Which Social Comparisons Influence Happiness with Unequal Pay?

We examine which social comparisons most affect happiness with pay that is unequally distributed (e.g., salaries and bonuses). We find that ensemble representation – attention to statistical properties of distributions such as their range and mean –– makes the proximal extreme (i.e., the maximum or minimum) and distribution mean salient social comparison standards. Happiness with a salary or bonus is more affected by how it compares to the...