Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Happiness, Continued

David Brooks summarizes the happiness research:
Marital happiness is far more important than anything else in determining personal well-being. If you have a successful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many professional setbacks you endure, you will be reasonably happy. If you have an unsuccessful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many career triumphs you record, you will remain significantly unfulfilled. . . .

The United States is much richer than it was 50 years ago, but this has produced no measurable increase in overall happiness. On the other hand, it has become a much more unequal country, but this inequality doesn’t seem to have reduced national happiness.

On a personal scale, winning the lottery doesn’t seem to produce lasting gains in well-being. People aren’t happiest during the years when they are winning the most promotions. Instead, people are happy in their 20’s, dip in middle age and then, on average, hit peak happiness just after retirement at age 65. . . .

If the relationship between money and well-being is complicated, the correspondence between personal relationships and happiness is not. The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year. . . .

The overall impression from this research is that economic and professional success exists on the surface of life, and that they emerge out of interpersonal relationships, which are much deeper and more important.

2 comments:

Thomas said...

I found this review of Derek Bok's new book on happiness really interesting: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1003.longman2.html

The problem with the happiness research is that it doesn't get to the causality. Is being in a strong marriage a source of happiness and health, or does being happy and healthy make it easier to have a strong marriage?

For example, the some of the happiest people are non-materialist who live in high growth societies. But if everybody in your society is non-materialist, you don't get the high growth.

John said...

Yes, causality is a big problem with this research. Sex is a good example; is it correlated with happiness because it makes people happy, or because depressed people have little desire?

There is also a problem with using statistical norms to study what is essentially an individual thing. Success may not make everyone happy, but there are surely some people who are made very happy by their promotions and raises. But I think this is one of the important things to take away from the research: things that you might think will lead to happiness, like money and success, may not work for you, since they don't seem to work for a majority of people. It pays to be self-aware, and to think about what actually makes you happy, not about a lifestyle that you fantasize might transform you into a happy person.