Even the paper you linked to doesn’t claim that equality CAUSES unhappiness. A correlation might exist, but some of the authors’ suggestions include:
if happiness is assessed relative to outcomes for one’s reference group, then greater equality may
have led more women to compare their outcomes to those of the men around them. In turn, women might find their relative position lower than when their reference group included only women.
or
simply a change in how women answer the question.
(i.e. it’s more socially acceptable to claim unhappiness)
I didn’t mean to suggest that a single, slightly related, research paper demonstrates causation between the two variables, merely that it is a piece of disconfirming evidence for the statement I quoted.
Even the paper you linked to doesn’t claim that equality CAUSES unhappiness. A correlation might exist, but some of the authors’ suggestions include:
or
(i.e. it’s more socially acceptable to claim unhappiness)
I didn’t mean to suggest that a single, slightly related, research paper demonstrates causation between the two variables, merely that it is a piece of disconfirming evidence for the statement I quoted.