A popular topic has recently emerged on social media: "Given the choice between one million yuan or a degree from a prestigious 985 university, which would you choose?" While this question may seem lighthearted, it touches on deep concerns many people share. We live in an era prone to comparisons: who bought a house, who got promoted, whose child got into a top school... These external "success markers" are often treated as synonymous with happiness and health. But what is the reality? Does higher income necessarily lead to greater happiness? Does higher education automatically translate to success? Or do these two factors affect our daily lives in completely different ways? Today, we examine a study published in Nature Human Behaviour that moves beyond general discussions of "socioeconomic status" impact on life, instead separating "income" and "education" to analyze their distinct effects. The research uses scientific data to demonstrate that money may buy happiness but not necessarily health, while education may promote health but could also bring stress.

**A Life Impact Experiment Spanning 70,000 People**

For years, philosophers, researchers, politicians, and the general public have posed, discussed, and debated how socioeconomic status (SES) affects people's health and well-being. This is unsurprising given the significant social implications of these questions. Past research has tended to work in silos: health professionals focused on how socioeconomic status affects blood pressure and illness, while psychology and economics researchers concentrated on analyzing how socioeconomic status influences well-being.

However, reality is that people need both health and happiness, and while "income" and "education" both fall under socioeconomic status, they don't necessarily work in the same direction. Some people have high incomes but no college education, while others have advanced degrees but are financially struggling after graduation. These factors must be examined separately to understand their individual effects.

Moreover, previous studies relied primarily on "single questionnaires," such as asking participants to recall whether they were happy over the past year, but memory can be unreliable. This study instead used "Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA)," requiring participants to record their daily status, while also incorporating community data (such as overall income and education levels in residential areas), providing a more accurate reflection of how money and education influence daily life.

**Study Participants and Methodology**

Researchers recruited 71,385 adults from over 10 countries (average age 40.62 years, standard deviation 13.20), including participants from 13,089 different postal code areas in the United States. The sample showed high diversity in age, gender, race, and education levels.

Participants used a smartphone application called MyBPLab to conduct 21-day Ecological Momentary Assessment. They reported their current emotional state (including positive/negative emotions) and whether they experienced stressful events three times daily at randomly selected morning, afternoon, and evening intervals. They simultaneously measured heart rate and blood pressure using the smartphone's built-in optical sensors, ultimately generating 329,543 valid observation data points.

The research employed multilevel modeling for analysis, capturing both within-individual daily fluctuations where stressful events affect cardiovascular activity through emotions (e.g., stressful event → emotional change → heart rate/blood pressure fluctuation), and between-individual differences (such as country, culture, demographic variables) on long-term health and well-being impacts. This method effectively overcame memory bias from traditional retrospective self-reports while providing both high statistical power and real-world representativeness, offering robust evidence for emotion-physiology mechanism research.

Beyond individual-level variables, the study integrated community-level socioeconomic data (from U.S. Census), systematically analyzing independent and interactive effects of subjective income and education levels at both individual and community levels on daily health (heart rate, blood pressure, smoking, exercise) and psychological well-being (emotions, stress coping, stress exposure).

**Individual Level: Income and Education Have Distinct "Jurisdictions"**

**Income aspects:** Higher subjective income significantly correlated with better self-rated health, more exercise, lower heart rate, lower systolic blood pressure, and lower smoking rates. Additionally, high income significantly predicted stronger stress-coping abilities, more positive emotions, fewer negative emotions, and lower daily stress exposure.

**Education aspects:** Higher education levels similarly correlated with better physiological indicators (such as lower heart rate, blood pressure, smoking rates), but also accompanied higher hypertension reporting rates (researchers noted this result should be interpreted cautiously considering factors like BMI) and higher daily stress levels. Notably, highly educated individuals showed stronger adaptive capacity when facing acute stress (lower threat assessment ratios).

**Summary:** When income and education "compete directly," their division of labor becomes more apparent: education has stronger effects on "physiological health" (heart rate, blood pressure, smoking), while income has stronger effects on "emotional well-being" (coping ability, positive emotions). For example, in simultaneous models, education's regression coefficient for heart rate was -1.13 (p < 0.001), clearly higher than income's -0.47 (p < 0.001). Conversely, income's coefficient for positive emotions was 0.07 (p < 0.001), while education's effect was not significant (b = -0.00, p = 0.683).

**Community-Level Impact**

Researchers then extended analysis to the community level, examining whether a region's average income and education levels affect individual residents' health and happiness.

The study found that higher community income correlated with multiple positive outcomes for residents, including better self-rated health (β = 0.09, p < 0.001), more exercise (OR = 1.19, p < 0.001), lower heart rate (b = -1.31, p < 0.001), and lower smoking rates (OR = 0.66, p < 0.001). Emotionally, individuals in high-income communities also reported stronger coping abilities (b = 0.04, p < 0.001), more positive emotions (b = 0.03, p = 0.001), and less stress exposure (OR = 0.96, p = 0.001).

Similarly, higher community education levels correlated with better health outcomes, such as better self-rated health (β = 0.13, p < 0.001), more exercise (OR = 1.21, p < 0.001), lower heart rate (b = -1.41, p < 0.001), and lower smoking rates (OR = 0.67, p < 0.001). However, like highly educated individuals, residents in these communities also reported higher daily stress levels (b = 0.02, p < 0.001), though they still performed better under acute stress.

When considering both community income and education simultaneously, community income showed stronger effects on emotional well-being, while community education was more predictive of health behaviors and physiological outcomes—highly similar to the individual-level "division of labor" pattern.

Most importantly, hierarchical comparison revealed that personal income better predicts individual emotional well-being than "community average income," and personal education better predicts health status than "community average education." For example, personal income's regression coefficient for subjective health was 0.11 (p < 0.001), while community income's effect was not significant (b = -0.00, p = 0.537). Personal education's contribution to heart rate reduction (b = -1.08, p < 0.001) also far exceeded community education's (b = -0.27, p = 0.041).

Simply put, "being wealthy yourself" brings more happiness than "living in a wealthy area," and "having education yourself" promotes health more than "living in an educated community."

**Are More Money and Higher Education Always Better?**

Do people believe that more money always means more happiness, and higher education is always better? Not necessarily! The research found that the "marginal benefits" of money and education diminish.

**Income:** After reaching levels 6-8 out of 10 (upper-middle range), further income increases no longer significantly improve happiness or health advantages. It's like when monthly salary increases from 5,000 to 20,000 yuan, you clearly feel "life is more comfortable," but increasing from 20,000 to 50,000 might just mean "more savings," without proportional emotional happiness gains.

**Education:** Benefits for emotions plateau after "some college education," but health benefits become more stable only at "bachelor's degree and above." For instance, health knowledge like "knowing smoking is harmful" might be understood in middle or high school, but internalization and habit formation of healthy behaviors like "maintaining exercise and regular check-ups" rely more on cognitive resources, self-regulation abilities, and social opportunities cultivated through higher education.

**Conclusion**

In summary, this research tells us: income manages "happiness," education manages "health." In other words, money can buy today's smiles, but knowledge can secure tomorrow's health. Your own "capital" matters more than others'—envying others is useless; better to focus energy on yourself. Don't pursue "extremes"—earning upper-middle income is enough for happiness, and undergraduate education provides health advantages.

Of course, some might say "only children make choices, adults want both"—who doesn't want both high education and high income? But honestly, in daily life, many people work tirelessly yet may not achieve either. If you're reading this and already have one of these—whether income that gives you peace of mind or education that helps you stand firm—you're already ahead of many people and deserve quiet celebration!

In conclusion, instead of daydreaming about "having it all," better to get up and do something small now: if you want to earn more money, learn a new skill; if you want to protect your health, start sleeping half an hour earlier tonight. After all, good life is never "thought" into existence, but "created" through action!