Happiness Around the World

"Happiness" from economic and psychological perspectives:

In a comment on this entry, Thom writes,

I'm not convinced that what we call happiness is a single thing. We could probably divide it into (at least) two concepts - local happiness "this instant" and general happiness. I think that having children relates more to the latter (or possibly towards a related concept like fulfilment).

Beyond that you'd need a theoretical account of happiness to make sense of what's going on. The (naive) economic analysis is that happiness leads to inaction, but the some theories of emotion propose the opposite (with evidence in support). For example the broaden and build theory of emotion proposes that the evolutionaty function of positive emotions is to build resources - so you'd maybe expect happy people to plan for the future (whereas we know very unhappy people don't).

I'm especially interested in his second comment--the point about action and inaction is something I'd never thought about. From an economic standpoint, if you are at a maximum of relative happiness, you would want to do what it takes to stay there (which might be inaction, but it might be to work your tail off, if, for example, you're happy but in major dept). For unhappy people, one could try a reverse explanation: if you're unhappy despite everything you've tried, then maybe giving up seems like the best alternative.

Interesting! Does this imply that future-orientation leads to happiness or that happiness leads to future-orientation?

Elsewhere, some reports about happiness around the world:

Young people in developing nations are at least twice as likely to feel happy about their lives than their richer counterparts, a survey says. Indians are the happiest overall and Japanese the most miserable.

I've had interaction with many Japanese and Indians and have spent time in both countries. I would agree with this based on my own annecdotal observations. That's interesting because I'm not sure which culture I'd consider to be more future-oriented. I would say many of the Indians I know look to the future with optimism, while many of the Japanese I know look to the future with worry and pessimism. Attitude does matter.

To back up the findings of this report, here is an actual quote of one of my Japansese co-workers inviting me over to his house for dinner in Kobe several years ago:

"Hollar-san, I would like you to come over to my miserable house to meet my miserable wife and taste some of her miserable cooking."

If American men talked like that about their wives like that, they'd quickly find themselves miserable too!

Read more thoughts on this here.