Study on the Fears and Anxieties of the Super Rich

Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy has been studying how the American wealthy live and think. The project produced a survey that invited the rich (mainly those with $25 million or more) to write freely and anonymously how prosperity has shaped their lives. The rich revealed not only their net worth but also their most secret hopes, fears, and anxieties. The Center received 500 pages of responses from 165 households.

The results are not yet public, but The Atlantic was granted access to pieces of the study, and Graeme Wood used those pieces to write an article entitled Secret Fears of the Super-Rich, The Atlantic Magazine, April 2011. The introduction is below:

Does great wealth bring fulfillment? An ambitious study by Boston College suggests not. For the first time, researchers prompted the very rich—people with fortunes in excess of $25 million—to speak candidly about their lives. The result is a suprising litany of anxieties: their sense of isolation, their worries about work and love, and most of all, their fears for their children.

Special thanks to Karen Meckstroth (Attorney at Law, Los Gatos, CA) for bringing this to my attention. For Karen’s blog about the article, click here.