If not money, then perhaps self-scrutinizing surveys of the economic uber-elite can provide happiness.
The Boston College Center on Wealth and Philanthropy, partnered with Calibre and the Gates Foundation, plans to survey about 1,000 Americans whose net worth is valued at at least $25 million to find out the motivations of the super-rich and create a study titled "The Joys and Dilemmas of Wealth."
Survey creators plan to have online questionnaires completed by the end of this year. They said they hope the results uncover the aspirations of America's wealthiest people so wealth advisors may serve them better, and the general public will be able to read just a little bit more into their privileged lives.
Calibre Director of Family Dynamics Keith Whitaker said despite the obvious business reasons for understanding the wealthy population, there is also a cultural motivation behind the study.
"The choices and attitudes and opinions that you see within the wealth population are often forerunners of what you'll see in the general population over time," he said. "It almost gives you a chance to glimpse into future opinions and attitudes."
Whitaker said the group was most excited about the partnership between private companies and charity from Boston College.
"You don't often see people crossing those lines, at least you haven't in the past," he said. "I think both in terms of what we're going to learn from this study and the way that we're learning it, we're breaking new grounds."
In addition to the unlikely partnership, this is the first time a study has been conducted on people of such great wealth and on issues dealing with attitudes more than financial decisions.
Associate Director of the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy Robert Kenney said the group chose to study those in the $25 million-plus income bracket because there are few studies investigating their "motivations and aspirations."
"A lot of the wealth studies that are done are done with participants at a much lower threshold, who have much less money but are still considered wealthy," he said. "When we're talking about $25 million net worth, we're talking about roughly 1000 to 1100 households in the country."
"A person's net worth is how much money they make versus how much money they owe," said Boston University economics professor Mirco Soffritti.
Questions on the survey concern what participants' ultimate goals are for themselves and their children are, and how much they think they are able to change the world.
"We're not sure what we're going to find, but what we're hoping to find is what motivates people to make contributions to the world and to make changes," Kenney said.
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