Happiness Studies Research Articles

Inframarginal values and demand: Contra Dwight Lee

Happiness studies show that there has been no discernable rise in happiness in the United States between 1959 and 2004, yet the same period saw per capita income nearly triple. Dwight Lee modifies the theory of consumer demand to resolve this apparent conflict. Using the concepts of consumer surplus and rising incomes causing demand shifts, Lee posits that the law of downward sloping demand only fleetingly applies. He hypothesizes that the values of all units consumed become the same as the value of the last unit soon after the change in income. This makes the demand curve horizontal for all units consumed, and that makes the existence of consumer surplus ephemeral. There are difficulties with this; some are: (1) His formulation gives rise to predictions that are at odds with commonly observed market phenomena; (2) The attempted resolution is quixotic because the theory of demand and consumer surplus holds time, place, and circumstances constant, while happiness surveys do not and, indeed, cannot hold things constant over decades; and (3) because standard economic theory is timeless it is inapplicable to many phenomena that occur over extended periods.

Mispredicting Happiness Across the Adult Lifespan: Implications for the Risky Health Behaviour of Young People

Using data from a 2007 survey in Northern Ireland (representative sample, N = 1036), we replicate and extend the US-based findings of Lacey et al. (Journal of Happiness Studies 7:167–182, 2006). Consistent with Lacey et al., we find that young people mispredict happiness levels in old age, believing—wrongly—that happiness declines with age. We explore the possible implications of this under-estimation of happiness in old age for the risky health behaviours of young people. We find that young male binge drinkers are particularly prone to thinking that happiness declines with age.

Measurement of Social Preference from Utility-Based Choice Experiments

Ever since the classical works of Smith and Veblen, economists have recognized that individuals care about their relative positions and status in addition to their own consumption. This paper addresses a new framework of choice experiments in order to specify the shape of utility function with preference externalities. Theoretical studies on social preference, which are conducted without estimating or calibrating important parameters of social preference and put forward various propositions in accordance with the parameters assumed, can refer to the parameters estimated in this paper. Our findings complement those of happiness studies which support the view of social preference. We show that preference externality is, on average, characterized by jealousy among Japanese respondents, and also that heterogeneity in social preference parameters is driven by differences in income levels, age, and gender.

Religion as a source of variation in the experience of positive and negative emotions

In a series of three studies, we examined the ways in which religion informs the individual experience and valuation of emotions. In Study 1, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish participants (N = 7231) in 49 nations reported the frequency with which they experienced nine discrete emotions. Results indicate group level differences in the frequency with which different emotions are experienced. Study 2 examined whether the patterns of emotional experiences found in Study 1 replicated in the valuation of those emotions by the adherents of those different religious traditions. Study 3 experimentally manipulated the salience of religious identity to examine the effect of religion on the current experience of emotions. Across the studies, findings provide evidence that religion (e.g., Christianity, Buddhism, etc) is related to the experience of, and beliefs about, emotional states. Implications for the study of happiness and positive psychology are discussed in light of the findings.

Blogs: Happiness Barometers?

![Figure][1] CREDIT: COURTESY OF P. DODDS AND C. DANFORTH Day in, day out, bloggers pour their feelings onto the Web. Now researchers are mining those outpourings to track society's mood swings. Peter Dodds and Christopher Danforth, applied mathematicians at the University of Vermont, Burlington, automatically searched 2.4 million blogs, via the Web site [www.wefeelfine.org][2], for phrases containing the words “I feel.” Their computers then scanned those phrases for 1034 emotionally charged words that a 1999 psychology study had ranked on a happiness scale from 1 (miserable) to 9 (ecstatic). From the words' frequency and scores, an algorithm calculated a net feel-good factor for each day and month. For the past 4 years, happiness has steadily increased in the blogosphere, Dodds and Danforth reported online recently in the Journal of Happiness Studies . Spirits spike on Christmas and Valentine's Day but dip on 11 September. The happiest day since 2005 was 4 November 2008, the day of the U.S. presidential election. In contrast, Michael Jackson's death in June triggered a 3-day trough. The Vermont scientists are now studying Twitter feeds. James Fowler, a social scientist at the University of California, San Diego, says the new method will enable scientists “to take the pulse of the whole world, assessing the mood of human society.” [1]: pending:yes [2]: http://www.wefeelfine.org

Subjective Well-Being in Cities: A Multidimensional Concept of Individual, Social and Cultural Variables

Subjective indicators of well-being have been proposed as guides for development policy since development is not limited to material wealth (Veenhoven, Social Indicators Research, 58:33–45 2002; Diener, Journal of Happiness Studies 7:4–397 2006). Development studies have suffered from a materialistic bias (Easterlin, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 27:35–47 1995). The paper presents a comparative cross-cultural investigation of domains of subjective well-being (SWB) and a global measure of Satisfaction with Life as a Whole (SWLS) in three cities: Bogota-Colombia; Belo-Horizonte-Brazil and Toronto-Canada. The Personal and National Wellbeing Indexes (PWI and NWI) developed by the International Wellbeing Group (IWG, Cummins, Social Indicators Research 38:303–328 1996; Cummins et al., Social Indicators Network News 69:8 2002) as well as the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS, Diener et al., Journal of Personality Assessment 49:71–75 1985) were applied and successfully validated at the city level. The cities chosen have similar democratic institutions but different cultures and different “objective” indicators of development. Significant differences across cities as well as significant interaction effects were found for the subjective well-being indexes and demographic variables. Based on these results, we propose that NWI may be seen as a contextual antecedent of PWI, consistent with our view that individual evaluations of SWB may be determined by dispositional factors (top-down), context (bottom-up domains) and cultural values. The validation of the subjective well-being indexes in diverse cultural contexts is an important contribution in a field that has been mainly dominated by European, American and Australian samples.

Dilemmas in Teaching Happiness

Dilemmas in Teaching Happiness

Measuring Satisfaction with Religiosity and Its Contribution to the Personal Well-Being Index in a Muslim Sample

This research aims to explore Satisfaction with Religiosity/Spirituality (SR/S) in a large sample of Muslims (1388 males, 1172 females) from Algeria. It also provides empirical evidence for the addition of a SR/S Domain item to the Personal Well-Being Index (PWI). A questionnaire dealing with satisfaction with a range of personal and societal domains was used. Results support previous findings (Wills Journal of Happiness Studies 10(1):49–69, 2009), and are in agreement with the recommendations of the International Well-being Group (Group discussion, 2006; IWG 2006). The new domain item makes a statistically significant — albeit a slight — contribution in predicting general satisfaction with life (SWL). Notably, higher satisfaction with religiosity/spirituality is found in women compared to men, married individuals compared to single ones, and inhabitants of the Sahara desert locations compared to people from other regions of Algeria.

Happiness and declining inframarginal values

I accept the broad findings of happiness studies on the longitudinal and cross-sectional relationships between income and happiness, and argue that standard demand curve analysis is inconsistent with those findings. This inconsistency is overcome with a simple dynamic modification to the standard demand curve that assumes the psychological adaptation to consuming a good is captured by declining values of inframarginal units. I argue that this modification is consistent with two evolutionary considerations related to happiness and that it has interesting implications for such things as anticipation and happiness, apparent anomalies in discounting the future, the connection between World War II and the end of the Great Depression, and the possibility of increasing our happiness by moderating our consumption.

Ethics and Energy: A Comparative Study of Gross National Happiness and Sustainability

Ethics and Energy: A Comparative Study of Gross National Happiness and Sustainability

Spirituality, Religiousness, and Happiness in Children Aged 8–12 Years

The relation between spirituality and happiness was assessed in 320 children aged 8–12 from public and private (i.e., faith-based) schools. Children rated their own spirituality using the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire and 11 items selected and modified from the Brief Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality which reflected the children’s practices and beliefs. Children’s happiness was assessed using self-reports based on the Oxford Happiness Scale short form, the Subjective Happiness Scale, and a single-item measure. Parents also rated their children’s happiness. Children and parents rated the children’s temperament using the emotionality, activity, and sociability temperament survey. Children’s spirituality, but not their religious practices (e.g., attending church, praying, and meditating), was strongly linked to their happiness. Children who were more spiritual were happier. Spirituality accounted for between 3 and 26% of the unique variance in children’s happiness depending on the measures. Temperament was also a predictor of happiness, but spirituality remained a significant predictor of happiness even after removing the variance associated with temperament. The personal (i.e., meaning and value in one’s own life) and communal (quality and depth of inter-personal relationships) domains of spirituality were particularly good predictors of children’s happiness. These results parallel studies of adult happiness and suggest strategies to enhance happiness in children.

How do Positive Views Maintain Life Satisfaction?

This study proposes three mediation pathways to explain how the positive views (perceived control, optimism and self-enhancement) proposed by Cummins and Nistico (Journal of Happiness Studies 3:37–69 2002) maintain life satisfaction. The three pathways were enhancing self-esteem, reducing have-want discrepancy and changing importance perceptions. Two hundred and seventy-two undergraduates from Central Taiwan University of Science and Technology and Nan Kai Institute of Technology voluntarily participated in this study. Questionnaires measuring sense of control, optimism, self-enhancement, self-esteem, have-want discrepancy and importance of life domains, and global life satisfaction were administered to participants in a classroom setting. Correlation and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to examine the mediation effects of these three pathways. Generally, results of correlation and structural equation modeling analyses were consistent with hypothesized relations among variables and showed that the relationship between positive views and life satisfaction was completely mediated by self-esteem, have-want discrepancy and shifting tendency of importance perception, indicating that the three pathways of enhancing self-esteem, reducing have-want discrepancy and changing importance perceptions had unique effects to explain how positive views maintain life satisfaction.

An Empirical Study of Happiness in Italy

Abstract This study analyzes the determinants of individual subjective well-being (happiness) in Italy by estimating microeconometric happiness equations in order to examine the effects of socio-demographic characteristics and economic conditions on subjective evaluations of happiness. Consistent with the findings in other advanced countries we find that income and wealth increase happiness and that unemployment is extremely bad for subjective well-being. In addition, we obtain some novel and interesting results for Italy including the following: income obtained by public transfers has a limited impact on subjective well-being; education increases happiness, even when controlling for income; Southern residents and individuals living in large cities are less happy; and social capital makes people happier. Finally, individuals care about relative income, in the sense that their happiness is negatively influenced by the income of others in their group of reference. Our results show that several non-economic variables are extremely important for subjective well-being.

Happiness Studies: Ways to Improve Comparability and Some Public Policy Implications*

Recent happiness studies by psychologists, sociologists and economists have produced many interesting results. These have important implications, including the need to focus less on purely objective (including economic) variables and more on subjective well‐being. In particular, the focus on GDP should be supplemented (if not replaced) by more acceptable national success indicators such as the environmentally responsible happy nation index. Welfare economics and cost–benefit analysis that are currently based on economic factors (which are in turn based on preferences) should be revised to be based on happiness or welfare. Public spending on areas important for welfare should be preferred over private consumption that is largely no longer important for long‐term welfare at the social level. Public policy should put more emphasis (than suggested by existing economic analysis) on factors more important for happiness than economic production and consumption, including employment, environmental quality, equality, health and safety. Above all, scientific advance in general and in brain stimulation and genetic engineering in particular may offer the real breakthroughs against the biological or psychological limitations on happiness. Some simple ways to improve the accuracy and comparability (including interpersonal) of happiness measurement are suggested: pinning down the level of neutrality, recognising the possible nonlinear scale used in self‐reports, and using the just perceivable increment of pleasure as the interpersonally comparable unit.

What Does Happiness Research Tell Us About Taxation?

Abstract This paper analyzes the consequences of happiness research for taxation. It focuses on the finding that happiness depends on status as well as income, examining how adding status concerns to standard optimal tax models changes the results. It then compares the empirical findings of the happiness literature to see whether they provide the type of data needed to parameterize the models, arguing that the models need different types of data than most happiness studies emphasize. The paper also looks at Robert Frank’s arguments for a progressive consumption tax based on the findings of the happiness research. It finds that these claims are not supported by the current models or empirical data. Finally, the paper considers a number of other potential implications of happiness research for taxation, including marriage penalties or bonuses, special tax rates for the disabled, and age‐dependent taxation.

The Construct Validity of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale: Multisample and Longitudinal Evidence

This study investigated the factor structure and factorial group and time invariance of the 17-item and 9-item versions of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES; Schaufeli et al. (2002b) Journal of Happiness Studies 3:71–92). Furthermore, the study explored the rank-order stability of work engagement. The data were drawn from five different studies (N = 9,404), including a three-year longitudinal study (n = 2,555), utilizing five divergent occupational samples. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypothesized correlated three-factor structure—vigor, dedication, absorption—of both UWES scales. However, while the structure of the UWES-17 did not remain the same across the samples and time, the structure of the UWES-9 remained relatively unchanged. Thus, the UWES-9 has good construct validity and use of the 9-item version can be recommended in future research. Moreover, as hypothesized, Structural Equation Modeling showed high rank-order stabilities for the work engagement factors (between 0.82 and 0.86). Accordingly, work engagement seems to be a highly stable indicator of occupational well-being.

Happiness and Subjective Wellbeing in Mainland China

The study of happiness and subjective wellbeing (SWB) has received increased interest among scholars in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), who published their findings nationally in Chinese language journals. This paper introduces their work to the international audience. The first study appeared in the journals in 1999, and about 800 research papers have been published to date. The field is anchored in ten areas: the most salient are the general surveying of SWB; areas within health psychology; and personality research. There was a paucity of research in most areas, and a disproportional amount of research in relation to geographical area. Most research was conducted in Shandong (North East China) and Guangdong (South China), whereas no studies reported in the Chinese journals have been conducted in regions such as Inner Mongolia and Tibet. The majority of studies used augmented versions of Western scales as their measurement instrument, although Chinese scholars have developed their own scales. The research field is developing rapidly, but is limited currently by its infancy, overuse of student samples, inadequate descriptions of research methodology, and isolation from studies published outside the country. Recommendations are provided to overcome these issues and to advance the field further.

In Pursuit of Happiness: Empirical Answers to Philosophical Questions.

In this article, we provide an overview of what various philosophers throughout the ages have claimed about the nature of happiness, and we discuss to what extent psychological science has been able to substantiate or refute their claims. We first address concerns raised by philosophers regarding the possibility, desirability, and justifiability of happiness and then turn to the perennial question of how to be happy. Integrating insights from great thinkers of the past with empirical findings from modern behavioral sciences, we review the conditions and causes of happiness. We conclude our discussion with some thoughts about the future of happiness studies.

Happiness: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations

Although happiness is important in maintaining health, few studies of happiness can be found in the nursing literature. This paper explicates the concept of happiness through examination of its defining attributes, antecedents, consequences, and measurement. Literature review using hand search, and databases were used as sources of information. The information provided can be used in clinical practice so that nursing strategies can be developed and tested to help people to become happy and healthy.

Sustainable happiness: How happiness studies can contribute to a more sustainable future.

Sustainable happiness: How happiness studies can contribute to a more sustainable future.