26 - Richard Wilkinson: Inequality, Health, and Positive Psychology

Marianne and Eric chat with Professor Richard Wilkinson, Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham. Richard is author most recently of the book The Inner Level, and co-founder of The Equality Trust.

In this episode, Richard shares his research on the detrimental and wide-ranging psychological effects of income inequality. He discusses how inequality impoverishes everyone's health, trust, and psychological well-being, even for those "winning" in the income distribution. Richard argues that while positive psychology needs to better understand societal predictors of when people flourish, the field already has discovered many insights that are plainly ignored by policy makers and other shapers of society. Finally, he shares how income inequality is visible and impactful on an everyday basis, and why a more equal society would also do a better job at fighting climate change.

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Links:

Book The Spirit Level
Book The Inner Level
More information: www.inequality.org
Richard's  @ProfRGWilkinson

Marianne's website
Marianne's Twitter @MarianneReddan

Eric's website
Eric's Twitter @EricNeumannPsy

Podcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPod

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