Cognitive Daily had this interesting article where they surveyed people on what they thought it would take for people to be considered rich. Interestingly, they found that people randomly assigned to view luxury items had a greater perception of what they defined rich to be, both in terms of income and net worth.

Another interesting tidbit is that an average of 325,000 dollars in income would be needed to maximize happiness in respondents, meaning that any amount above that would not increase happiness. I’d be interested in finding out if showing people luxury items had an effect on this question.

The group that saw the luxury items said it would take significantly more income to be rich compared to all the other groups. Interestingly, there was no significant difference in the results for those who saw consumer goods, happy faces, or no picture. The pattern for net worth was similar:

Once again, seeing pictures of luxury items significantly increased how much respondents said it would take to be “rich.”

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/04/casual_fridays_what_does_it_ta.php