‘Happiness gap’ between rich and poor shrank under lockdown
LOCKDOWN narrowed the wellbeing inequality gap between wealthy professionals and the unemployed, a study by Cambridge University has found.
Researchers from the university’s Bennett Institute for Public Policy also discovered that while happiness fell as the pandemic began, lockdown helped to restore it.
Researchers used a year’s worth of data taken from Yougov Weekly Mood Tracker surveys and Google searches to track well-being in the British population before and during the pandemic.
The proportion of Britons self-reporting as “happy” halved in just three weeks: from 51 per cent just before the UK’S first Covid-19 fatality, to 25 per cent by the time national lockdown began.
This reversed as lockdown went on, with happiness climbing back to almost pre-pandemic levels of 47 per cent by the end of May.
The study indicates that while the “wellbeing inequality” gap remained wide, lockdown started to shrink it.
Some of the most deprived social groups saw a relative rise in life satisfaction, while the wealthy experienced declines, according to the research.
Dr Roberto Foa, from Cambridge’s Department of Politics and International Studies and director of the Yougov-cambridge Centre for Public Opinion Research, said: “It was the pandemic, not the lockdown, that depressed people’s wellbeing. Mental health concerns are often cited as a reason to avoid lockdown.
Just before lockdown, 47 per cent of “underemployed” men reported feeling stressed, but after two months this had fallen to 30 per cent – the lowest level for a year.
By late May, 40 per cent of underemployed men self-reported as “happy”, above the pre-pandemic average of 36 per cent from June 2019 to February 2020, with 15 per cent describing themselves as “inspired”, compared with 4 per cent at the start of the year.
“During lockdown, welfare schemes were expanded and hardship funds introduced, along with amnesties on overdue rent and bills,” said Dr Foa.
“This probably reduced stress for people living precariously.
“In addition, people with little money don’t consume or travel as much, so may have had less to lose and more to gain from lockdown.”
This was in contrast to high social status groups. “Well-paid professionals may have experienced stress through combined work and domestic duties, and an inability to engage in consumption habits that have a social basis, from holidays to dining out,” said Dr Foa.
Dr Mark Fabian, from the Bennett Institute, said: “Lockdowns seem to improve wellbeing rather than detract from it during a pandemic, not least because they reduce the risk of infection.”