Happiness Could Add 10 Years to Your Life

It seems only common sense that happiness should be good for our physical health, but psychological research has sent mixed signals in recent years. Some studies have found it is, while others have found no effect, and some even a negative effect.

In a new article published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, Professor Ruut Veenhoven of Erasmus University offers a possible solution to this question. In reviewing 30 studies, he finds that the neutral and negative findings for the effects of happiness on health are in studies on people who were ill at the time.

In comparison, studies on people who were in good health do find a strong positive effect for happiness on health. Professor Veenhoven suggests that happiness may not have a beneficial effect on the physical health of those who are ill, but it does help prevent people falling ill in the first place.

A particularly spectacular study on nuns found that those who were happiest in early life lived 10 years longer than those who were unhappy. Another study of 660 inhabitants of Ohio found that higher levels of happiness translated, on average, into 7.5 years more life.

How to be happy

What happiness is and where it comes from are very personal, but there are some general principles starting to emerge from the area of positive psychology. Here are a few previous articles on happiness from PsyBlog:

Here are the rest of my articles on the new science of happiness.

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4 Ways We Fail to Choose Happiness

Cycling

There are two requirements for decision-making that will bring happiness in the future. First we need to know how a particular decision will make us feel in the future. To do this accurately we need to avoid the systematic biases that affect how we predict our future emotional states.

This is no mean feat in itself - the distinction bias, projection bias, impact bias, memory bias and belief biases are tricky customers.

Second we need to actually follow through with the decision. This is where the happiness-seeking individual gets into trouble again because even when we know what will make us happy, we still don't choose it.

Christopher K. Hsee and Reid Hastie from the University of Chicago point to the four main reasons that we don't follow through with decisions that will make us happy (Hsee & Hastie, 2006).

1. Poor rules of thumb

We each follow certain rules of thumb which mean that even though we know what will make us happy we still don't choose it. Here are two common examples:
  • Don't waste: We hate to waste money. Research shows that when people have double-booked an activity they will choose whichever one is more expensive, even when they know they won't enjoy it as much.
  • Variety is the spice of life: Research shows people choose variety even though they know it won't make them happier. Often choosing what we know we like - the same again - is the best option for maximising pleasure.

2. Slaves to rationality

We like our decision-making to appear rational; unfortunately decisions that appear rational can make us less happy.

Research shows that people prefer to receive a gift of a chocolate shaped like a cockroach over that shaped like a heart even though they know they'll prefer the heart-shaped chocolate. Why? Because they're told the cockroach shaped chocolate is worth $2 and the heart-shaped chocolate only 50c. It's more rational to choose the higher-priced gift - but it makes people less happy.

3. Obsession with medium over outcome

We love to collect tokens of value, whether it's air miles or cold, hard currency. In fact, we love collecting the tokens so much we quickly forget what they're for. Research shows people will strive hard to obtain a medium (tokens or money) while paying little regard to what that medium can actually be used for.

4. Impulsivity

What's interesting about impulsivity for Hsee and Hastie is that it's exactly what the other three factors are trying to protect against. Rules of thumb like 'don't waste' as well as our obsession with collecting tokens (money) work against our impulse to spend. Similarly trying to appear rational is another way of trying to limit our profligacy.

Fool me twice, shame on me

The reasons we sometimes fail to choose happiness are straightforward enough. First we find it hard to predict what will make us happy and second, even if we can make an accurate prediction, we still don't choose it.

It's not the end of the world though. Clearly we do sometimes manage to make the right decisions, even if it is pure chance. Research suggests it's likely that being aware of these types of biases and lapses will help us fight against them.

Don't be fooled by what seem like trivial examples in some of the studies - they're all designed to mimic everyday decision-making. Also don't think that these are the kinds of mistakes that only 'other people' make. Almost everyone is convinced they are not like other people.

So next time you're making a decision that will affect your future happiness (and most decisions do), remember this post and don't make the same old mistakes again.

[Image credit: noblelgnoble]

Reference

Hsee, C. K., & Hastie, R. (2006). Decision and experience: why don't we choose what makes us happy? Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(1), 31-37.

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How to Feel More Pleasure: Crank up the Mystery

When we get a gift from someone out of the blue, alarm bells start ringing. What do they want? What have they done? There must be a reason for this unexplained act of kindness...

We naturally like to try and figure out other people's motivations; using rationality to reduce uncertainty helps us make sense of the world. The problem is that sober and logical reflection seems to kill the pleasure and romance of a moment. Sometimes it's better to be kept in the dark, better to just marvel at the unexpected bounty that has come our way. Truly not knowing can mean intrigue and excitement. Don't try to make sense of it, just enjoy it!

But is there any evidence for the idea that mystery increases pleasure? University of Virginia social psychologist Professor Timothy D. Wilson and colleagues have applied some cool rationality to all this romance and mystery nonsense and discovered there just might be some truth to it. Here's what they did.

A $1 present


"We like to promote Random Acts of Kindness! Have a nice day!"Experimenters set out across campus to the library armed with two types of cards, both with dollar coins attached to them (Wilson, Centerbar, Kermer & Gilbert, 2005). These two types of cards were almost identical: both had a big smiley face at the top, and next to it was written "This is for you!". Underneath there was some text saying: "The Smile Society, A Student/Community Secular Alliance. We like to promote Random Acts of Kindness! Have a nice day!". On the other card the only difference was that the statements had matching questions of "Who are we?" and "Why do we do this?".

So both cards had pretty much the same information on them, but one also had corresponding questions. A preliminary study confirmed that people saw the cards with the questions as providing a better logical explanation of the unexpected gift, whereas without the questions the gift was more mysterious.

They randomly chose people sitting in the library and gave them one of the two cards with the $1 attached. Then, under the guise of carrying out a different study a short time later, they got a measure of their mood.

The results showed that those who were less certain about why they'd been given a gift remained happier than those who were more certain. So it does seem that mystery prolongs the pleasure.

Different situations


The experimenters followed up with two further tests of the idea in different circumstances. In one participants watched an uplifting film based on a true story. They were then given two passages to read about what had happened to the person after the film. These were both positive but differed slightly in their details. One group was told which was the true story, the other group was kept in the dark. Again, the uncertain group were in a more positive mood for longer after seeing the film.

Those who were uncertain which of the six had praised them were happier with their positive feedback for longer.In the second situation participants thought they were involved in a study about other people's impression of them online. After interacting with six different people they were given positive feedback about the impression they had made. In one group participants were told specifically which of the six people had given them feedback, whereas in the other group they weren't. As in the previous two studies those who were more uncertain were happier with their positive feedback for longer.

The explanation


It might seem strange that increased uncertainty can maximise pleasure in these situations because uncertainty is often associated with anxiety. People automatically do their best to avoid uncertainty - it is how we cope with negative emotional events. Research shows that when people are exposed to traumatic events, the sooner they 'make sense' of what has happened, the sooner the negative emotion is reduced and they recover.

We try to reduce our uncertainty by explaining positive events and thereby reduce the amount of positive emotion we feel.Exactly the same process seems to operate for positive emotions. We try to reduce our uncertainty by explaining positive events and thereby reduce the amount of positive emotion we feel. It's an unfortunate consequence of an adaptive process that normally helps us recover from traumatic and upsetting events.

So, the next time you give someone an unexpected gift and they ask why, just smile mysteriously and let them enjoy the moment for a little longer. Sometimes explanations really do kill the magic.

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References

Wilson, T. D., Centerbar, D. B., Kermer, D. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2005). The pleasures of uncertainty: Prolonging positive moods in ways people do not anticipate. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(1), 521.

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Forget Rich Lists, Read the 'Happy List'

As an antidote to 'rich lists', the Independent on Sunday has produced a 'Happy List':
"The Wealth List, Power List, Influence List, Celebrity List... almost every week some publication or other is worshipping at the shrine of the wealthy and famous. Today, 'The Sunday Times' produces its famous Rich List, an entire magazine devoted to the moneyed. About time, then, we thought, that someone produced an antidote. So here it is: the Happy List, celebrating those Britons who have given back, enhanced the lives of others and realised that in an acquisitive society there's a crying need for values other than mere materialism."

The full 'happy list', including, "profiles of 100 people who make Britain a better and a happier place to live" is here.

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Why The Chinese Are Getting Richer But Not Happier

Chinese Worker

The rapidly developing Chinese economy has a hard lesson to teach developed nations about the happiness of the majority.

We all have an intuitive sense that the society we live in has a huge effect on our lives. It's almost impossible not be influenced by the way other people treat us, the values they hold and the way they behave.

But because we are so used to these effects they become subliminal, automatic - they're so embedded in our everyday lives that we're unaware of them. Sometimes it's only possible to understand our own society by looking at another. One of the most interesting, because of its incredible rate of change, is China.

Data examined in a new study to be published in the Journal of Happiness Studies highlights a striking paradox in the expanding Chinese economy. While the Chinese are getting richer, they don't seem to be getting happier - in fact they're getting more unhappy. This paradox may have much to teach other expanding societies about the perils of financial inequality.

China, 1990-2000


In ten years the average rural wage in China more than tripled, while in urban areas it quadrupled.Between 1990 and 2000 the Chinese saw an incredible boom in their economy such that millions were pulled up out of poverty to earn a decent living wage. In ten years the average rural wage in China more than tripled, while in urban areas it quadrupled.

Set against this impressive financial boom is a surprising story coming out of research into Chinese happiness over this decade. In 1990 28% of Chinese people described themselves as very happy, but by 2000 this figure had dropped to 12%. When asked about their satisfaction with life, the story was the same: in 1990 the average was 7.3 (out of 10), but by 2000 it had dropped to 6.5. This drop was seen across rural and urban China and in almost every income bracket.

Money has the biggest positive effect on happiness among the poor.This finding is surprising because it's the exact opposite of what psychological research on the happiness of societies would predict. Money has the biggest positive effect on happiness among the poor. When you're already relatively well-off, more money makes less difference.

So what can explain the Chinese experience of decreasing happiness and life satisfaction alongside so many being released from poverty? In a new article Professor Hilke Brockmann from Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany and colleagues argue that the answer largely comes down to an increasing disparity between rich and poor (Brockmann, Delhey, Welzel & Hao, In Press).

In China, like many other societies around the world, the rich have accelerated away from the mean income level rapidly, leaving the rest of society looking on jealously. It's just that in China it has happened very quickly and so the results are particularly pronounced.

While many Chinese are getting richer in absolute terms, they are not getting richer in relative terms; on the contrary, relatively they feel poorer. As average income levels are pulled higher by the small minority of rich and super-rich, more and more people feel poorer in comparison. As a result they feel less satisfied with life and less happy. This is exactly what seems to have happened in China in the decade between 1990 and 2000.

Alternative explanations


Societies are notoriously difficult to analyse because of their incredible complexity.While this seems like a plausible explanation for the paradox produced by rising income and declining happiness, it is not the only explanation. Societies are notoriously difficult to analyse because of their incredible complexity. Plus, social scientists often have to rely on correlational data which is always open to different interpretations. It's difficult to really be sure that rising inequalities are actually causing lower average levels of happiness and life satisfaction.

Professor Hilke Brockmann and colleagues, therefore, used the data to examine two other plausible explanations for declining levels of happiness:
  1. Anomie. This is the sociological idea that unhappiness in society is linked to rapid changes which can decrease how much control people feel they have over their own lives. As China has undergone such rapid changes, anomie is a prime candidate for lower levels of happiness.
  2. Political disaffection. The Chinese have good reason for political disaffection: corruption is rife, freedom is limited and democracy is denied.

In both 1990 and 2000 people were asked questions which accessed all three possible explanations of declining life satisfaction levels. These possible explanations, along with other factors such as self-rated health, marriage, age and gender, were then statistically compared to assess which factors best predicted people's satisfaction with life.

The results showed that in both rural and urban China in 1990 financial worries played practically no part in predicting life satisfaction or any of the other measures. In 1990 financial dissatisfaction had little effect on how satisfied people were with life. Life satisfaction was explained by whether people had a partner or how subjectively powerless they felt (a question designed to access anomie).

But by 2000 the picture had changed dramatically with financial dissatisfaction becoming one of the leading predictors of people's life satisfaction, or rather lack of satisfaction. While subjective powerlessness was still important, no significant changes were seen in this across the decade. This suggests that it really is the change in relative income levels that is causing the decline in people's satisfaction with life, compared to the other two possible explanations.

Frustrated achievers


Professor Hilke Brockmann and colleagues use the term 'frustrated achievers' to describe a huge swathe of Chinese society who are now doing much better in absolute terms. But because their position relative to the average is declining, they feel less satisfied with life.

It is another reminder how, when we think about money, what counts is relativity.This idea of frustrated achievers might also be relevant outside rapidly growing economies like China. In countries where the gap between rich and poor is already large, and still growing, it probably describes large groups of society who look at the rich and wonder what they have done wrong; despite the fact the answer is probably: nothing.

It is another reminder how, when we think about money, what counts is relativity. Humans are hard- (and soft-) wired to be social creatures, we can't avoid comparing ourselves to others, no matter how hard we try. In societies where the rich are very rich, the relative differences are shoved in our faces. And it never feels good to be reminded we've got less than others.

» Read more on the science of happiness.

» Read more on the psychology of money.

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[Image credit: Saad Akhtar]

Reference

Brockmann, H., Delhey, J., Welzel, C., Hao, Y. (In Press). The China Puzzle: Falling Happiness in a Rising Economy. Journal of Happiness Studies.

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The New Science of Happiness

Euphoria

A new and blossoming field of psychology - positive psychology - has begun to uncover fascinating, evidence-based answers to many questions about happiness. I've been sizing up the most recent findings to reveal the emerging science of happiness.

What are the everyday sources of happiness?


Because happiness is something most of us aim for, how we define it has important implications for how we conduct our lives. To see why, compare these two competing definitions of happiness.

Happiness is not just a headlong charge towards whatever makes us feel pleasure, it is about finding satisfaction in ourselves and in what we have done. But what can modern psychological research tells us about the everyday sources of happiness? These three articles explore this question:

How can happiness be increased?


Since most of us want to be happy, what practical steps does psychological research suggest we can take to increase our happiness?


Is being happy any use?


Is there an optimum level of happiness and will happiness help us succeed in life?

Happiness advice: ancient and modern


Advice on how to live the good life comes from many different countries and cultures around the world. There's self-help advice from the ancient Greeks, the ancient Chinese, 19th Century German philosophers and modern Americans, to name only a few.

But how does all this advice compare with what we observe today about the conditions of happiness? As you'll see, some advice certainly fares better than others:


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How to Be Happy, Confucian Style

Cycling

"The one who would be in constant happiness must frequently change." --Confucius

In China two and half thousand years ago one man, Kong Qui, and his followers, synthesised the traditions of the Chinese people to create what they believed were the fundamental principles of humanity. Of course what Westerners now call Confucianism has changed over the years, just like the other major philosophies that have flourished in the East: Buddhism and Taoism. But to have survived this long, these systems of thought must have at their cores a useful set of principles that help people live the 'good life'.

Following on from previous posts on philosophers Epicurus and Schopenhauer, as well as the modern obsession with self-help books, I look at what Ancient Chinese philosophies have to teach us about how to be happy.

In an article in the Journal of Happiness Studies, Zhang and Veenhoven (in press) compare the ancient Chinese versions of Taosim, Buddhism and Confucianism with the modern conditions of happiness. They use findings from the multitude of studies collected in the World Database of Happiness to reach the conclusion that, compared to ancient Buddhism and Taoism, it is Confucius' philosophical teachings that are most likely to lead to a happy life.

So, here (briefly) is Confucius' advice on how to live the good life, contrasted with some of the tenets of Taoism and Buddhism.

1. Invest in intimate ties


Confucianism's view of life is built on the idea of 'Jen'. This means a feeling of concern for the wellbeing of others. Those following Confucianism should bring Jen into both their social relations and, so far as they are able, into society itself.

Compared with the modern observed conditions of happiness this looks like good advice. Generally speaking marriage makes us happier, more friends make us happier and people are especially happy if they have someone to confide in. Classical Taoism goes along with this point but ancient Buddhism runs counter to the evidence, advising the avoidance of intimate ties.

2. Embrace society


Society is accepted within Confucianism and the philosophy encourages its followers to engage in it. Looking at the research, this is also good advice. People who are members of clubs, churches and other organisations are happier, people who have a job are happier, and so on. The evidence shows that this is also true at a societal level. Countries in which people have the densest networks of friends are also those in which people are the happiest.

In comparison, ancient Taoism says retreat to nature and Buddhism says withdraw completely from society - both these points of view are suspect if happiness is your goal.

3. Be successful


Confucianism recommends a devotion to your occupation. The wealth earned from working is also seen in a positive light within Confucianism. Generally speaking people with more money and higher status are happier (but bear in mind that more money doesn't always equal more happiness). In contrast both ancient Taoism and Buddhism are sniffy about earnings.

4. Have fun


Confucius thought moderate amounts of fun were acceptable. This is backed up by modern research finding that people who engage in pleasurable activities are happier (I know, surprise surprise!). Follow-up studies show no long-term disadvantages to a bit of short-term fun. So there's no point rejecting the possibility of happiness, as does ancient Chinese Buddhism, which warns that the pursuit of happiness will only end in disappointment.

5. Live healthily


Still in the land of the blindingly obvious - yes, people who are healthier are happier. Still, just because the advice is obvious doesn't mean it's any less relevant, or any more likely for people to actually act on! Despite this the self-evident nature of this advice, ancient Chinese Buddhism actually recommends physical privation. Again, we'll stick with Confucius on this one.

6. Meet your obligations


One of the most important aspects of ancient Chinese Confucianism is a sense of duty and responsibility. There's some sparse evidence from the individual level that this might lead to greater happiness. At a societal level, however, people who live in collectivist societies, like the Chinese, tend to be less happier than those who live in individualistic societies. This may be because collectivist societies stifle the individual's search for self-actualisation.

7. School yourself


You've guessed it, the well-educated are also happier. On the other hand education mostly contributes to happiness by enabling you to get a better job, and lots of education doesn't necessarily lead to more happiness. One thing is clear though, it is better to live in a more educated society, even if others are more educated than us.

Education is partly endorsed by Taoism, while classical Buddhism advises avoiding school completely. Again, Confucianism wins on this one.

Ancient wisdom


Perhaps it is no surprise that the man who the West knows as 'Confucius' is revered by many as the 'Ancient Teacher' and 'Perfect Sage'. I'm particularly impressed with the prescient quote at the top of the article. This clearly anticipates modern research finding that we quickly get used to new positive experiences so that they no longer continue to increase our happiness.

On the other hand it's important to note that these comparisons are made on the basis of the ancient Chinese versions of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. There is a considerable variation within each of these schools of thought - so much so that for the present purposes the modern versions might as well be completely different schools of philosophy.

Ancient Buddhism does fare badly in this comparison, but people do vary considerably in what they want from philosophical teachings. Not everyone's main aim in life may be to achieve happiness, some may place a higher value on different goals.

» Discover more articles in this series on the new science of happiness.

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Reference

Zhang, G., & Veenhoven, R. (in press) Ancient Chinese philosophical advice: can it help us find happiness today? Journal of Happiness Studies, 1-19.

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Experiences Beat Possessions: Why Materialism Causes Unhappiness

Shoe Shopping

Materialism is a dirty word. It also gets a bad rap in psychology. Studies consistently show that people who agree with statements like "You will buy things just because you want them," tend to be:
  • Less satisfied with life,
  • Less happy,
  • More likely to be depressed,
  • More likely to be paranoid,
  • More likely to be narcissistic.

Not a pretty picture, right? But, just like studies examining the connection between success and happiness, many of the findings are correlational. As a result we can't say for sure that materialism causes all these things, only that they're associated. So, for better evidence, cue the experiment.

Experiential versus material purchases


Leaf Van Boven from the University of Colorado and Thomas Gilovich from Cornell University carried out an intriguing experiment that gets at this question of whether materialism results in less happiness (Van Boven & Gilovich, 2003).

They randomly divided students into two groups and gave each group slightly different instructions:
  1. This group was asked to write a description of a material purchase that had made them happy. Material purchases include things like clothing, gadgets, computers and so on. This could be either something they had bought themselves or that had been bought for them.
  2. The task this group had was only slightly different. They were asked to write a description of an experiential purchase that had given them pleasure. Examples of experiential purchases are meals out, admission tickets to concerts and travel.

To see how they were feeling in the moment, participants were given surreptitious measures both before and after writing these short descriptions. Then, after about a week, the same participants were given back their own descriptions of their purchases and asked to reflect on it. Again, they were asked to report on their feelings in the moment.

Comparing these two groups provided a way of comparing how participants felt about two different types of purchases. The results showed that participants felt better when they were contemplating their experiential purchases than their material purchases.

Thinking about experience


As a result of this experiment, Van Boven & Gilovich predicted that people spend more time overall contemplating their experiential rather than material purchases. To test this out they asked participants to think about experiential and material purchases they were particularly happy with. Then they were asked which they thought about more often. The results clearly showed it was the experiential purchases people thought about more often (83%).

Why do experiences fare better than possessions?


It seems, then, that at some level we understand that our experiential purchases give us more pleasure than our material purchases. But why is that? Van Boven (2005) suggests three reasons:

1. Experiences improve with time (possessions don't).
The reason why experiences improve with time may be because it is possible to think about experiences in a more abstract manner than possessions. For example if you think back to a fantastic summer from your youth, you might easily remember an abstract sense of warm sunshine and exuberance, but you're less likely to remember exactly what you did day-by-day. On a moment-by-moment basis you might have been quite bored, although you'll tend not to remember that.

Material possessions are harder to think about in an abstract sense. The car you bought is still a car, that great new jacket you picked up cheap is still just a jacket. It's more likely the experience of that summer has taken on a symbolic meaning that can live longer in your memory than a possession.

2. Experiences are resistant to unfavourable comparisons
It's well established that social comparisons can have a huge effect on how we view what might seem like positive events. One striking example is the finding that people prefer to earn $50,000 a year while everyone else earns $25,000, instead of earning $100,000 themselves and having other people earn $200,000 (Solnick & Hemenway, 1998).

In other words it's not about how much we earn, it's about how much we earn in comparison to other people. It's the social comparison, then, not the actual amount of money, that affects how we feel about our earnings.

A similar effect is seen for possessions. When there's so many flatscreen HD TVs to choose from, it's easy to make unfavourable comparisons between our choice and the others available (check out Barry Schwartz on why too much choice is bad for us).

Experience, however, seems to be more resistant to these sorts of unfavourable comparisons. To explain this phenomenon, Van Boven puts forward the idea that it is because of the unique nature of experience. It's more difficult to make an unfavourable comparison when there is nothing directly comparable. After all, each of our youthful summers is different (even if only a little).

I also think it's hard to really compare our own experiences with those of other people. Comparing possessions, however, is generally easy.

3. Experiences have more social value
There are two reasons experiences have more social value than possessions. First, experiences tend to encourage social relationships and increased social relationships are good for our happiness. Second, it is more socially acceptable to discuss our experiences with others. People who bang on about their possessions are considered much less likeable than those who talk about their holiday adventures.

Limitations


Of course, it has to be acknowledged that this type of research is at an early stage. Van Boven points to a couple of potential problems yet to be investigated:
  1. The experiments examined here looked at short-term emotions - will these short-term emotions add up to long-term happiness?
  2. Highly materialistic people might actually get more pleasure out of material purchases than experiences.

Materialist dilemmas


Despite these limitations, it seems that along with experimental evidence, there are also some good psychological reasons why experiences are more likely to make us happy than material possessions. On top of this, at some level we do seem to understand that experiences probably beat possessions in terms of happiness.

Set against this is the fact that we clearly live in a society awash with materialism, where objects are valued way beyond their possible contribution to our happiness. So how can this conflict possibly be resolved?

One answer to this question is that while we're likely to think that other people are materialist, we defend our own purchases as necessary and at worst, indulgent. After all, materialism is a dirty word. A dirty word that's on everyone's minds.

» Discover more articles in this series on the new science of happiness.

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[Image credit: Orin Optiglot]


References

Solnick, S.J., & Hemenway, D.(1998). Is more always better? A survey on positional concerns. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 37, 373-383.

Van Boven, L. (2005) Experientialism, Materialism, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Review of General Psychology, 9, 132-142.

Van Boven, L., & Gilovich, T. (2003). To do or to have? That is the question. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 1193-1202.

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9 Ways Happiness Leads to Success

Meditation
[Image credit: premasagar]
The psychological literature clearly shows there is a strong relationship between success and happiness. For example, people who have a comfortable income, or high status in society are usually happiest. But which one comes first, happiness or success?

There's almost an unwritten assumption that it is primarily success that leads to happiness. This is tacitly backed up by psychological research which tends to talk about how success affects happiness.

Of course it's not an either/or situation. The two are probably interrelated in all sorts of complicated ways. But to only talk about how success leads to happiness is ignoring half the story. So says psychologist Professor Sonja Lyubomirsky and colleagues who have pointed out there is plenty of evidence that happiness can, in fact, lead to success (Lyubomirsky, King & Diener, 2005).

The best evidence that happiness causes success comes from experimental studies. These usually work by inducing participants into positive and negative moods and then comparing their behaviour in particular situations like social interactions or health behaviours.

These studies have produced a raft of fascinating results, finding that people in a positive mood are more likely to:
  1. Talk to others. In one experiment men in a positive mood were more likely to talk to a woman and to make self-disclosures, which are important in social relations.
  2. Be interested in leisure activities. People in a good mood want to throw a party, go on vacation or go out for a meal.
  3. Enjoy those social interactions and leisure activities more.
  4. Resolve conflicts effectively. Studies have found people in a good mood are more likely to try and collaborate rather than avoid conflict and compete when they are put in a positive mood.
  5. Help others. When in a good mood, people are more likely to display what psychologists call 'prosocial behaviour' - helping others and being generous with both time and money.
  6. Feel healthier. Experimental evidence shows that people in a good mood experience less pain and perceive themselves to be more healthy.
  7. Be more creative. People in a positive mood are more likely to think with originality and flexibility - perhaps through encouraging playfulness.
  8. Perform complex tasks better. Somewhat controversial this one but some evidence supports it although it probably depends on the nature of the task.
  9. Attribute success to their own skills. Good moods improve people's self-efficacy (our confidence in our own abilities).

The strength of this evidence is that it is based on experimental studies with control groups which provide some of the most persuasive data in science. On the other hand it's important to note that positive affect isn't the only factor that's involved in success - there are plenty others. Still, this is an impressive list.

Making room for happiness


How we think about happiness and success has profound implications for how we run our lives. If we think that success mainly leads to happiness then we are more motivated to focus on success to the exclusion of happiness right now, assuming that happiness will naturally flow from success when we obtain it.

If the psychological research is right, though, the strategy would still be to pursue success, but not, crucially, to the exclusion of happiness. Feeling better in the moment is not only more pleasant but is also likely to open our minds to opportunities at work, play and in our personal relationships. It's recognising and taking these opportunities that will lead us to success.

» Discover more articles in this series on the new science of happiness.

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References

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. & Diener, E. (2005) The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803-855.

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What is Happiness?

Because happiness is something most of us aim for, how we define it has important implications for how we conduct our lives. To see why, compare these two competing definitions of happiness:

1. Happiness is all about minimising pain and maximising pleasure.
The underlying idea here is that there is a kind of mathematics of happiness. Imagine if on our deathbeds we were able to add up all the moments of pleasure in our lives and then all the moments of pain. The amount by which the pleasures exceeded the pains would tell us how happy we were during our lives.

2. Happiness is satisfaction with life as a whole.
On the surface this looks like the same idea but actually it's completely different. Consider the case of Clea Koff, a forensic anthropologist who spent nine years working in Rwanda, digging up the remains of people killed in the 1994 genocide (Bergsma, In press). While this was clearly a gruesome task that would have given most people nightmares, afterwards she explained that the work was meaningful, which made it worthwhile. For Koff, then, happiness was satisfaction that she had done the right thing with her life.

Pleasure and pain


The first definition of happiness is perhaps the one most associated with hedonism, and one that is implicitly accepted by many people. But I think the second definition is much better because it makes room for the idea that we give meaning to the things we do.

Happiness is not just a headlong charge towards whatever makes us feel pleasure, it is about finding satisfaction in ourselves and in what we have done. Even when what we have done has been painful, like Clea Koff's work.

» Read more on the science of happiness.

What's your view?


Would you agree with either of these definitions, or does the answer lie somewhere in between, or even elsewhere completely?

» If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to PsyBlog (RSS).

[Image credit: sean-b]

References

Bergsma, A. (In press) The advice of the wise. Introduction to the special issue on advice for a happy life. Journal of Happiness Studies.

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Hedonist Philosopher Epicurus Was Right About Happiness (Mostly)

Epicurus
[Image credit: mharrsch]
"If a little is not enough for you, nothing is." --Epicurus

Philosophers down the ages have been keen to tell the rest of us how to live and how to be happy. Certainly their advice comes to us with the lustre of intellectual achievement; it is both high-brow and high-powered, but can we understand any of it and how does it fare against modern psychological research?

One philosopher who dispensed clear advice about how to live a happy life was Epicurus, a Greek who lived in the third century B.C.. In a new article in the Journal of Happiness Studies, Bergsma, Poot and Liefbroer (in press) explain Epicurus' guide to the good life and then compare it with some of the huge body of work in psychology looking at satisfaction with life.

Especially now as we launch ourselves into a New Year it is worth thinking about what both philosophy and psychology have to teach us about how to live the good life.

Epicurean hedonism


Epicurus was a hedonist, but not in the popular modern sense. Now we tend to associate hedonism with excessive pleasure-seeking or with refined sensual pleasure. What Epicurus meant, though, was something more subtle; he certainly didn't think the road to happiness was paved with luxury or material wealth. What he emphasised was the idea of being 'untroubled'.

Epicurus thought pleasure and pain were at the centre of human morality. His view was that pleasure and pain are so important to human existence that all our actions are governed by seeking pleasure and trying to avoid pain. Epicurus also saw the absence of pain as a pleasure in itself.

Of course there is both bodily or physical pain and there is psychological pain. Epicurus emphasised the idea of being 'untroubled' over the positive experiences of pleasure. He thought the good life could be achieved through satisfaction that both body and mind are at peace.

Self-help, Epicurean style


So far so good for the abstract philosophical concepts, but what about practicalities? How exactly did Epicurus think we could bring peace to both mind and body?

In order to keep the body content and the mind free from fears, he advocated a 'four-part cure':

1. Don't fear the gods (or fate, or blind chance)
Surprisingly, Epicurus' approach to the gods fits in well even in our godless times. For Epicurus the gods were already in a state of bliss and therefore aren't bothered with human activities. We therefore have nothing to fear from them and should also expect nothing from them.

If you are not a religious person, then perhaps this edict is better thought of as: don't fear fate or blind chance, because neither of them care about us.

Practically, then, it is up to each of us to create order in our lives, because the gods (or fate or chance) will not do it for us. We must meet our own needs and manage threats that inevitably arise.

2. Don't worry about death
Easier said than done maybe but Epicurus had a rational approach to death. He saw it as the end of sense experience, as a point of transition which should not concern us. While we are alive death is not important as it does not yet exist; in other words, we're still alive! Equally when we're dead, we can no longer experience anything so it's still not important (Epicurus didn't believe in life after death or the soul's immortality).

3. What is good is easy to get
This is a controversial one but couldn't be more relevant in today's consumer culture. Here Epicurus makes an important distinction between what is necessary and what is unnecessary. Necessary and natural things include the basics of life like food and shelter. Unnecessary and unnatural things include fame, excessive wealth or honours.

Even within the necessary things Epicurus made a distinction between the necessary and the unnecessary. For example bread will satisfy hunger just as well as lobster. Unfortunately getting a taste for lobster might well prove a recipe for future unhappiness, say when you can't afford it any more. Bread, though, will usually remain in most people's price range.

That said, Epicurus wasn't totally against the odd indulgence. Indeed he thought that someone who could enjoy the simple pleasures of life would enjoy extravagance even more when it came along. Generally, however, he was very much in favour of moderation.

Epicurus thought the beauty of learning to love the simple life was that it is much more durable. When you don't get the promotion, can't repay the mortgage or lose it all in a game of cards, it's much easier to shrug it off. The more you have (or want), the more you have to lose (or fail to get).

4. What is terrible is easy to endure
Epicurus thought that even physical pain could be endured by using the mind. Focussing on pleasure, both that experienced in the past and that to come in the future, can help distract us from current bodily discomfort.

Apart from this four-part cure there were a number of other important strands to Epicurus' philosophy.

Philosophy
Unsurprisingly Epicurus thought the study of philosophy was central to happiness. Philosophy can help us deal with both our fear of death and our fear of the gods.

Friendship
Epicurus thought friendship was one of the most important aspects of the good life. Not only does it give us many benefits, it also benefits our friends as well.

In contrast, Epicurus advised against getting married. He wasn't that impressed with sex either saying we should count ourselves lucky if sex didn't cause anyone any harm(!).

Prudence
Here in the UK the word 'prudence' is a cliche thanks to its overuse by former Chancellor and current Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. But actually the idea of prudence was highly valued by Epicurus.

Prudence for Epicurus is an excellent way of making decisions. All decisions can be seen as leading to pleasure or pain. Thinking ahead, planning for the future with these possible outcomes in mind will help lead to a pleasurable life.

Security
Here Epicurus was concerned with how best to secure peace of mind for ourselves when our neighbours provide a threat, at both the individual and societal levels. Epicurus advised that the best solution was to lead a private life without engaging in politics, business or law. Instead, Epicurus advised surrounding oneself with like-minded friends with whom social contracts could ensure a quiet life. Epicurus himself chose to live in a commune.

Modern psychology's view of Epicurean self-help


So, was Epicurus right? We can get an idea by comparing his advice with what modern psychology has observed from a huge body of research on life satisfaction (Bergsma, Poot & Liefbroer, in press).

Before piling on the praise, let's look at the negative points. While doing so, though, it's worth remembering that Epicurus' advice is more than two millennia old. Needless to say, society has changed more than a bit since then.

1. Epicurus was wrong about the detached life and commune living
The reason Epicurus counselled against getting involved in society was that he thought it was a source of stress and unhappiness. Historically, argue Bergsma and colleagues, the time in which Epicurus lived was politically volatile and his advice made sense in that context. Nowadays, though, in relatively peaceful societies, this is less relevant.

Modern research shows there is a correlation between higher levels of happiness and those who are more involved in society. Epicurus' advice was probably more relevant in his own time than it is now. Bergsma and colleagues also argue that living in a commune, where essentially one size is supposed to fit all, will not suit many people.

2. Epicurus was wrong about avoiding marriage
Generally speaking married people, and people who live together as if they're married, are happier. This is a gross generalisation and needs to be acknowledged as such. For example, nowadays in many societies people are much more likely to divorce, and divorce is often very bad for happiness.

Even taking this into account, though, Bergsma and colleagues argue that people are more happy if they give marriage a try and fail, than if they never tried. The worst that can be said of marriage is, on average, it doesn't make us any less happy.

3. Pleasure is not the opposite of pain
Modern psychology has revealed that pleasure isn't the absence of pain, rather positive and negative affect are independent. Positive emotions have so many other positive knock-on effects that Epicurus is probably wrong to downplay them in favour of the absence of pain.

To take just one example, positive affect increases activity and sociability which are both highly likely to lead to greater happiness in the long-term.

What Epicurus got right


Epicurus was, though, right about a lot, including:

1. Using cognitive strategies to deal with death and pain
Some things in life we can't change - the fact that we will die is one of them, for some people pain and/or disease is another. Epicurus advised that we should deal with these through acceptance and adjusting our attitude. This clearly chimes with modern cognitive-behavioural therapy which focuses on changing psychological responses to inevitable stressors.

2. Friendships matter more than status or money
Social bonds are highly correlated with happiness, whereas having more money doesn't necessarily equal higher happiness. See this study I reported recently.

3. Happiness comes from moderate varied pleasure
Recent experimental evidence has shown that varied enjoyable day-to-day activities lead to increased levels of happiness (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006)

Well done Epicurus!


Altogether I don't think that's too bad a showing for two-thousand-year-old advice! I would argue that Epicurus' only serious blunder was thinking that pleasure is the opposite of pain and that pain should be avoided at all costs. The advice about avoiding marriage and leading a detached life were probably historically accurate but now redundant pieces of advice.

On the other hand the importance of friendship, varied activities and cognitive strategies were all pretty much on the spot. When you consider that his main aim was helping people avoid unnecessary unhappiness, he actually did rather well.

» Read more on the science of happiness.

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References

Bergsma, A., Poot, G., & Liefbroer, A. C. (in press) Happiness in the Garden of Epicurus. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1-27.

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Is Happier Always Better? Socially Yes, Financially No

Married Couple
[Photo by Huro Kitty]
People around the world value happiness - that is, feeling good - above intelligence, success and even material wealth (Diener & Oishi, 2006). This makes sense because happiness is associated with so many positive outcomes: satisfaction with personal relationships, better jobs, better performance in those jobs and a higher income.

But happiness is much more complex than this. For example dissatisfaction with our current job probably helps motivate us to get a better one. A person who is happy with their job is less likely to strive for a change. In our relationships, though, less happiness might encourage us to chop and change our partner, perhaps leading to a less satisfactory social life.

What, then, is the optimum level of happiness?

Some of the first hints at the answer to this question are provided by a new study carried out by Oishi, Diener and Diener (2007) who have analysed an impressive amount of data. Thousands of people in almost 100 countries answered questions about their happiness, income levels and relationships over decades of their lives.

To give you an idea of where the data came from, in one dataset freshman students were asked how cheerful they were at the start of their courses. Nineteen years later they reported their income. Other similar datasets were obtained in Australia, Germany and the UK.

Across all the studies, the data revealed two very interesting findings:

1. Happiness and income
Overall, higher levels of income and education were associated with higher levels of happiness, but with one important exception. At the highest levels of happiness, educational attainment and income started to decrease.

In fact the relationship between achievement and happiness is curvilinear - the graph looks like a hill with the peak at about '7' or '8' on a scale of 1 to 10 where '1' is very dissatisfied and '10' is very satisfied. Up around 10, where people report the highest levels of satisfaction, their income and education have significantly dropped compared to those who peg it at 7 or 8.

2. Happiness and relationships
There's a subtly different story for satisfaction with relationships. Instead of seeing a curve there is a straight line. So the happier we are, the more likely we are to be satisfied with our relationships. Those scoring a '10' on the happiness scale are also the most satisfied with their relationships.

Varying effects of happiness


What I like about this study is that it begins to show the complexity of happiness: that it can have different effects on different parts of our lives.

It also challenges the idea that more happiness is always better. It's difficult to be much more specific than that because this study measures people's happiness in a very general way.

Happiness is, of course, bound to vary from day to day. These variations certainly have important effects on other aspects of our lives. For example, dissatisfaction with our job may prove a powerful motivation for us to make an improvement. After that change is made, our happiness increases.

Studies such as this one clearly cannot tell us much about these dynamics but what they can do is hint at overall patterns. They emphasise the fact that extremely high levels of happiness are not always 'a good thing'.

» Discover more articles in this series on the new science of happiness.

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References

Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2006). The desirability of happiness across cultures. Unpublished manuscript, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Oishi, S., Diener, E., & Diener, E. (2007) The Optimum Level of Well-Being. Can People Be Too Happy? Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2, 346-360.

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Do We Know What Makes Us Happy?

Group of friends
[Photo by tookie]
Happiness is all about everyday, normal activities, psychologists have argued, but do we intuitively understand what strategies increase happiness or not? To find out if students knew, Tkach and Lyubomirsky (2006) asked 500 undergraduates about the strategies they used to increase their happiness.

Below are the strategies students reported using, starting with the most frequently used, down to the least. Also, for each strategy Tkach and Lyubomirsky looked at the relationship between its use and students' reported levels of happiness to see if those who used a particular strategy were actually happier.

Keep in mind that this is a correlational study. That means it can only tell us that two things - like having a social life and happiness - are related, not that one definitely causes the other. That said, there are other studies which do provide evidence of causality in some categories.

1. A social life
Social affiliation - hanging around with friends, helping others - was the most frequently reported method of increasing happiness. It also had the strongest relationship with student's actual happiness. No surprises here. Experiments manipulating people's social activity have found that when increased it leads to more happiness. It's gratifying to see that the number 1, most frequently used strategy probably does work!

2. Acting happy
Direct strategies like 'acting happy' and 'smiling' were the second most popular. While there is some experimental evidence to back this one up, Tkach and Lyubomirsky are cautious. I'd be cautious as well. 'Acting happy' might be useful as a short-term strategy but I'm not so sure about its useful in the long-term.

3. Achieving long-term goals
The students were pretty keen on setting themselves long-term goals for personal achievement, and then sticking to them. This was a relatively popular strategy for increasing happiness and there are also a good few studies to back up this finding. Well done to the students!

4. Passive leisure pursuits
Here's the first bad boy. Passive leisure, like watching TV or playing video games, while relatively popular, showed no connection with happiness. Experimental studies back this up finding few benefits for happiness from passive leisure activities. So, once again, it's time to chuck out the the idiot box and the Xbox.

5. Active leisure pursuits
No question about this one. It's very well established that active leisure pursuits like running or cycling increase happiness. What's worrying is that these pursuits come lower down the list than passive leisure pursuits.

6. Religion
This was a relatively unpopular strategy for increasing happiness, although it is reasonably well-established that religion and being happy go together. Tkach and Lyubomirsky suggest the reason for this connection could be to do with social connectedness, having a sense of purpose in life or even reduced alcohol consumption.

7. Partying and clubbing
Perhaps surprisingly amongst university students this was relatively unpopular as a happiness-enhancing activity. It's just as well since those who partied more weren't any happier, once their extraversion was taken into account.

8. Mental control
This is the second bad boy. It centres around thinking bad thoughts: both contemplating them and trying to suppress them. This category was significantly associated with being unhappy. Indeed, previous research has found that both ruminating on negative thoughts and trying to suppress negative thoughts leads to unhappiness.

A (mostly) positive message


This last category of mental control really stands out: what on earth is it doing on a list of strategies to increase happiness? Statistically it was the strongest predictor of unhappiness. This suggests that a significant minority of people have exactly the wrong idea about what strategies increase happiness.

Passive leisure pursuits is the other category that stands out. All the other categories in the top 6 have at least some connection with happiness. This one has none and yet there it is at number 4 in the list.

The positive message is that generally the strategies that people use to increase their happiness do actually work. We're relying on self-reports here, so people could well be misrepresenting what they actually do - but at least they mostly know what they're supposed to be doing.

» Discover more articles in this series on the new science of happiness.

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References

Tkach, C., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). How Do People Pursue Happiness?: Relating Personality, Happiness-Increasing Strategies, and Well-Being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7(2), 183-225.

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3 Happiness Enhancing Activities With Evidence They Work

Superman
[Photo by Guccino]
The 'How to Be Happy' article has become a staple of newspapers, magazines, books and, increasingly, of websites. We should 'accept reality', or 'take a break', or 'be honest with ourselves', or 'surround ourselves with happy people'.

These things are unlikely to do us any harm but that doesn't stop them reading like a list of platitudes - the kind that people are always doling out but never follow themselves.

We can all create our own lists of happiness enhancing activities and argue endlessly about which is better and for whom. While that's fun for a bit, I always want to ask: which activities have evidence to back up their claims for increasing happiness?

Psychologists have only started investigating this question relatively recently, so there's not a very long list and it is obviously far from exhaustive, but at least there's some research to back them up. The activities psychologists have investigated are gratitude, helping others, and firstly, visualising your best possible self.

1. Visualising your best possible self


Visualising your best possible self may sound like an exercise in fantasy but, crucially, it does have to be realistic. Carrying out this exercise typically involves imagining your life in the future, but a future where everything that could go well, has gone well. You have reached those realistic goals that you have set for yourself.

Then, to help cement your visualisation, you commit your best possible self to paper. This exercise helps draw on the proven benefits of expressive writing.

The effectiveness of this activity was tested in a study by King (2001). Students were asked to write about their best possible future selves for 20 minutes over 4 consecutive days. This group was compared with one writing on a neutral topic, one writing about traumatic life events and another writing about both traumatic events and their best possible future selves.

The results showed that those who had only written about their best possible selves showed greater improvements in subjective well-being compared to all the other groups. The benefits of the exercise could even be measured fully five months later.

Since the results were so encouraging after only a four-day exercise, two other studies have investigated longer periods. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) and Dickerhoof et al. (2007) carried out studies over 4 and 8 weeks respectively. Both of these backed up the previous findings.

It's not hard to speculate on why this exercise might be effective, it probably helps to:
  • Create a sense of efficacy, meaning and purpose.
  • Foster optimism.
  • Set written goals and plan means of achieving them.

2. Helping others


Even if you haven't come across the 'best possible selves' exercise, you'll almost certainly have heard the idea that helping others is beneficial to the self. Helping out at a soup kitchen, volunteering on a helpline, visiting shut-ins - all are certainly virtuous activities. But isn't helping others for no tangible personal benefit too much like self-sacrifice?

Actually, the research suggests there's a very good selfish reason to help others - it really does seem to make us happier. In one study students were asked to perform five acts of kindness each week for six weeks (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon & Schkade, 2005). These were things like writing a thank-you note, giving blood or helping a friend with their work. Students were told either to perform one act each day or all five acts on one day.

Both experimental groups showed a better outcome than the control group whose well-being declined over the six-week period (perhaps exams were looming!). Those who performed their acts of kindness each day showed a small increase in well-being.

But the highest well-being was seen in those students who carried out all their acts of kindness on one single day on each of the six weeks of the study. Their well-being increased by an impressive 40%.

Lyubomirsky, Sheldon and Schkade (2005) suggest the reason for the difference is that a single act of kindness each day doesn't make an appreciable difference to the everyday routine, especially as these were only small acts.

3.Practicing gratitude


I've already covered the third activity that has shown promise in increasing happiness: practicing gratitude. A study conducted by Emmons and McCullough (2003) found that sitting down weekly to write about five things we are grateful for increased happiness levels by 25%. If you're short of ways of practicing gratefulness, this list of ways to be grateful culled from Dr Emmons' book will be useful.

You might also be interested in my review of Dr Robert Emmons' book 'thanks!' which details his experiments and expands on practicing gratitude.

Reasons to be cheerful


I'm sure these are only a tiny subset of the ways we can increase our happiness. At the moment, though, these are some of the ones that have the research to back them up.

In many ways these findings are encouraging. None of these activities involves spending vast amounts of money (or any money really!), none take up that much time and they are all within almost everyone's reach.

The real challenge they present is in making changes to our daily routines, our standard ways of thinking and behaving. Compared to what we often perceive as a long and winding road to happiness, this trip looks like a doddle, if only we'd open our eyes and look.

» Discover more articles in this series on the new science of happiness.

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References

Dickerhoof, R., Lyubomirsky, S., & Sheldon, K. M. (2007). How and why do intentional activities work to boost well-being?: An experimental longitudinal investigation of regularly practicing optimism and gratitude. Manuscript under review.

Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389

King, L. A. (2001). The health benefits of writing about life goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 798-807

Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111-131.

Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). How to increase and sustain positive emotion: The effects of expressing gratitude and visualizing best possible selves. Journal of Positive Psychology, 1, 73-82.

Tkach, C. (2005). Unlocking the treasury of human kindness: Enduring improvements in mood, happiness, and self-evaluations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Riverside.

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Being Happy: Enjoyable Activities Beat Improved Life Circumstances

Fun
[Photo by tookie]
Being happy and staying happy is all about our day-to-day activities according to this theory of sustainable happiness. Research suggests that the contributions to our happiness are 50% genetic, 10% from our life circumstances and fully 40% determined by our day-to-day activities. But what evidence is there for this theory?

One prediction from this theory is that engaging in new activities should increase our happiness more than an improvement in our circumstances. This is exactly what Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) tested in three related studies.

New activities vs. new circumstances


Two different signs were put up around a university campus asking for participants. One asked for participants who had recently seen an improvement in their circumstances while another asked for those who had recently taken up a new activity.

The study also tested how much these changes had been affected by hedonic adaptation (see sustainable happiness post) and variety. This was to make the comparison fair, so that both groups had not yet adapted to their new circumstances or activity and it was still providing variety - both factors thought important in sustainable happiness.

The results showed that those who had recently engaged in a new activity felt happier than those whose circumstances had improved. This provides some preliminary evidence but data collected over a period of time (longitudinal) is more convincing, so that is what Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006) did in their second study.

Here they recruited participants in the same way but this time measured their happiness at three time-points. The results again supported the theory with the effects of improved circumstances increasing happiness, but the boost from a new activity being more lasting. Finally a third study along the same lines also found similar results.

The power of randomisation


A problem with both these studies is that participants in both groups were self-selected. This creates problems for the interpretation of the results. For example, perhaps the type of people who take up new activities are also prone to stay happier for longer periods. If that is the case the results aren't really showing the benefits of activities over circumstances.

This is exactly why experiments using random allocation to groups are so useful for psychologists. Once people have been randomly allocated to groups, the counter-argument about self-selection is ruled out.

Sheldon and Lyubomirsky are, therefore, currently carrying out a study with random allocation which will soon be published (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2007). Early indications bode well for their theory as the results support their previous studies. So, it looks like their previous results are not the result of self-selection.

Activities win


These studies emphasise that new, enjoyable activities have more potential for making us happy than improvements in our circumstances. Indeed activities may have as much as four times more power to make us happy.

» Discover more articles in this series on the new science of happiness.

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Reference

Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). Achieving sustainable gains in happiness: Change your actions, not your circumstances. Journal of Happiness Studies, 7, 55-86.

Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). Activities last and circumstances fade: An experimental study of the effects of two types of life-change upon sustainable new well-being. Manuscript in preparation.

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Sustainable Happiness: Why It's All About the Day-to-Day

Smiling and jumping
[Photo by tookie]
It's one of the great paradoxes of life that we all want to be happy, yet so few of us seem to know exactly where happiness comes from. Happiness itself can be defined in many different ways, it may have all kinds of components, it may be a life's work, or even no work at all, but we are, most of us, in pursuit of this elusive goal.

Psychologists have good and bad news about our search for happiness. The bad news is that we have essentially no control over 50% of our happiness levels. Happiness, like many of our other attributes is partially set by our genes. While these do interact to a certain extent with the environment, on a day-to-day basis this 50% can be considered immovable.

What about the other 50%? This is the start of the good news (almost).

Happy circumstances


First there are the overall circumstances of our lives, our 'demographics'. This includes things like how much money we have, our education level, whether we live in rich or poor countries, how old we are, whether we are married or not and whether we are religious.

All of these factors have some relationship to happiness. For example, higher levels of education are associated with more happiness, as is higher age and even being married (I know, I know!).

These are all factors which, generally speaking, are difficult to change. Granted, it is easier to get married than it is to become younger, but they are both still relatively long-term circumstantial factors.

While circumstantial factors do matter, the surprise is how small a contribution they make to our happiness. Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2007) estimate it at only 10%. This is completely dwarfed by the genetic contribution to happiness.

So if we can't change our genes and we can't, broadly speaking, change our life circumstances, what on earth can we change?

Intentional activity


The only thing that is left is what we actually do every day. What Sheldon and Lyubomirsky refer to as 'intentional activity'. They see the activities we take part in as moving our happiness levels within the set range determined by our genetics and our life circumstances.

But which activities to choose, and how should we carry out these activities? Answering this question is all about understanding how quickly humans adapt to new and exciting experiences.

The first time we try something stimulating that we find enjoyable, it is likely to increase our happiness levels considerably. Whether it's that first parachute jump, the first kiss with our partner or just a new and exciting book we're reading. New experiences tickle our pleasure centres and we feel good.

Unfortunately when presented with that very same stimulus again and again we soon become used to it. This is what psychologists have called 'hedonic adaptation'. The amount of pleasure we can get from the same experience tails off with repeated exposure. The first chocolate tastes a damn sight better than the last.

This lead Lyubomirsky, Sheldon and Schkade (2005) to suggest that the activities we choose should have three characteristics:
  1. They should fit our needs and our personalities. E.g. If you don't crave excitement parachuting is unlikely to fit with your needs. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be perfect for someone else.
  2. Their content should vary. Do you always run around the same circuit? Or fly your kite on the same hill? Or walk the same route through the forest? Varying the routine is likely to minimise the effects of hedonic adaptation.
  3. Their timing should vary. This also helps to avoid hedonic adaptation.

Change of priorities?


When I think about the proportions which genetics, life circumstances and intentional activities contribute to happiness, it makes me think about our priorities in life. The genetic component is essentially a write-off - there's precious little we can do about this until gene therapy or some equivalent lets us adjust our pre-set happiness levels.

This means that our sustainable levels of happiness are down to our life circumstances and our everyday activities. But, crucially, our everyday activities are four times more important, in terms of happiness, than our life circumstances.

To provide a rather cliched example: consider whether it is better to be at work trying to get a promotion, to get a raise to increase your life circumstances or to be at home with your family (this presumes your family make you happy!).

Of course it's quite possible to get more pleasure out of being at work than being with your family - although not many will admit to it.

The here and now


There's another interesting implication from this finding about what contributes to our happiness. Some might say that this balance of 10% life circumstances to 40% everyday activities means that to be happy, long-term plans and goals should be ignored in favour of the here and now. After all, why bother to strive for a better job if it won't increase your happiness? Surely it's better to just do whatever makes me happy right now?

Long-term plans do, of course, contribute to our day-to-day happiness, but indirectly. A better job, leading to more money can mean we have more freedom to do those day-to-day things which we like. Life circumstances and day-to-day activities clearly interact. To talk of one without the other doesn't make sense in the real world.

These qualifications acknowledged, people often do place much more importance on their life circumstances to the detriment of everyday pleasurable activities. What the psychology research suggests is that it's those quotidian pleasures that have the power to make us happy and keep us happy, provided they hold enough variety.

» Discover more articles in this series on the new science of happiness.

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Reference

Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9, 111-131.

Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2007). Is it possible to become happier? (And if so, how?). Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 1-17.

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World's Happiest Man: Joy Can Be Learned

Are your conditions for happiness primarily external? Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard has a message for you. The Dalai Lama's right-hand man explains that the mind is malleable and happiness can be learned and measured: