A study conducted earlier this year suggests that if you own an iPhone, you can consider yourself rich.
The research published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 69.1 percent of people who own an iPhone are predictive of having a high income.
Hol’up hol’up….before you start shouting I’m rich I’m rich!
May I point out that this study logically, and without any doubt doesn’t include those with a smashed screen.
Neither did it factor in those older versions with 10minutes battery power.
There is no definition for which model of iPhone this study applies to.
Sure, if you have a brand new iPhone X then that’s a sign that you’re probably rolling in it.
According to the study’s authors, Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica, these results were reached by looking at several different factors.
“We measure cultural distance between two groups as the ability to infer an individual’s group based on his or her (i) media consumption, (ii) consumer behaviour, (iii) time use, or (iv) social attitudes.
Knowing whether someone owns an iPad in 2016 allows us to guess correctly whether the person is in the top or bottom income quartile 69 percent of the time.
Across all years in our data, no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016.”
If you happen to own an iPhone, it would then suggest that you are potentially in the top quartile of income for your particular household yet, as always with these papers, there are a few caveats.
I do not own an iPhone, but I come from a country who has been rated the poverty capital of the world, but with a huge number of her population owners of this device.
I can tell you that having one doesn’t mean you’re rich but this study says that if you do, then you’re doing OKAY for yourself.