Pickett Kate - The inner level how more equal societies reduce stress, restore sanity and improve everyones well-being

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First published by Allen Lane 2018
Published in Penguin Books 2019

Copyright Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, 2018

The moral right of the authors has been asserted

Cover images: Getty Images

ISBN: 978-0-141-97540-5

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

For

George and Annie Wilkinson

Sarah Colebourne and Helen Holman

And for the staff of The Retreat, York at the forefront of treating the mentally distressed with respect since 1796

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Humans act along two dimensions of behaviour: dominance/submissiveness and warmth/hostility

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Life expectancy levels off at higher levels of economic development)

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Trends in the income share of the richest 1 per cent (World Wealth and Income Database, 2016)

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With the exception of , all the figures are either our own or have been redrawn from the original sources and, on condition that they are credited to the original publications, they can be reproduced without our permission.

The cartoon on .

This book has benefitted from three rounds of editing: from Shan Vahidy, Stuart Proffitt and Ben Sinyor. We felt very honoured by the quality and depth of thought each gave to our argument and how it could be expressed more clearly and elegantly. Rather than a few verbal comments and minor corrections to spelling and grammar from a quick read-through, each provided us with detailed notes on almost every page of our manuscript and a long list of more fundamental points to consider. At each stage we felt in good hands, guided to higher professional standards. Theirs are rare skills and we are extremely fortunate that our work received so much of their attention. We are deeply indebted to them.

At the University of York, Kates research group read and commented on draft chapters, giving us great feedback while being gentle with us its not only students who fear their work being read by others! Thank you to Pippa Bird, Deborah Box, Alex Christensen, Holly Essex, Lorna Fraser, Stuart Jarvis, Ben Mallicoat, Madeleine Power, Stephanie Prady, Katie Pybus, Marena Ceballos Rasgado, Noortje Uphoff and Tiffany Yang. We are also particularly indebted to Sean Baine, Danny Dorling and Allison Quick for their thoughtful comments on early drafts, and to our many helpful academic colleagues and their families, too many to name, some of whom have given special support over the past few years. We thank Barbara Abrams, Christo Albor, Dimitris Ballas, Stephen Bezruchka, Karen Bloor, Jonathan Bradshaw, Baltica Cabieses, Helena Cronin, Martin Daly, Danny and Alison Dorling, Frank Elgar, Manuel Antonio Espinoza, Paul Gilbert, Hilary Graham, Sheri Johnson, Ichiro Kawachi, Sebastian Kraemer, Rosie McEachen, Annamarie Mercer, Jon Minton, Martin ONeill, Annie Quick, Hector Rufrancos, Trevor Sheldon, Deborah Smith, Subu Subramanian, Len Syme, Laura Vanderbloemen and John Wright. We also thank our bus family who came together as part of an international expert working group in Bhutan, now part of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WE-All): Bob Costanza, Lorenzo Fioramonti, Enrico Giovannini, Ida Kubiszewski, Hunter Lovins, Jacquie McGlade, Lars Mortensen, Kristn Vala Ragnarsdttir, Debra Roberts, Roberto de Vogli and Stewart Wallis you have expanded our thinking and our world.

The graphs shown in our figures reflect the work of a large number of researchers in different countries. We are particularly indebted to those who sent us their original research data so that we could redraw their figures in a consistent format. They are: Richard Layte ().

We are also grateful to current and former staff, volunteers, advisers, board members and trustees of The Equality Trust (www.equalitytrust.org.uk), with special thanks to our co-founder, Bill Kerry, the Chair of Trustees, Sean Baine, and Director, Wanda Wyporska, for campaigning and informing the public about inequality. Thank you to The Equality Trusts many supporters: individuals, affiliated local groups and funders, including the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, the Network for Social Change, Tudor Trust, and the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust. Director Katharine Round and producer Christo Hird of Dartmouth Films created The Divide, a moving interpretation of our work, which reaches new audiences to tell the story of the impact of inequality: thank you both. Finally we thank everybody who has taken the time to read our work, invited us to speak, spoken encouraging words, or spread the message; we wish we could thank all of you individually, and hope you will continue with us on the journey.

The story so far

The Spirit Level, published in 2009, showed that people in societies with bigger income gaps between rich and poor are much more likely to suffer from a wide range of health and social problems than those living in more equal societies. The evidence we presented in that book strongly implied that inequality has major psychological effects and that many of these problems are the result of increased social stress. In this new book we explore what these psychological effects and social stresses are: how inequality gets into our minds, how it increases anxiety levels, how people respond and what the consequences are for levels of mental illness and emotional disorders how, in sum, living in a more unequal society changes how we think and feel and how we relate to each other. The picture we present is based partly on our own work but predominantly on a large body of research from academics around the world. The evidence drawn together here not only clarifies why more unequal societies are so dysfunctional, but also helps to identify the changes that would make social interaction better and improve everyones health and happiness.

The Spirit Level provided the starting point for this book; so much so, that those unfamiliar with it may find it helpful to have a brief summary of its findings here. First, our earlier book showed that the populations of societies with larger income differences tend to have worse health: lower life expectancy and higher rates of infant mortality, mental illness, illicit drug use and obesity. Greater inequality also damages social relationships: more unequal societies experience more violence (as measured by homicide rates) and higher rates of imprisonment; people trust each other less and community life is weaker. Inequality also damages childrens life chances; more unequal societies have lower levels of child well-being and educational attainment, more teenage births and less social mobility.