Archive for the ‘Happiness’ Category
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 »
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
A bar of chocolate, a long soak in the bath, a snooze in the middle of the afternoon, a leisurely stroll in the park. These are the things that make us the most happy, according to new research from The University of Nottingham.
In a study commissioned by the National Lottery, Dr Richard Tunney of the University’s School of Psychology found that it’s the simple things in life that impact most positively on our sense of well being.
The study compared the ‘happiness levels’ of lottery jackpot winners with a control group, using a ‘Satisfaction with Life Scale’ developed by the University of Illinois. Respondents were asked how satisfied they were in relation to different elements of their life, their different mood states explored, how often they treated themselves and what form this took.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t the flashy cars and diamond jewellery that upped the jackpot winners’ happiness quotient. It was the listening to music, reading a book, or enjoying a bottle of wine with a takeaway that really made the difference.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Baths, Books, Cars, Chocolate, Diamond Jewelry, Happiness, happy, Moods, Music, Naps, Parks, Psychology, Reading, Satisfaction with Life Scale, The University of Nottingham, University of Illinois, Wine
Posted in Baths, Books, Cars, Chocolate, Diamond Jewelry, Happiness, Moods, Music, Naps, Parks, Psychology, Reading, Satisfaction with Life Scale, The University of Nottingham, University of Illinois, Wine, happy | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Last month the Journal’s Jonathan Clements that money alone doesn’t buy a lot of happiness. Here, happiness blogger Gretchen Rubin takes a different point of view.
Money can’t make people stay in love, connect with friends or enjoy a hike in the woods. But money, spent wisely, can contribute greatly to happiness.
Recent articles in the news media tackle the money-happiness connection. A study this summer in Science magazine showed that when participants were asked to record the previous day’s activities and describe their moods, being wealthier didn’t have great impact on their moment-to-moment experience.
A different sort of study presents another picture. According to a Pew Research Center 2006 report, the percentage of people who declare themselves “very happy” goes up as family income rises. People were asked: “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days, would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?” Twenty five percent of people with incomes of $30,000 or less said they’re “very happy.” That compared with 50% of people with incomes of $150,000 or more.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Bloggers, Family, Friends, Gretchen Rubin, Happiness, Income, Money, Not Too Happy, Pew Research Center, Pretty Happy, Spending, Very Happy
Posted in Bloggers, Family, Friends, Gretchen Rubin, Happiness, Income, Money, Not Too Happy, Pew Research Center, Pretty Happy, Spending, Very 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
Posted in Blues, Happier, Happiness, Income, Money, Rich, Studies | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Written by Tal Ben-Shahar and Geri Weis-Corbley
If happiness is the currency of life — the true measure of success, how hefty is your happiness account? How abundant is your contentment? How much happiness can you afford to give? Do you hoard or hide your true desires? Do you resent others for their happiness and curse their rose-colored glasses? Here are seven ways to boost your levels of happiness, and therefore, your success.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Contentment, Desires, Geri Weis-Corbley, Happiness, happy, Success, Tal Ben-shahar
Posted in Contentment, Desires, Geri Weis-Corbley, Happiness, Success, Tal Ben-shahar, happy | No Comments »
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 15th, 2008
The dictionary offers a simple definition of bliss: complete happiness.
Two words! How hard can that be to attain?
Well, a curmudgeon might ask, if it takes only two words to define, how great can it be?
We worked under the assumption that it’s pretty great.
Why else would National Public Radio correspondent Eric Weiner, a self-proclaimed grump, go searching for it in his book The Geography of Bliss? In explaining his endeavor, Weiner writes: “I roam the world in search of answers to the pressing questions of our time: What are the essential ingredients for the good life? Why are some places happier than others? How are we shaped by our surroundings?”
Oh, Eric. There’s no need to roam the world. We went searching for bliss right here in Kansas City, and it wasn’t that hard to find.
Click here for the full article.
Tags: Bliss, Eric Weiner, Geography of Bliss, Happiness, Happy Places, Kansas City, National Public Radio
Posted in Bliss, Eric Weiner, Geography of Bliss, Happiness, Happy Places, Kansas City, National Public Radio | 1 Comment »
