Having spent several hours perusing the web (and thus now being an expert on the subject) - and in an attempt to somehow justify the time spent on this project - I now present to you my findings:
What makes people happy? It's a cliche to say that money doesn't buy happiness - but it's quite stunning how very literally true that is. Wealthy people are not any happier than anybody else (aside from people who make so little money that they cannot have even their basic needs met).
"Despite the weak relationship between income and global life satisfaction or experienced happiness, many people are highly motivated to increase their income," the study said. "In some cases, this focusing illusion may lead to a misallocation of time, from accepting lengthy commutes (which are among the worst moments of the day) to sacrificing time spent socializing (which are among the best moments of the day)."
http://www.physorg.com/news70817137.htmlHowever, there are some limited senses in which money is related to happiness: When we use it to purchase experiences relating to higher order needs like connectivity and vitality (
http://www.physorg.com/news153300326.html) and - just in time for the Holiday Shopping Season - when we spend it on others.
“Regardless of how much income each person made,” says Dunn, “those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not ”
"In another experiment, the researchers gave participants a $5 or $20 bill, asking them to spend the money by 5 p.m. that day. Half the participants were instructed to spend the money on themselves, and half were assigned to spend the money on others. Participants who spent the windfall on others reported feeling happier at the end of the day than those who spent the money on themselves.
“These findings suggest that very minor alterations in spending allocations – as little as $5 – may be enough to produce real gains in happiness on a given day,” says Dunn." -
http://www.physorg.com/news125242425.htmlOne way in which money is more directly related to happiness is in your perception of financial security:
"Even if you are making a hundred grand a year, if you are constantly worried that you are going to get fired, that you are going to lose your health insurance or that you are simply not sure you are going to 'make it,' you are not going to be happy," Miron-Shatz said. (
http://www.physorg.com/news156521998.html)
...though, in that case, it's as much about /not/ thinking about money as having it.
At this point, I'd like to make a short point about the social welfare state: GEE, isn't it nifty that the government is does things like subsidize civic arts and events; promotes public transportation, provides a health and financial safety net and encourages charity? Just think how much happier people might be if that actually worked better!
"It turns out that people in Denmark and Switzerland have the highest overall satisfaction with life"
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=893It's too bad that the citizens of Denmark and Switzerland are crushed under the iron heel of socialist tyranny.
Oh wait, they actually have higher political freedom index scores than the US. And longer life expectancies.
So, anyway.
Let's look at the opposite: Unhappiness.
"From the General Social Survey, the researchers found that self-described happy people were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read more newspapers. By contrast, unhappy people watched significantly more television in their spare time.
According to the study's findings, unhappy people watch an estimated 20 percent more television than very happy people, after taking into account their education, income, age and marital status – as well as other demographic predictors of both viewing and happiness." (
http://www.physorg.com/news145901411.html)
Religion seems to be a mixed bag:
"Religious beliefs significantly tied to national political participation: Those who believe that God is directly involved in world affairs, such as evangelical Protestants, are less likely to be involved in world affairs. Believers in such an active God believe that if God determines worldly affairs, then there is little reason for individuals to participate in civic events. In contrast, if one believes that God is more inactive, as is common with Jews and mainline Protestants, then one would need to take action and more likely be politically engaged." (
http://www.physorg.com/news133524847.html)
"Participating in religion may make adolescents from certain races more depressed: One of the few studies to look at the effects of religious participation on the mental health of minorities suggests that for some of them, religion may actually be contributing to adolescent depression. Previous research has shown that teens who are active in religious services are depressed less often because it provides these adolescents with social support and a sense of belonging. But new research has found that this does not hold true for all adolescents, particularly for minorities and some females." (
http://www.physorg.com/news139658221.html)
"Religion makes people helpful and generous -- under certain conditions: Religious people are more likely than the non-religious to engage in prosocial behaviour – acts that benefit others at a personal cost – when it enhances the individual's reputation or when religious thoughts are freshly activated in the person's mind" (
http://www.physorg.com/news142174482.html)
"Church Attendance, Marital Status Can Affect Mood of Older Adults: They found that while being married helped to ward off depression, attending church appeared to have a "protective effect" against symptoms consistent with depression. . . But some of the subtle differences were that people who reported not going to church at all had lower levels of depression than did those who either went consistently or inconsistently." (
http://www.physorg.com/news174145884.html)
"Spirituality protects against depression better than church attendance: In a study published on-line this month in Psychological Medicine, Maselko and fellow researchers compared each domain of religiosity to their risk of depression, and were surprised to find that the group with higher levels of religious well-being were 1.5 times more likely to have had depression than those with lower levels of religious well-being. Maselko theorizes this is because people with depression tend to use religion as a coping mechanism." (
http://www.physorg.com/news143979823.html)
"Religion habit cuts anxiety in women: According to Temple University’s Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active. Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active." (
http://www.physorg.com/news118388730.html)
So, while certain varieties of religious / spiritual belief / practice are associated with positive health and social effects (and bearing in mind that atheists make up a smaller portion of the US prison population than they do the general population) you can't exactly just freely and objectively choose to be, or not be, religious anyway. Though the study of the nature of religious belief does continue:
"Where religious belief and disbelief meet in the brain: A comparison of all religious with all nonreligious statements suggested that religious thinking is more associated with brain regions that govern emotion, self-representation and cognitive conflict in both believers and nonbelievers, while thinking about ordinary facts is more reliant upon memory retrieval networks. Activity in the brain's anterior cingulate cortex, an area associated with cognitive conflict and uncertainty, suggested that both believers and nonbelievers experienced greater uncertainty when evaluating religious statements." (
http://www.physorg.com/news173634551.html)
The research seems similarly mixed on marriage & family:
"Married with children the key to happiness? For married individuals of all ages and married women in particular, children increase life satisfaction and life satisfaction goes up with the number of children in the household. Negative experiences in raising children are reported by people who are separated, living as a couple, or single, having never been married. Children take their toll on their parents' satisfaction with social life, and amount and use of leisure time. Dr. Angeles concludes: "One is tempted to advance that children make people better off under the 'right conditions'. . ." (
http://www.physorg.com/news175861714.html)
"Depressed People Benefit More From Marriage Than Others: As would be expected, people who report marriages that are high in quality and low in conflict are less likely to be depressed. Also, the study found that depressed people who got married reported overall lower levels of marital quality than did individuals who were not depressed. But even so, depressed people still benefited more psychologically from marriage than did non-depressed people." (
http://www.physorg.com/news74789341.html)
There does seem to be a few things we can do with definite positive impact:
"Nature Makes Us More Caring, Study Says: "Stopping to experience our natural surroundings can have social as well as personal benefits," says Richard Ryan, coauthor and professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester. While the salubrious effects of nature are well documented, from increasing happiness and physical health to lowering stress, this study shows that the benefits extend to a person's values and actions. Exposure to natural as opposed to man-made environments leads people to value community and close relationships and to be more generous with money, find Ryan and his team of researchers at the University of Rochester." (
http://www.physorg.com/news173551810.html)
"No pain, no gain: Mastering a skill makes us stressed in the moment, happy long term: the study found that people who engage in behaviors that increase competency, for example at work, school or the gym, experience decreased happiness in the moment, lower levels of enjoyment and higher levels of momentary stress. Despite the negative effects felt on an hourly basis, participants reported that these same activities made them feel happy and satisfied when they looked back on their day as a whole." (
http://www.physorg.com/news176041286.html)
Then again, in the end there's only so much you can do: "Happiness in life is as much down to having the right genetic mix as it is to personal circumstances" (
http://www.physorg.com/news123850044.html)
Which leads to the fascinating & complex relationship between genes, culture and individual thought + action: "Genes drive behaviour, but culture can select genes" (
http://www.physorg.com/news175955032.html)
And who says happiness is so great anyway?
"Report: Happy students do worse in math" (
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=5553894)
"Don't worry, be (moderately) happy, research suggests: “The highest levels of income, education and political participation were reported not by the most satisfied individuals (10 on the 10-point scale),” the authors wrote, “but by moderately satisfied individuals (8 or 9 on the 10-point scale).”
The 10s earned significantly less money than the eights and nines. Their educational achievements and political engagement were also significantly lower than their moderately happy and happy-but-not-blissful counterparts.
In the more social realms, however, the 10s were the most successful, engaging more often in volunteer activities and maintaining more stable relationships." (
http://www.physorg.com/news120399953.html)
And one of my favorite articles: "Lincoln's Great Depression: Abraham Lincoln fought clinical depression all his life, and if he were alive today, his condition would be treated as a "character issue"—that is, as a political liability. His condition was indeed a character issue: it gave him the tools to save the nation" (
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200510/lincolns-clinical-depression)
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