Meta-analysis challenges the link between economic inequality and mental health

Does living in an unequal society make people unhappy? Not necessarily, reveals the largest study ever conducted on the subject. Nicolas Sommet, a social psychologist and research manager at the LIVES Centre at the University of Lausanne, and his team have published the first social science meta-analysis in the journal Nature. Their conclusions—based on 168 studies covering more than 11 million participants from around the world—challenge the widely held belief that economic inequality is detrimental to well-being and mental health.