:] 2024 [Pages:] 1-24
Publisher: 
Springer, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
People use social comparisons to reduce uncertainty when facing new or stressful situations. This study explores how a stressful experience, the COVID-19 pandemic, changed how people compare their income. It relates these changes to subjective well-being (SWB). We use a repeated cross-sectional dataset of students at two German universities from before and during the pandemic. A novel survey instrument is employed to identify individualized reference groups used for income comparison and to analyze whether the comparison pattern changed. Our results reveal that, while there was little change in the size of the reference groups, there was some difference in the group composition. During the pandemic, survey respondents were more likely to select two types of individuals into their reference groups: relatives and people they only knew from social media. Income comparisons were beginning to have a negative association with SWB, while the relation had been positive before the pandemic. Moreover, upward income comparisons increased.
Subjects: 
COVID-19
pandemic
reference group
comparison pattern
subjective well-being
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
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Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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