Would you rather earn a higher salary or get more hours of sleep a night?
In a recent study, a group of economists found that most people would rather sacrifice sleep in exchange for more money, believing that a higher salary would make them happier.
The study surveys more than 2,600 people, posing them with the option of earning $80,00 a year with reasonable work hours and seven and a half hours a sleep each night, or a lucrative $140,000 per year with unusual, long hours and only six hours of sleep on an average night. Most participants opted for the latter.
Daniel Benjamin, an economics professor at Cornell, said one of the most interesting findings was that difference between what people thought would make them happiest and what they actually chose.
Only 12 percent of respondents from Denver ranked more sleep above a higher income. Furthermore, one percent said they would choose sleep over salary, when in actuality they thought they would be happier with a higher income.
Ori Heffetz, also a Cornell economics professor, said the most shocking finding in the paper was that “people’s choices seemed to coincide with their happiness predictions least frequently for what they thought were important life decisions.”
So collegiettes™, it’s a simple game of “Would you Rather?” Is it sleep or salary? Would you take an extra $60,000 for an hour less of sleep? Let us know in the comment box below!
