Empirical evidence indicates that an individual’s happiness is relative with respect to income, whereby it increases with one’s own income and declines as the income of a reference group increases. Several recent studies further suggest that the effect of relative income is mediated by the extent to which people compare themselves with others. In line with the empirical research examining the effects of comparison intensity, in the present study, we focus on the degree to which people are conscious of others’ living standards (hereinafter, awareness of others) and aim to ascertain whether the intensity of awareness of others interacts with the individual perception of relative income in affecting the degree of happiness. By analyzing survey data pertaining to samples representative of Japan and the U.S., we find that individuals who are highly conscious of others are unhappier in Japan but happier in the U.S. Second, the positive relationship between awareness of others and happiness found in the U.S. results from the perception of reference-group income, in that highly conscious individuals compare downward. Lastly, we further examine the extent to which the integrated effect of awareness of others and reference-group income is related to an individual’s choice that could affect the degree of happiness. Our work intends to contribute to a better understanding of how different measures of reference income and respondents’ awareness of others interact in determining individual happiness and choice behaviors.

经验证据表明，个人的幸福感与收入有关，因此幸福感随着个人收入的增加而增加，而随着参考群体收入的增加而降低。最近的一些研究进一步表明，相对收入的影响是由人们与他人进行比较的程度所介导的。与检验比较强度影响的实证研究相一致，在本研究中，我们着重于人们对他人生活水平的了解程度（以下称对他人的意识），旨在确定人们对他人生活水平的了解程度。其他与个人对相对收入的看法相互作用，影响幸福感。通过分析与代表日本和美国的样本有关的调查数据，我们发现对他人高度了解的个人在日本并不快乐，而在美国则更为快乐。第二，他人的意识与在美国发现的幸福之间的积极关系来自于：参照群体收入的感知，即高度自觉的个体向下比较。最后，我们进一步研究了他人意识的综合影响参考人群的收入与个人的选择有关，这可能会影响幸福感。我们的工作旨在帮助人们更好地理解参考收入的不同衡量标准和受访者对他人的认识在决定个人的幸福和选择行为时如何相互作用。