Bailey Porter

SOC 101-011
Dr. Mohammad Zannoun
10/25/14

Social Comparisons and Life Satisfaction Across Racial

and Ethnic Groups: The Effects of Status, Information
and Solidarity

Purpose

The purpose of this article was to determine the role of life satisfaction in different racial
and ethnic groups within the United States. For Whites, it is believed that a high level of income
will result in a lower level of life satisfaction. However, for Blacks, it is believed that a high
level of income will result in a higher level of life satisfaction. The hypothesis for this
experiment was that solidarity, rather than information, accounts for the positive relationship
between average black income and the subjective wellbeing of United States Blacks.

Happiness depends on ones condition. The Easterlin Paradox, which was created by
economist Richard Easterlin, stated that there is a connection between a high level of income and
a high level of life satisfaction. However, in the long term, a high level of income does not result

in an increase in levels of life satisfaction. In order to understand the relationship between

general social comparisons and group-specific social comparisons, one must consider the
observational specifications. This means that a persons level of life satisfaction will be
dependent upon how they are faring in relation to others within their race or ethnic group. This is
very prominent in the United States, as race and ethnicity can be directly connected with income.

Data Collection

The data for this article was taken from five waves, or years, of the Behavioral Risk
Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which is the worlds largest telephone health survey
conducted by the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC). This survey has been conducted every
year since it was created in 1984, but this study used five years of data from the year 2005 to
2009. The BRFSS asks a wide range of questions, from the persons age, race, income, and
employment to health risk behaviors and health practices. However, in the 2005, the BRFSS
started to ask a question that was vital to the data collection of this study. The question was,
Overall, how satisfied are you with your life? with Very Satisfied, Satisfied, Dissatisfied, and
Very Dissatisfied as possible answers.

For the purpose of this experiment, data was collected from those who were between the
ages of twenty-five and sixty-five, and had no missing information. This sample size contained a
total of about 1.1 million people. The data was then broken up into four racial groups; Blacks,
Hispanics, Asians, and Whites. Blacks made up 8%, Hispanics made up 7%, Asians made up

2%, and Whites made up over 80% of the sample size. Over half of the total sample size, for all
racial groups, was of the female gender.

Major Findings

The dependent variable of this study is the overall life satisfaction, which was measured
on a 1 to 4 (Very Dissatisfied to Very Satisfied) scale. The results proved that life satisfaction is
positively related to income, education, employment, and marriage. The relationships between
these variables and life satisfaction were pretty consistent across all four groups, with a few
exceptions. Gender effects are more different for Hispanics than the other groups. For example,
Hispanic women are less satisfied with their lives, while White, Black, and Asian women are
more likely to be satisfied with their lives. Being a student is also correlated with life satisfaction
for all of the groups, except for Hispanics. For Hispanics, being a student has a negative impact
on life satisfaction, where for Whites, Blacks, and Asians, being a student has a positive impact
on life satisfaction.
The particular interest of this study was to study the relationship between a level of
income and a level of life satisfaction. Based on the data, it is evident that the average income of
ones group is negatively related to happiness. Based on average state income, group income is
negative but highly significant for Whites, which means that they care more about their social
status within their group. For Hispanics, the group income is negative while group income is not
significant. For Asians, levels of life satisfaction increases along with an increase in state
income, and is not effected by their group income. However, for Blacks, levels of life
satisfaction decrease in average state income, but increases in average group income.

The Link

This study can be connected to Max Webers study on class. Weber studied the extent to
which individuals have access to important societal resources such as food, clothing, shelter,
education, and health care, which he called life chances. Weber found that more-affluent
people had better life chances than the less-affluent people. The more-affluent had better
education, safer neighborhoods, higher quality health care, and better security protection. Those
who are less-affluent have limited access to all of these resources. Weber stated that wealth,
prestige, and power are separate factors for which people can be ranked from low to high.

Max Weber belief system was based on three dimensions; wealth, prestige, and power.
Weber believed that class was an important factor of social inequality and social change. He
defined wealth as the value of a persons economic assets, which includes income, and both
personal and income producing property. Weber divided the population into three possible
classes; commercial, middle, and working. Commercial class consists of those that are able to
purchase expensive goods and have the power to control other peoples opportunities to obtain
wealth and property. Middle and Working class people are those who work for their wages.
Middle class is between commercial and working class, and consists of those who are whitecollar workers, public officials, and managers. Working class consists of skilled, semiskilled, and
unskilled workers, such as those employed in manual or industrial work. Weber believed that
there was a level of prestige among social classes, which is the level of respect or regard which a
person or position is given by others. A person with a higher level of prestige is assumed to
receive better treatment from others, while a person with a lower level of prestige is assumed to

receive worse treatment from others. Those people who share a common level of social prestige
belong to the same status group, and tend to socialize with others within that same group. The
final dimension, power, is the ability of a person or group to achieve their goals despite
opposition from other people or groups. In todays society, the powerful can shape society in
agreement with their own interests and can direct the actions of others.

In this study, it is evident that a level of income can affect the level of life
satisfaction depending on the race or ethnic group. With a higher level of income, comes a higher
level of power and respect. Max Webers definition of class is important for this study, he stated
that a class is a large group of people who rank close to one another in property, power, and
prestige. For majority of the racial groups, an increase in state income had a negative impact on
levels of life satisfaction, but when there was an increase in group income, it resulted in a
positive impact on levels of life satisfaction.