Owning an iPhone is the Number-One Way To Guess if You're Rich or Not, Research Finds (businessinsider.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: In the United States, if you have an Apple iPhone or iPad, it's a strong sign that you make a lot of money. That's one of the takeaways from a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper from University of Chicago economists Marianne Bertrand and Emir Kamenica. "Across all years in our data, no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016," the researchers wrote. There are details and caveats to the research, but the economists found that owning an iPhone gave them a 69% chance to correctly infer that the owner was "high-income," which they defined as being in the top quartile of income for households of that type -- like single adult or couple with dependents, for example.

Comments

Owning a luxury car (or jet/yatch) is even better

[Juju]

I know a better way: owning a Ferrari is definitely even more precise! I am pretty sure the correlation for Ferrari -> rich is close to 100%.
And on my one person sample (me), it's 100% more accurate since I don't own an iPhone (yuck!) but do have a Ferrari (albeit an old one.)

no individual brand is as predictive... yeah

[gyepi]

"no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016,"

Seriously? Owning a Bentley is a worse predictor of being high-income than owning an Apple iPhone? Are we sure there are no further qualifications here?

Re:no individual brand is as predictive... yeah

[geekmux]

"no individual brand is as predictive of being high-income as owning an Apple iPhone in 2016," Seriously? Owning a Bentley is a worse predictor of being high-income than owning an Apple iPhone? Are we sure there are no further qualifications here?

Uh, from TFA:

"In 2004, Land O' Lakes butter and Kikkoman soy sauce were predictive of high-income households. In 1992, Grey Poupon mustard was the strongest sign of a rich family."

I've found more useful statistical data from bullshit articles on The Onion, which this might as well be. I sure as hell hope taxpayers aren't funding this "research".

Re:no individual brand is as predictive... yeah

[ShanghaiBill]

Seriously? Owning a Bentley is a worse predictor of being high-income than owning an Apple iPhone?

Yes. I know plenty of people in the top quartile, and none of them own Bentleys.

If you want to determine if a randomly selected person is in the top 25% by income, asking if they own a Bentley would be a very poor discriminator.

Top quartile cutoff is $78k. If your household income is above that you are "rich" according to TFA.

Disclaimer: I am top quartile. I own an iPhone 6 refurb. I do not have a Bentley.

Image over function

[layabout]

It seems to me that owning an iPhone shows that you are more concerned about image over function/capability. Which is also a pretty strong indicator of being rich

Re:Owning a luxury car (or jet/yatch) is even bett

[Gavagai80]

Both iphones and Ferraris sometimes only predict that your parents are high income.

Re:Yeah okay

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, no offense but you're definitely approaching wealthy. I don't even make half what you do, but consider myself comfortable. If I can survive with my salary without economic anxiety, you're doing EXTREMELY well at $140K a year.

Try not to lose perspective. It's perfectly okay to be successful, but remember that many make do with far less than what you have and at least be willing to admit that you're wealthy.

Re:Owning a luxury car (or jet/yatch) is even bett

[Immerman]

They're talking about wealth - not income. And thanks to the low class mobility in the U.S., the number one way to become rich is to be born to rich parents.