It all comes down to making babies and passing on our genes, I think.

I don’t disagree, though as intellect has superceded evolutionary urges, memes become more important than raw genetic material. If you’re interested, you should read the book I mentioned in my original news post — it’s quick reading and very interesting. It looks at the why humanity is the way it is, and why some of the world’s biggest tragedies are Nature’s way of ensuring that “only the strong survive.”

Though it’s really more complicated than that.

I would say that the reason we’re happier when we’re making more $$ than our neighbors is because we have always lived in a world with limited resources. Making more money is the same as being more successful, meaning we get the extra piece of deer meat or bread or whatever so we can live longer, get the strongest smartest women and make the most babies. It all comes down to making babies and passing on our genes, I think. Even if we suddenly lived in a world with unlimited resources and opportunities to pass our genes we’d still feel this way since it’s part of our physical design.

Also admittedly I haven’t actually read the report, but I wouldn’t think this is news – I remember talking about this effect (aka “keeping up with the Jonses”) in freshman psych class.