David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

written widely on this phenomenon.
Here’s another example, this one from
Carol Graham’s Happiness Around the
World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants
and Miserable Millionaires. Who do
you think is happier: a poor person in
Chile or a poor person in Honduras?
Logic would say Chile. Chile is a
modern developed economy. The poor
in Chile make somewhere close to twice
the amount of money that the poor in
Honduras do, which means that they can
live in nicer homes and eat better food
and afford more material comforts. But
if you compare the happiness scores of
the poor in both countries, Hondurans
trump Chileans handily. Why? Because
Hondurans care only about how other