The wealthy generally have better psychological health, including higher self-esteem and confidence, but other than that generally are no more grateful or compassionate than the average person, according to a recent study.

This is the conclusion after examining data from five large surveys spanning 162 countries. Overall, income consistently correlated positively with positive self-regard emotions and negatively with negative self-regard emotions; the correlation, said the researchers, was not strong but it was very consistent from study to study. In contrast, the relationships between income and the other-regard emotions, which include compassion and gratitude, were not consistent, though the researchers said there is "mixed evidence" as to whether the wealthy, as a whole, have less regard for others than the average person.

"Assuming that income has a causal impact onemotions, our findings suggest that at the individual level, earning more means a greater tendency to feel emotions such as pride and satisfaction and earning less means more sadness and shame, but neither would make a difference to one’s capacity for gratitude and compassion, as well as anger," said the study's conclusion.

On a societal level, the researchers said this means a wealthier society can be expected to be more confident and less despondent relative to a poorer society, but societal wealth would not encourage or diminish feelings of social connectedness. While this effect, as mentioned earlier, is small, it may accumulate into practically significant effects in real-life over time due to the consistency with which this pattern emerged.