Archive for the ‘Happier’ Category
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
What housing would bring real happiness?
In his book, “Stumbling on Happiness,” Daniel Gilbert notes that most people are ineffective at forecasting what would make them happy.
“People know what it feels like to be happy, but they’re very poor at predicting the sources of their satisfaction,” says Gilbert, a Harvard University professor of psychology.
Human beings are especially likely to misjudge the satisfaction they’ll derive from having more money.
“More money makes people happier if they’re living under a bridge and can move up to the middle class. But making a lot more money doesn’t make middle-class people a lot happier,” he says.
By the same token, moving from a modest home to a fancier property won’t necessarily increase your happiness, unless it translates to meaningful improvements in your lifestyle.
A larger home could make you happier if, for instance, it provides more space for your grown children and their families to visit. In this case, the more spacious property would support your deep desire for more family solidarity.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Daniel Gilbert, Family, Happier, Happiness, Homes, Houses, Lifestyles, Money, Propert, Satisfaction, Stumbling On Happiness
Posted in Daniel Gilbert, Family, Happier, Happiness, Homes, Houses, Lifestyles, Money, Propert, Satisfaction, Stumbling On Happiness | No Comments »
Friday, April 25th, 2008
The UAE may offer a cosmopolitan lifestyle, great job opportunities and supply us with endless credit cards that enable us to buy fancy cars and designer gear – but even still, out of the Persian Gulf states, the Emirates came last in recent survey rating happiness. Maktoob Research, a regional online survey group found that the happiest people in the region live, not here, but in Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Having studied 7,434 residents of diverse nationalities across 11 countries, the study reveals that Oman has the highest percentage of happy people, followed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Next comes the UAE, followed by Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Morocco and last on the list, troubled Lebanon.
[...] Some may be surprised to hear that a rigidly conservative and totalitarian society like Saudi Arabia topped the charts in terms of happiness. Ruba Ayat, is a 23-year-old from Lebanon, who has lived 18 years in Dubai, certainly was. “I am very shocked that Saudi Arabia was found to have the happiest people. I would have said people in the UAE were happiest, as we have the social life. I am incredibly happy here. It’s a home away form home,” says Ruba.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Happier, Happiest, Happiness, happy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Maktoob Research, Morocco, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates
Posted in Bahrain, Dubai, Egypt, Happier, Happiest, Happiness, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Maktoob Research, Morocco, Oman, Persian Gulf, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, happy | No Comments »
Friday, April 25th, 2008
[...]Imagine you are a president or prime minister. It is imperative to keep your people happy because you hope to be re-elected in order to make your citizens happier and to run your country efficiently. You also know that people care about personal factors like health, income, education and development in general. You have an intuitive idea that they care also about external factors like inflation and security. But how do you work out the relative importance of all these things that constitute well-being which in turn translate to happiness? We are talking about happiness economics.
Historically, economists have said that well-being is a simple function of income. By their argument, happiness ought to be the preserve of the super rich— the Bill Gates and the Roman Abramovichs of this world. But the million dollar question is: Are the rich always happy?[...]
Rooted in this postulation is the thinking of happiness economics, which is the study of a country’s well-being by combining economists’ and psychologists’ techniques. The goal of happiness economics is to determine where people derive their well-being. Happiness economists hope to change the way governments view well-being and how to most effectively govern and allocate resources given this paradox.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Economics, Education, Government, Happier, Happiness Economics, happy, Health, Income, Inflation, Psychology, Pursuit of Happiness, Security, Well-being
Posted in Economics, Education, Government, Happier, Happiness Economics, Health, Income, Inflation, Psychology, Pursuit of Happiness, Security, Well-being, happy | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
A large body of social-science research over the past decade has been devoted to studying happiness. In general, researchers rely on self-reported measurements of happiness—which, according to considerable work by psychologists, statisticians, and neuroscientists, are actually quite accurate and comparable among individuals. (This has been shown by comparing people’s survey responses to psychological evaluations, surveys of family members, and even tests of brain activity.) And over the past three decades, the nationwide General Social Survey (GSS)—undertaken approximately every two years by researchers at the National Opinion Research Center—has been one of the only repeated surveys to ask people about their happiness and has therefore been used in many happiness studies.
In 2000, the GSS also asked adult Americans about their attitudes about freedom. About 70 percent of the respondents said that they were “completely free” or “very free,” and another 25 percent said that they were “moderately free.” Further, about 70 percent thought that Americans in general were completely or very free.
Perhaps such results are not surprising in the United States. But the GSS also revealed that people who said that they felt completely or very free were twice as likely to say that they were very happy about their lives as those who felt only a moderate degree of freedom, not much, or none at all. Even when holding income, sex, education, race, religion, politics, and family status constant, we find that people who felt free were about 18 percentage points more likely than others to say that they were very happy.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Americans, Free, Freedom, General Social Survey, Happier, Happiness, happy, National Opinion Research Center, Neuroscientists, Psychologists, Research, Social Science, Statisticians
Posted in Americans, Free, Freedom, General Social Survey, Happier, Happiness, National Opinion Research Center, Neuroscientists, Psychologists, Research, Social Science, Statisticians, happy | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
[...] People who describe themselves as “very religious” are among the happiest of people. Those who say they are “very religious” come in ten points higher than America as a whole on the Happiness Index (45% compared to 35% are considered “very happy”). In contrast, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who describe themselves as “not religious” were measured at that level of happiness.
A similar difference is noted among people who say they “pray or study religion at home” on a daily basis compared to less often. Over four in ten people (43%) who engage in “daily” prayer or religious study are very happy. In comparison, just over one-quarter (28%) of people who “never” pray or study religion at home have a comparable happiness level.
[...] Ethics also appears to affect happiness levels. Just under four in ten people (37%) who are “never or rarely pressured to act unethically” are very happy according to the Index. Only about one-quarter (26%) who are pressured to act unethically “all the time” or “often” are very happy according to the Index.
[...] Older people tend to be happier according to the Happiness Index. Less than one in three (29%) in the 18 to 24 age bracket are very happy according to the survey, compared to almost one-half (47%) of people age 65 and older. The survey results also show a clear trend in increasing happiness between those two age groups.[...]
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Age, Elderly, Ethics, Happier, Happiness, happy, Prayer, Religion, Religious
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Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Are you happy? Well don’t try to be happier; you might become less happy. That is the gist of a multi-cultural study published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
The study by University of Virginia psychology professor Shigehiro Oishi and colleagues at three other institutions found that, on average, European-Americans claim to be happy in general – more happy than Asian-Americans or Koreans or Japanese – but are more easily made less happy by negative events, and recover at a slower rate from negative events, than their counterparts in Asia or with an Asian ancestry. On the other hand, Koreans, Japanese, and to a lesser extent, Asian-Americans, are less happy in general, but recover their emotional equilibrium more readily after a setback than European-Americans.
“We found that the more positive events a person has, the more they feel the effects of a negative event,” Oishi said. “People seem to dwell on the negative thing when they have a large number of good events in their life.
“It is like the person who is used to flying first class and becomes very annoyed if there is a half-hour delay. But the person who flies economy class accepts the delay in stride.”
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Asian-Americans, European-Americans, Happier, happy, Japanese, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Koreans, Negative Events, Positive Events, Shigehiro Oishi, University of Virginia
Posted in Asian-Americans, European-Americans, Happier, Japanese, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Koreans, Negative Events, Positive Events, Shigehiro Oishi, University of Virginia, happy | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson discussed their happiness research on CNBC today.
Arguably the most important finding from the emerging economics of happiness has been the Easterlin Paradox.
What is this paradox? It is the juxtaposition of three observations:
1) Within a society, rich people tend to be much happier than poor people.
2) But, rich societies tend not to be happier than poor societies (or not by much).
3) As countries get richer, they do not get happier.
Easterlin offered an appealing resolution to his paradox, arguing that only relative income matters to happiness. Other explanations suggest a “hedonic treadmill,” in which we must keep consuming more just to stay at the same level of happiness.
Either way, the policy implications of the Paradox are huge, as they suggest that economic growth may not raise well-being by much.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Betsey Stevenson, Easterlin Paradox, Economic Growth, Happier, Happiness, Hedonic Treadmill, Justin Wolfers, Poor People, Research, Rich People, Well-being
Posted in Betsey Stevenson, Easterlin Paradox, Economic Growth, Happier, Happiness, Hedonic Treadmill, Justin Wolfers, Poor People, Research, Rich People, Well-being | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Confused by recent headlines about money and happiness? Here’s a quick cheat sheet summarizing recent academic studies on the link between the two. Click on the links below to read summaries of the studies.
Plus, see full coverage of “Making the Move for Money.”
• Relative income and happiness
• Would you be happier if you were richer?
• Money and income: a correlation, not a cause
• Money and the blues
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Blues, Happier, Happiness, Income, Money, Rich, Studies
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Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
More than fame, money, success and celebrity, we crave happiness. Happiness has become the holy grail of our society. But why, when we have so much, is it so elusive?
This week, a social trends study by the Office of National Statistics revealed that although we are healthier and twice as well off as we were in 1987, we are no happier.
Modern expectation is that we should be continuously happy, but if we can’t buy it, work for it or damn well conjure it up, how do we make ourselves happier?
Psychologist Dr Robert Holden believes that happiness is within everyone’s grasp.
Once a year, he runs a five-day happiness course, spread over eight weeks, which he devised for a BBC QED documentary, How To Be Happy.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: BBC, Celebrity, Dr. Robert Holden, Fame, Happier, Happiness, happy, How To Be Happy, Money, Office of National Statistics, Success
Posted in BBC, Celebrity, Dr. Robert Holden, Fame, Happier, Happiness, How To Be Happy, Money, Office of National Statistics, Success, happy | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
“There are two ways to increase your wealth. Increase your means or decrease your wants. The best is to do both at the same time.” – Benjamin Franklin
Misery shouldn’t be the price for ambition. Somewhere I believe many people got the idea that to want more, you have to be dissatisfied with what you have now. Believing this, your choice is either to dampen your passions or become miserable with what you have.
I think this is a false dichotomy. You can be satisfied and ambitious. And while many self-help books have covered the topic of ambition, fewer cover the idea of becoming immensely satisfied with what you’ve already got.
Beyond affirmations and beliefs, I think there are some practical tips to do this. Engineering your daily life can be a great way to maximize your current fulfillment. Best of all, it isn’t incredibly difficult to do. Here are some tips I’ve found useful in becoming happier with where I am:
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Happier, Happiness, Useful Tips
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