Introduction: The Dynamics of Happiness and the Dynamics of Happiness Research

Abstract

Happiness research is mushrooming. National rankings of the happiest populations and insights into which factors boost happiness are in demand as much from a growing international scientific community as from policy makers and the general public. This is probably no accident in post-modern times. The concept is down-to-earth, innocent, and non-ideological, but promising and in everyone’s vocabulary rut. Happiness may refer to either shortterm emotional states, or long-term cognitive evaluations (Ryff 1989; Veenhoven 1996a, b; Kahneman 2000). Yet, it always rests on the individual capacity to distinguish between good and bad environmental stimuli, and it triggers behavioral responses. In the academic context, happiness has a long philosophical tradition, a biological core, a close match with economics, psychological standing, sociological significance, and political implications; this is way more than other concepts can offer. Thus, it is no coincidence that researchers from all of these areas contribute to the ‘‘new science of happiness’’ (Layard 2005), helping step by step to unlock the mysteries of ‘‘psychological wealth’’ (Diener and Biswas-Diener 2008). Frey (2008) even attests that happiness research has revolutionary potential. This is certainly true for economics, if satisfaction ratings become a gold standard for measuring individual utility. In a broader sense, this new science promotes the subjective measurements of well-being, and consequently shifts the power from the expert (i.e. the scientist) to the layperson. The normative implications are far reaching. In the tradition of Bentham, the ‘‘new utilitarianism’’ advocates the maximization of individual happiness as the guiding principle for public policy (Veenhoven 2004). Just imagine: happy patients in public health care, happy pupils in public schools, and happy unemployed labor in state-subsidized work schemes. Yet, such ambitious and happy outlooks need solid groundwork in research. The last two decades have increased knowledge about happiness immensely. To start with, we know today that survey methods are a valid and reliable source for measuring ‘‘life-