Title: Reasons to be cheerful , By: Holmes, Bob, Kleiner ...
Title: Reasons to be cheerful , By: Holmes, Bob, Kleiner, Kurt, Douglas, Kate, Bond, Michael, New Scientist, 02624079, 10/4/2003, Vol. 180, Issue 2415
Database: Academic Search Premier
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|Reasons to be cheerful |
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|Science is beginning to identify the keys to a happy life. Here we take an in-depth look at 10 of them. The scores, which |
|are assigned by us but verified by experts, reflect very approximately the importance of each to personal happiness |
|1 Earn more money (up to a point)... |
|!@@@@ |
|Can money buy happiness? The short answer is, yes — but it doesn't buy you very much. And once you can afford to feed, |
|clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference. |
|Whenever and wherever they look, researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. "There are rich people who|
|are miserable. There are poor people who are happy all the time. But if you're an unhappy rich person, you're going to be |
|happier than if you were poor," says Robert Frank, an economist at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The same seems to|
|be true of people who suddenly strike it rich. Lottery winners and people who come into large inheritances end up somewhat |
|happier than they were before, according to studies by Andrew Oswald, an economist at Warwick University. |
|But the link between money and happiness is a bit more complex than that. In the past half-century, average income has |
|skyrocketed in industrialised countries, yet happiness levels have remained static (see Graph, p 43). It seems absolute |
|income doesn't make much difference once you have enough to meet your basic needs. Instead, the key seems to be whether you |
|have more than your friends, neighbours and colleagues. "Human beings make the mistake that they think another x thousand |
|dollars in an absolute sense will make them better off. It's not that. It's that dollars buy status, and status makes them |
|better off," says Oswald. This helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways — scientists or actors, for |
|example — may happily accept relatively poorly paid jobs. |
|Oswald's research bears this out. In lab tests, he asked college undergraduates how satisfied they would be with various |
|salary offers for a hypothetical job. He found that the offer's ranking within a range of possible salaries made a huge |
|difference to the students' satisfaction: they rated a particular salary much more favourably if it was one of the top ones |
|on offer rather than one of the lower ones. Similarly, in a recent survey of more than 16,000 workers in the UK, Oswald |
|found they reported being more satisfied with a given salary if it ranked higher in the company's salary hierarchy. |
|He has developed a "happiness equation" that prices the ingredients of happiness. This allows him to ask, for example, how |
|much additional money it would take, on average, to make a single person as happy as a married one. The answer puts money |
|firmly in its place: it would take an additional £70,000 per year, far more than most people's annual salary. Similarly, the|
|happiness benefits of having a job far exceed the actual income involved (International Journal of Epidemiology, vol 31, p |
|1139). "Money matters, but it's not as important as the average citizen thinks," Oswald concludes. |
|2 Desire less... |
|##@@@ |
|Wise men down the ages have said that curbing your desires is a surer route to happiness than a fat bank balance — and they |
|may be right. |
|In the 1980s, political scientist Alex Michalos, now at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, asked |
|18,000 college students in 39 countries to rate their happiness on a numeric scale. Then he asked them how close they were |
|to having all they wanted in life. He found that the people whose aspirations — not just for money, but for friends, family,|
|job, health, money, the works — soared farthest beyond what they already had tended to be less happy than those who |
|perceived a smaller gap. Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times as well as income alone. "The gap |
|measures just blow away the absolute measures of income," says Michalos. |
|This "aspiration gap" might explain why most people fail to get much happier as their salaries rise. Instead of satisfying |
|our desires, most of us merely want more. In surveys by the Roper polling organisation in 1978 and 1994, for example, |
|Americans were asked to list the material goods they thought important to "the good life". The researchers found that the |
|more of these goods people already had, the longer their list was, so the good life remained always just out of reach. |
|3 Don't worry if you aren't a genius... |
|@@@@@ |
|Though few surveys have examined whether smart people are happier, they have usually found that intelligence has no effect. |
|At first glance that seems surprising, since brighter people tend to earn more money and richer people tend to be happier. |
|"I think if you were entering the world today with a choice between being born smart and not smart, it wouldn't be a hard |
|choice," says Frank. |
|Some researchers think there must be some other, unmeasured factor messing up the lives of smarter people, but so far they |
|have only been able to speculate about what it is. Brighter people could have higher expectations and thus be dissatisfied |
|with anything less than the highest achievements. |
|Or, perhaps it is simply that psychologists have been measuring the wrong kind of intelligence. "Maybe scoring high on an IQ|
|test — which means you know a lot of vocabulary and can rotate things in your mind — doesn't have a lot to do with your |
|ability to get along well with people," says Ed Diener, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He|
|speculates that "social intelligence" could be the real key to happiness. |
|4 Make the most of your genes... |
|##### |
|Are some people born happy or unhappy? David Lykken, a psychologist and behavioural geneticist at the University of |
|Minnesota, Minneapolis, believes our feeling of well-being at any moment is determined half by what is going on in our lives|
|at that time and half by a "set point" of happiness, which is up to 90 per cent genetically determined and to which we |
|eventually return after dramatic events. |
|"Our happiness set point is largely determined by our grandparents," says Lykken. "But whether we bounce along above it or |
|slump along under it depends on our — or our parents' — good sense and good training." Lykken bases his claim on his study |
|of more than 4000 adult twins born in Minnesota between 1936 and 1955. He found that genetic variation accounted for between|
|44 and 55 per cent of the difference in the twins' happiness levels, while neither income, marital status, religion nor |
|education accounted for any more than about 3 per cent (Psychological Science, vol 7, p 189). |
|Personality and happiness do seem to be linked: many studies have shown that extroverts tend to be happier than most people,|
|and a lot happier than introverts. This could be because extroverts are more likely to do the things that bring happiness, |
|such as have friends, climb the job ladder and get married. Or it could just mean that being happy makes you extroverted. |
|Several studies have found that putting people in a good mood makes them more sociable. For example, Michael Cunningham at |
|the University of Louisville in Kentucky showed that people were more talkative and open with others after watching a happy |
|film than after watching a sad one (Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol 14, p 283). |
|But being an extrovert doesn't always equate to happiness: it depends on your environment too. Gerhard Kette at Johannes |
|Kepler University in Linz, Austria, found that in prison, introverts are happier than extroverts. |
|5 Stop comparing your looks with others... |
|#@@@@ |
|First the bad news: good-looking people really are happier. When Diener got people to rate their own looks, both with and |
|without make-up, there was a "small but positive effect of physical attractiveness on subjective well-being". |
|Perhaps the explanation is that life is kinder to the beautiful. Or it could be more subtle than that. The most attractive |
|faces are highly symmetrical, and there is evidence from animal research that symmetry reflects good genes and a healthy |
|immune system. So perhaps beautiful people are happier because they are healthier: many studies have found that health and |
|happiness go hand in hand. |
|The good news is that you can cash in on beauty's emotional high, even if you are no oil painting. The secret is to believe |
|you look great. Unfortunately, this is harder than it sounds. Only 1 in 20 people accurately judges where they lie on an |
|attractiveness ratings scale. Most have a distorted self-image that errs on the side of loathing, rather than loving, |
|according to a meta-analysis published by Alan Feingold at Yale University (Psychological Bulletin, vol 111, p 304). Women |
|tend to think they are too fat and men worry about being puny. |
|In a new study, Laurie Mintz and her colleagues from the University of Missouri-Columbia found that women who saw |
|advertisements featuring lithe and flawless young models for just one to three minutes rated their own bodies more |
|negatively and showed an increase in depression. Mintz was alarmed how quickly the women's self-esteem was undermined. And |
|she believes people are becoming more dissatisfied as new technology allows the media to create ever more unrealistic |
|images. |
|What can be done? One published round-up of patients' reactions suggests that a successful nose or boob job can leave you |
|happier in the long term. But the fact that many patients keep coming back for more implies that they are still not happy |
|with how they look. |
|Mintz recommends less drastic steps to contentment: avoid unrealistic media images; understand that such pictures are |
|airbrushed and "Photoshopped" to perfection; appreciate your body for what it does rather than how it looks. |
|6 Make friends and value them... |
|##!@@ |
|It is hard to imagine a more pitiful existence than life on the streets of Calcutta or in one of its slums, or making a |
|living there as a prostitute. Yet despite the poverty and squalor they face, such people are much happier than you might |
|imagine. |
|Diener interviewed 83 people from these three groups and measured their life satisfaction using a scale where a score of 2 |
|is considered neutral. Overall, they averaged 1.93 — not great, but creditable, compared with a control group of middle |
|class students in the city who scored 2.43. And the slum dwellers, who were happiest of the three disadvantaged groups, |
|scored 2.23, which is not significantly different from the students' score (Social Indicators Research, vol 55, p 329). |
|"We think social relationships are partly responsible," says Diener. He points out that all three deprived groups got high |
|satisfaction ratings in specific areas such as family (2.5) and friends (2.4). Slum dwellers did particularly well, perhaps |
|because they are most likely to be able to cash in on the social support that arises from the importance of the extended |
|family in Indian culture. "This is what the American homeless do not have, and they are unhappy despite better material |
|conditions," says Diener. His latest, still unpublished, findings seem to bear this out. |
|7 Get married... |
|###@@ |
|In an analysis of reports from 42 countries, a team in the US found that married people are consistently happier than |
|singletons. The effect is small, accounting for between about 1 and 2 per cent of the variance in subjective well-being. But|
|that still begs the question: does marriage make you happy, or are happy people simply more likely to get married? |
|Both may be true. In a study that followed more than 30,000 Germans for 15 years, Diener and his colleagues, including |
|Richard Lucas from Michigan State University, found that happy people are more likely to get married and stay married. But |
|anyone can improve their mood by getting married. The effect begins about a year before the "happy day" and lasts for around|
|a year afterwards. On average, satisfaction levels do return to their baseline, but the researchers say this conceals the |
|fact that a good marriage has a permanent positive effect. Furthermore, people who are less happy to begin with get a bigger|
|boost from marriage (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol 84, p 527). |
|And it seems there's something special about signing that piece of paper: the research shows that you can't get as much |
|benefit from simply cohabiting. "My hunch is that cohabiting couples lack the deeper security that comes with the formal |
|band of gold, and that is why they are not quite so happy," says Oswald. "Insecurity, we know from all data, is bad for |
|human beings." |
|8 Find God (or a belief system)... |
|#!@@@ |
|Karl Marx was close to the mark when he described religion as an "opiate for the masses". Of the dozens of studies that have|
|looked at religion and happiness, the vast majority have found a positive link. Harold Koenig at Duke University Medical |
|Center in Durham, North Carolina, uncovered 100 papers on the subject, 79 of which showed that people who get involved in a |
|religion are happier or more satisfied with their lives — or have more positive emotions — than others. |
|But why? Believing in God or an afterlife can give people meaning and purpose and reduce the feeling of being alone in the |
|world, says Koenig, especially as people get older. "You really see the effect in times of stress. Religious belief can be a|
|very powerful way of coping with adversity." |
|And it seems you're better off adhering to some belief system than none at all. Gary Reker at Trent University in |
|Peterborough, Ontario, says this is most apparent when it comes to fear of death. Those who are deeply religious and those |
|who are deeply irreligious have described themselves as less fearful of death than others, he says. "The most fearful are |
|those who are uncertain, or uncommitted, to any specific belief system." |
|Another reason why being religious improves well-being is the social interaction and support it brings. "Just seeing other |
|people go up to the altar and come back with some sort of refreshment gives people a strong sense of satisfaction," says |
|Abbott Ferriss at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. "Many people attend religious services for their social strengths. |
|This is something few religious figures acknowledge." |
|Koenig believes it is not just about receiving support. "It's really about giving. Studies have shown that people who |
|provide support to others are better off themselves. They even live longer." This, researchers agree, makes religious |
|involvement a source of greater satisfaction than other socially inclusive activities, such as joining a football |
|supporters' club. |
|Do some religions make you happier than others? Ferriss looked at the US General Social Survey, an ongoing study that |
|measures attitudes and behaviours across American society (Journal of Happiness Studies, vol 3, p 199). He found that |
|Protestant Christians were happiest of any religious denomination, though not by much. There was a stronger link with the |
|doctrinal nature of worship: evangelicals and fundamentalists, with their conviction that they are on the only true path, |
|are significantly the happiest worshippers. |
|9 Do someone a good turn... |
|#!@@@ |
|Religions teach that charity is good for the soul. It might also make you happier. |
|Several studies have found a link between happiness and altruistic behaviour. But as with many behavioural traits, it is not|
|always clear whether doing good makes you feel good, or whether happy people are more likely to be altruistic. |
|Again, both could be true. In a study of 3617 people who were each interviewed once and then three years later, Peggy Thoits|
|and Lyndi Hewitt of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, found that happy people were more likely to sign up for |
|volunteer work. But they also found that volunteers became happier, and the more voluntary work they did the happier they |
|got (Journal of Health and Social Behavior, vol 42, p 115). |
|James Konow, an economist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, tried to tease apart cause and effect |
|in a lab experiment. He recruited subjects to answer questionnaires, and towards the end of the session gave half of them |
|$10 and half of them nothing. He then told the subjects who had been paid that they could share their money with those who |
|hadn't been paid. Konow found that the more satisfied a student was with their life overall, the more likely they were to |
|share the money. However, being in a happy mood on the day of the test did not make them any more generous, and students who|
|gave did not report any immediate increase in happiness — in fact, they were slightly less happy. |
|But those who shared their money were more likely to show the personality traits of a "self-actualiser" — someone concerned |
|with their own personal growth and improvement. Among other things, such people experience deep interpersonal relationships |
|and empathy for others (American Economic Review, vol 90, p 1072). Konow thinks that while a single act of generosity did |
|not make his subjects happier, the cumulative effects of being a generous person did. |
|10 Grow old gracefully... |
|!@@@@ |
|Old age may not be as bad as people presume. Elderly people are on average just as happy as the young, and actually rate |
|themselves more satisfied with their lives overall. "People refer to it as the paradox of ageing. Given all the problems of |
|ageing, how could they be more satisfied?" asks Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University in |
|California. |
|In one study, Carstensen gave pagers to 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and paged them five times a day for a |
|week, asking them to fill out an emotions questionnaire each time. Old people reported positive emotions just as often as |
|young people, but they reported negative emotions much less frequently (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol |
|79, p 644). |
|In a larger study using survey data from 2727 people aged between 25 and 74, Daniel Mroczek and Christian Kolarz of Fordham |
|University in New York City got similar results. But they also found that other things such as gender, personality type and |
|social factors affect how you will feel as you get older. For instance, both men and women tended to experience more |
|positive emotions as they aged, but only married men experienced fewer negative ones (Journal of Personality and Social |
|Psychology, vol 75, p 1333). |
|Why are old people so happy? Some researchers suggest they may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or |
|they're more realistic about their goals, only setting ones that they know they can achieve. But Carstensen thinks that with|
|time running out, older people have learned to regulate their own emotions, focusing on things that make them happy and |
|letting go of those that don't. |
|"People realise not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever," he says. "A goodbye kiss to a |
|spouse at the age of 85, for example, may elicit far more differentiated and complex emotional responses than a similar kiss|
|to a spouse at the age of 20." |
|PHOTO (COLOR): Coveting what you don't have is bad for your peace of mid. And the more people have, the more they want |
|PHOTO (COLOR): Most people rate their own appearance more negatively than others rate it. Men tend to think they are too |
|puny |
|PHOTO (COLOR): Relationships can make you happier for a while, but the positive emotional effects of a good marriage last |
|forever |
|PHOTO (COLOR): Older people are more realistic about the goals they set themselves, and may regulate their emotions better |
|~~~~~~~~ |
|Reporting by Bob Holmes; Kurt Kleiner; Kate Douglas and Michael Bond |
|[pic] |
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|Source: New Scientist, 10/4/2003, Vol. 180 Issue 2415, p44, 4p |
|Item: 11104259 |
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