tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/measures-of-happiness-17602/articlesMeasures of happiness – The Conversation2022-05-11T12:05:24Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1778032022-05-11T12:05:24Z2022-05-11T12:05:24ZTrusting societies are overall happier – a happiness expert explains why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458931/original/file-20220420-14-zrcqrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trust in other people and in public institutions is one key predictor of happiness.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/the-cowds-at-global-gathering-festival-long-marston-airfield-stoke-on-picture-id129369037?s=2048x2048">Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human beings are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0389-1">social animals</a>. This means, almost as a matter of logical necessity, that humans’ quality of life is largely decided by the quality of their societies. </p>
<p>Trust is one key factor that helps shape societies – specifically, if individuals feel a basic level of trust in others, outside of their immediate friends and family, they are happier. </p>
<p>People lead better, happier and more satisfying lives when people in their communities share high levels of trust.</p>
<p>Finland is the the happiest country in the world, for the fifth year in a row, according to the latest annual United Nations <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/">World Happiness Report</a>, released in April 2022. The report uses data from Gallup world polls and measures the way people feel about their lives. It is not a coincidence that Finland also has one of the world’s highest levels of trust among people, known as interpersonal trust. </p>
<p>“Research has linked trust with economic growth, democracy, tolerance, charity, community, health, and happiness,” <a href="https://lanekenworthy.net/trust/">Lane Kenworthy</a>, a political scientist and sociologist, writes. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kmcQMRwAAAAJ&hl=en">scholar of happiness</a>, I have written extensively about the nature and causes of happiness. <a href="https://benjaminradcliff.com/">My work</a>, and <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/social-environments-for-world-happiness/#inequality-and-happiness">research by others</a>, confirms the general idea that greater levels of trust among people lead to more happiness. </p>
<p>There are specific reasons trust and happiness are so deeply connected. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Young girls play outside together, jumping rope, in Turku, Finland" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458945/original/file-20220420-19-aicu3l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Finland has consistently ranked as the happiest country worldwide in the World Happiness Report.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/finland-turku-turku-waeinoe-aaltosen-koulu-children-playing-outdoors-picture-id545739915?s=2048x2048">Fishman/ullstein bild via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>How trust encourages happiness</h2>
<p>The first reason is that people’s quality of life improves when they can reasonably assume the goodwill of others in their day-to-day lives. This kind of generalized trust may also promote other, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237934">more specific kinds of trust</a>, such as trust in government.</p>
<p>In Finland, trust in other people – and in public institutions – is exceptionally high. In 2019, Finnish people <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/83f2a08d-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/83f2a08d-en">reported high levels</a> of trust in police, the government and one another. </p>
<p>Only 2.8% of people reported that crime was a major worry, demonstrating a lack of concern about trusting other people. </p>
<p>Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland and the Netherlands followed Finland as the happiest countries in 2021, according to this analysis. Like Finland, these countries have extremely high levels of both trust and happiness. </p>
<p>In a high-trust environment, people go about their lives with the easy assurance that others around them are generally honest and even benevolent. These sorts <a href="http://ccare.stanford.edu/press_posts/good-social-relationships-are-the-most-consistent-predictor-of-a-happy-life/#:%7E:text=Heaps%20of%20research%20suggest%20that,feel%20happiness%2C%20contentment%20and%20calm.">of strong human connections</a> have been shown to promote happiness. </p>
<p>By comparison, in a low-trust environment, people are suspicious. They feel they must always be on guard, in case other people attempt to deceive, exploit or take advantage of them.</p>
<p>Afghanistan ranked as the least happy country in the 2022 World Happiness Report.</p>
<p>In 2019, two years before the Taliban overtook the country, Afghans reported feeling low satisfaction in public services like water quality, roads, health care and education. Most of those surveyed in Afghanistan also said <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/266252/inside-afghanistan-stability-institutions-remains-elusive.aspx">in a 2019 Gallup world poll</a> that corruption in government and business was endemic.</p>
<p>It takes no great insight to understand why high-trust societies tend to be happier than places where trust is low. People find it easier to build or strengthen connections to others when they generally trust everyone, from their acquaintances to their spouses.</p>
<h2>Emotional energy</h2>
<p>Trust also promotes happiness in more subtle ways.</p>
<p>Everyone has a limited amount of <a href="https://theconversation.com/emotions-how-humans-regulate-them-and-why-some-people-cant-104713">emotional energy</a>. The more trusting a society is, the fewer emotional resources we must devote to everyday interactions. The less someone has to worry about being pickpocketed, for example, the more emotional energy they have available to spend time nurturing relationships with family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. </p>
<p><a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-nearly-80-years-harvard-study-has-been-showing-how-to-live-a-healthy-and-happy-life/">Research has shown</a> that investment in community and these kinds of relationships is likely to pay off in the form of a happier life.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a bright yellow jacket and blue pants sits on a seesaw, smiling, and facing the camera behind a blurred b background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/458933/original/file-20220420-16-5e6ale.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A person tries out an adult playground, designed to show how play brings happiness, in London in July 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/members-of-the-public-try-out-the-9nine-adult-playground-created-to-picture-id824015930?s=2048x2048">John Phillips/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Equality matters</h2>
<p>Finally, it is also important to consider how happiness is distributed among individuals across society. This is known as happiness equality. </p>
<p>Evidence strongly suggests that lower levels of happiness inequality within a society promote higher levels of average life satisfaction. The more equal a society’s distribution of happiness, the happier people tend to be.</p>
<p>So if more trust produces more happiness equality, and more happiness equality means higher levels of happiness itself, then trust should, once again, promote greater happiness. </p>
<p>A variety of factors are at work behind this connection. The most obvious one, perhaps, is that people generally care about the well-being of others.</p>
<p>Efforts to reduce inequality of happiness are <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/social-environments-for-world-happiness/#inequality-and-happiness">likely to raise happiness for all</a>.</p>
<p>This dynamic creates a cycle – the more we take the happiness of others into consideration, the more we appreciate life.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Radcliff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Finland was recently ranked, for the fifth year in a row, as the world’s happiest country. Trust in others in society plays a large role in what makes people there – and elsewhere – happy.Benjamin Radcliff, Professor of Political Science, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/796722017-08-01T20:13:45Z2017-08-01T20:13:45ZSo many in the West are depressed because they’re expected not to be<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179397/original/file-20170724-11666-17r9tml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Placing a high value on happiness leads us to see sadness as a failure.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/philippeleroyer/2879569226/in/photolist-96Mphx-eYQv5A-ottELQ-FcQuw9-9DsXk3-9jbu7C-6oQdTr-pgjjjz-pgjAVm-ocd5Fe-9eFUhT-5DEpBG-JbcndE-9ARXuk-F9Wn3-qrJPAV-527qpf-8gxxvH-SmH296-qteCv-SBEa6G-n5yoNV-3Kg9VF-Sw4xVc-te1Goz-ejryBV-7HAyjR-7FLPKZ-dMgScY-ybRqT-6KQiLi-pzztwL-b5MkHe-aiofV-7mSGX-6CAcNQ-dD5trK-5osxBh-dxrdfH-odXHUv-EMhKN-7PPi51-arjbdV-NS6eoE-N4FL51-xe9pS3-ssJV1e-xNU2VD-T96pnW-ATyKes">philippe leroyer/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Depression is listed as the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/02/23/depression-is-now-the-leading-cause-of-disability-worldwide_a_21720451/">leading cause of disability</a> worldwide, a standing to which it has progressed steadily over the past 20 years. Yet research shows a rather interesting pattern: depression is far more prevalent in <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/405806">Western cultures</a>, such as the US, Canada, France, Germany and New Zealand, than in Eastern cultures, such as Taiwan, Korea, Japan and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2681248/">China</a>. </p>
<p>This shows that depression is a modern health epidemic that is also culture-specific. Yet we mostly continue to treat it at the individual level, with anti-depressants and psychotherapy. This assumes treatment lies in correcting individual biological and psychological imbalances. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-depression-11447">Explainer: what is depression?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Public health experts know living in an environment where <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120702210214.htm">fast food is readily available</a> is a large contributor to the modern epidemics of diabetes and heart disease – we need to understand the context, not individual behaviour alone. In the same way, as depression reaches epidemic proportions, the sole focus on individuals no longer makes sense. </p>
<p>We have been investigating whether Western cultural values play a role in promoting the depression epidemic for several years now. In a series of experiments, we found the high value we place on happiness is not only associated with increased levels of depression, it may actually be the underlying factor.</p>
<h2>Cultural ideas of happiness</h2>
<p>That happiness is a highly prized emotional state in Western culture is not hard to defend. Whether it is the smiling faces on billboards, television, magazines or the internet, advertisers are constantly pairing their projects with feelings of happiness. This makes their products seem desirable and the associated positive feelings appear ideal. </p>
<p>Social media – or more accurately the way we have learnt to use it – is also a constant source of idealised happy faces. This leaves us with the distinct impression that what counts as an indicator of success is whether or not we are feeling happy.</p>
<p>Valuing feelings of happiness or wanting others to be happy is not a bad thing. The problem arises when we come to believe we should always feel this way. This makes our negative emotions – which are inevitable and normally quite adaptive – seem like they are getting in the way of an important goal in life.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong><em>Read more – <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-bad-moods-are-good-for-you-the-surprising-benefits-of-sadness-75402">Why bad moods are good for you: the surprising benefits of sadness</a></em></strong></p>
<hr>
<p>From this perspective, sadness is no longer an expected feeling you have when things go wrong. Rather, it is interpreted as a sign of failure; a signal something is wrong emotionally.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179561/original/file-20170725-21564-70vs85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179561/original/file-20170725-21564-70vs85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179561/original/file-20170725-21564-70vs85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179561/original/file-20170725-21564-70vs85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179561/original/file-20170725-21564-70vs85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179561/original/file-20170725-21564-70vs85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179561/original/file-20170725-21564-70vs85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179561/original/file-20170725-21564-70vs85.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Advertisers are constantly pairing their projects with feelings of happiness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ipjmike/1272874132/in/photolist-2WtP8J-4NNcez-2Wpdp6-gqpsk-4xeYEX-gqpsp-k6wVw-xx4fE-5G9Gp7-cRdEt-b4qYjP-2JrN2-3P6Rm-2WtRk9-3Hise-2WtfFY-2WoEmV-gF3iE-2WoTS6-2WoG82-2WoRAB-2WoJke-2WtM8Q-2Wtc2W-2WtdKs-9iStiE-ane6Zd-WUScxG-WUScCS-4u3mQK-cztWnJ-q6wL-qfqxJ2-2Wpk7n-YEGn-5J3pwQ-gF3iG-7rUgwx-4hrnrf-4gKhSv-2WtJ5q-5dqFn8-55bpAs-2WtGfd-4GrWQ3-gM6GZ-D7LiJ-88Lg49-3k9S8o-FhPyj">Michael Rehfeldt/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>To examine the downside of culturally valuing happiness, we <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-15463-001">developed a questionnaire to measure</a> the extent to which people feel others expect them not to experience negative emotional states such as depression and anxiety. Our first studies showed people who scored higher on this measure had lower levels of well-being. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550614568682">follow-up studies</a>, we found when people experienced negative emotions and felt social pressure not to, they felt socially disconnected and experienced more loneliness.</p>
<p>While these studies provided evidence that living in cultures that value happiness, and devalue sadness, is associated with reduced well-being, they lacked clear causal evidence these values might be playing a role in promoting depression.</p>
<h2>Do cultural values of happiness cause depression?</h2>
<p>Next, we selected around 100 participants who met the clinical cut-off score for depression to take part in a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/da.22653/full">month-long daily-diary study</a>. They were asked to complete a survey at the end of each day about their depressive symptoms that day, as well as whether they had felt socially pressured not to experience such feelings.</p>
<p>We found perceived social pressure not to feel depressed reliably predicted increased depressive symptoms the next day. However, this perceived social pressure was not predicted by prior feelings of depression. This provided evidence it was not that depressed people thought others expected them not to feel that way, but that this felt social pressure itself was contributing to symptoms of depression.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179566/original/file-20170725-30268-1kuoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179566/original/file-20170725-30268-1kuoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179566/original/file-20170725-30268-1kuoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179566/original/file-20170725-30268-1kuoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179566/original/file-20170725-30268-1kuoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179566/original/file-20170725-30268-1kuoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179566/original/file-20170725-30268-1kuoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179566/original/file-20170725-30268-1kuoqc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We found the perceived social pressure not to feel depressed predicted depressive symptoms the next day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mellodave/3259875246/in/photolist-5Y4HkC-oUvM5e-TBKza7-6hVwmh-5qppHM-4yVDNy-KyWpC-5ovEib-9grdkS-382JwG-97h3V9-bw4u44-eCbeCN-4v9zp-bJ6XRc-5t2TNj-W6F2oT-aaKrYG-7dNmd9-bwyGVB-9FDWa-49Y1Y3-8Tpmwx-2T9r2P-rgsrpK-rp9rJ-2ZnJM-8SMrL-aA6Qwd-dUv1eV-Vii1ct-bJfuNR-SJhjTN-7MHPYr-8VCuKK-UJW2-4UXeQ8-bXoCTs-zc6ys-h4kAxs-4vaj7-dbNcp-eC12oJ-iHGEzs-8cj2kX-djGFRX-PXbZ-aCqbhz-fcjV1m-5Y4Phu">David Mello/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>We then tried to <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57d2f8668419c276f91f3b04/t/59384f54e3df2838a51f45e1/1496862549987/happiness-and-rumination.pdf">recreate the kind of social environment</a> that might be responsible for the pressure we observed as a central feature of depression. We decked out one of our testing rooms with some happiness books and motivational posters. We placed some study materials in there, along with sticky notes with personal reminders such as “stay happy” and a photo of the researcher with some friends enjoying themselves on holiday. We called this the happy room.</p>
<p>As study participants arrived, they were either directed to the happy room – and told the usual testing room was busy so they would have to use the room the researcher had been studying in – or to a similar room that had no happiness paraphernalia. </p>
<p>They were asked to solve anagrams, some sets of which were solvable while others were largely not. Where participants had solved few anagrams (because they had been allocated the unsolvable ones), the researcher expressed some surprise and disappointment saying: “I thought you may have gotten a least a few more but we’ll move on to the next task.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179565/original/file-20170725-5139-qp4i16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179565/original/file-20170725-5139-qp4i16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179565/original/file-20170725-5139-qp4i16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179565/original/file-20170725-5139-qp4i16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179565/original/file-20170725-5139-qp4i16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179565/original/file-20170725-5139-qp4i16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179565/original/file-20170725-5139-qp4i16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179565/original/file-20170725-5139-qp4i16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=892&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We tried to recreate an environment we thought might be responsible for the pressure to feel happy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participants then took part in a five-minute breathing exercise that was interrupted by 12 tones. At each tone, they were asked to indicate whether their mind had been focused on thoughts unrelated to breathing and, if so, what the thought was, to check whether they had been ruminating on the anagram task.</p>
<h2>What we found</h2>
<p>Participants who had experienced failure in the happy room were three times more likely to ruminate on the anagram task – the cause of their failure – than those who had experienced failure in the room without any happiness paraphernalia. Participants in the happy room who had solvable anagrams, and therefore experienced no failure, did not ruminate on the anagrams at all.</p>
<p>We also found the more people ruminated on the anagram task, the more negative emotions they experienced as a result. Failing in the happy room increased rumination and in turn made people feel worse. Rumination as a response to negative events has been <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00088.x">consistently linked</a> to increased levels of depression.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sad-music-and-depression-does-it-help-66123">Sad music and depression: does it help?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>By reconstructing a kind of micro-happiness-culture, we showed that experiencing a negative setback in such a context is worse than if you experience that same setback in an environment that does not emphasise the value of happiness. Our work suggests Western culture has been globalising happiness, contributing to an epidemic of depression.</p>
<p>As our understanding of depression begins to move beyond individual-level factors to include social and cultural value systems, we need to question whether cultural values are making us happy. We are not immune to these values and our cultures are sometimes responsible for our mental health. This is not to reduce individual-level agency, but to take seriously the <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00064.x">growing body of evidence</a> that much of what we do is often decided outside of conscious awareness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79672/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brock Bastian receives funding from The Australian Research Council</span></em></p>In a series of experiments, we showed the high value we place on happiness is not only associated with increased levels of depression, it may actually be the underlying factor.Brock Bastian, ARC Future Fellow, Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/620862016-08-11T23:41:03Z2016-08-11T23:41:03ZWhy you shouldn’t want to always be happy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133706/original/image-20160810-13397-d3jsan.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In life, happiness can seem fleeting and elusive, something just out of reach.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecorey/10726572444/in/photolist-hkSuhd-81JzLb-nGJMdc-gmKTRz-d1Uhpd-tGir2-8MYZBp-7xpqvB-2hpb1L-4VSxsz-vT3CyJ-7UdJZq-7UdQpU-7UdLnm-ai7zSx-9g9NbN-8367w1-5Wu6ar-9DoXQN-4JM2Ej-nzsSM3-6pypTD-8DxfCV-6pypBR-81JCL1-5cfVpp-ktsGDH-83z66m-8369Jd-nGKGGp-dSzo81-81FtLe-i8gwN-kq494-rQabWn-6psfai-6ZM7aB-8EDBMc-7wFw1m-SmKq2-raP5i4-6pCXbS-A8zQK-6pyiwZ-6pCvB7-nGKTq8-ekWERk-6pCy21-8KcFk4-HfjT9R">Steve Corey/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the 1990s, a psychologist named <a href="https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/faculty-profile/profile-dr-martin-seligman">Martin Seligman</a> led the <a href="http://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/">positive psychology movement</a>, which placed the study of human happiness squarely at the center of psychology research and theory. It continued a trend that began in the 1960s with <a href="https://www.ahpweb.org/about/what-is-humanistic-psychology.html">humanistic</a> and <a href="http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/229/Existential-Psychology.html">existential psychology</a>, which emphasized the importance of reaching one’s innate potential and creating meaning in one’s life, respectively.</p>
<p>Since then, <a href="http://www.berkeleywellness.com/healthy-mind/mind-body/article/what-science-happiness">thousands of studies</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/18911.Best_Happiness_Books">hundreds of books</a> have been published with the goal of increasing well-being and helping people lead more satisfying lives.</p>
<p>So why aren’t we happier? Why have self-reported measures of happiness <a href="http://www.norc.org/PDFs/GSS%20Reports/GSS_PsyWellBeing15_final_formatted.pdf">stayed stagnant</a> for over 40 years? </p>
<p>Perversely, such efforts to improve happiness could be a futile attempt to swim against the tide, as we may actually be programmed to be dissatisfied most of the time.</p>
<h2>You can’t have it all</h2>
<p>Part of the problem is that happiness isn’t just one thing. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.jennifermichaelhecht.com/">Jennifer Hecht</a> is a philosopher who studies the history of happiness. In her book “<a href="http://www.jennifermichaelhecht.com/the-happiness-myth/">The Happiness Myth</a>,” Hecht proposes that we all experience different types of happiness, but these aren’t necessarily complementary. Some types of happiness may even conflict with one another. In other words, having too much of one type of happiness may undermine our ability to have enough of the others – so it’s impossible for us to simultaneously have all types of happiness in great quantities.</p>
<p>For example, a satisfying life built on a successful career and a good marriage is something that unfolds over a long period of time. It takes a lot of work, and it often requires avoiding hedonistic pleasures like partying or going on spur-of-the-moment trips. It also means you can’t while away too much of your time spending one pleasant lazy day after another in the company of good friends. </p>
<p>On the other hand, keeping your nose to the grindstone demands that you cut back on many of life’s pleasures. Relaxing days and friendships may fall by the wayside. </p>
<p>As happiness in one area of life increases, it’ll often decline in another. </p>
<h2>A rosy past, a future brimming with potential</h2>
<p>This dilemma is further confounded by the way our brains process the experience of happiness. </p>
<p>By way of illustration, consider the following examples.</p>
<p>We’ve all started a sentence with the phrase “Won’t it be great when…” (I go to college, fall in love, have kids, etc.). Similarly, we often hear older people start sentences with this phrase “Wasn’t it great when…”</p>
<p>Think about how seldom you hear anyone say, “Isn’t this great, right now?” </p>
<p>Surely, our past and future aren’t always better than the present. Yet we continue to think that this is the case. </p>
<p>These are the bricks that wall off harsh reality from the part of our mind that thinks about past and future happiness. Entire religions have been constructed from them. Whether we’re talking about our ancestral Garden of Eden (when things were great!) or the promise of unfathomable future happiness in <a href="http://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=5593">Heaven</a>, <a href="http://norse-mythology.org/cosmology/valhalla/">Valhalla</a>, <a href="http://islam.about.com/od/heavenhell/g/gl_jannah.htm">Jannah</a> or <a href="http://www.krishna.com/description-vaikuntha">Vaikuntha</a>, eternal happiness is always the carrot dangling from the end of the divine stick. </p>
<p>There’s evidence for why our brains operate this way; most of us possess something called the <a href="http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2074067,00.html">optimistic bias</a>, which is the tendency to think that our future will be better than our present. </p>
<p>To demonstrate this phenomenon to my classes, at the beginning of a new term I’ll tell my students the average grade received by all students in my class over the past three years. I then ask them to anonymously report the grade that they expect to receive. The demonstration works like a charm: Without fail, the expected grades are far higher than one would reasonably expect, given the evidence at hand.</p>
<p>And yet, we believe.</p>
<p>Cognitive psychologists have also identified something called the <a href="https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/pollyanna-principle/">Pollyanna Principle</a>. It means that we process, rehearse and remember pleasant information from the past more than unpleasant information. (<a href="http://www.apa.org/monitor/nov05/cycle.aspx">An exception to this occurs</a> in depressed individuals who often fixate on past failures and disappointments.)</p>
<p>For most of us, however, the reason that the good old days seem so good is that we focus on the pleasant stuff and tend to forget the day-to-day unpleasantness.</p>
<h2>Self-delusion as an evolutionary advantage?</h2>
<p>These delusions about the past and the future could be an adaptive part of the human psyche, with innocent self-deceptions actually enabling us to keep striving. If our past is great and our future can be even better, then we can work our way out of the unpleasant – or at least, mundane – present. </p>
<p>All of this tells us something about the fleeting nature of happiness. Emotion researchers have long known about something called the <a href="http://faculty.som.yale.edu/ShaneFrederick/HedonicTreadmill.pdf?subject=Please+mail+a+hard+copy+of">hedonic treadmill</a>. We work very hard to reach a goal, anticipating the happiness it will bring. Unfortunately, after a brief fix we quickly slide back to our baseline, ordinary way-of-being and start chasing the next thing we believe will almost certainly – and finally – make us happy.</p>
<p>My students absolutely hate hearing about this; they get bummed out when I imply that however happy they are right now – it’s probably about how happy they will be 20 years from now. (Next time, perhaps I will reassure them that in the future they’ll remember being very happy in college!)</p>
<p>Nevertheless, <a href="http://pages.ucsd.edu/%7Enchristenfeld/Happiness_Readings_files/Class%203%20-%20Brickman%201978.pdf">studies of lottery winners and other individuals at the top of their game</a> – those who seem to have it all – regularly throw cold water on the dream that getting what we really want will change our lives and make us happier. These studies found that positive events like winning a million bucks and unfortunate events such as being paralyzed in an accident do not significantly affect an individual’s long-term level of happiness.</p>
<p>Assistant professors who dream of attaining tenure and lawyers who dream of making partner often find themselves wondering why they were in such a hurry. After finally <a href="http://faculty.knox.edu/fmcandre/review.html">publishing a book</a>, it was depressing for me to realize how quickly my attitude went from “I’m a guy who wrote a book!” to “I’m a guy who’s only written one book.”</p>
<p>But this is how it should be, at least from an evolutionary perspective. Dissatisfaction with the present and dreams of the future are what keep us motivated, while warm fuzzy memories of the past reassure us that the feelings we seek can be had. In fact, perpetual bliss would completely undermine our will to accomplish anything at all; among our earliest ancestors, those who were perfectly content may have been left in the dust. </p>
<p>This shouldn’t be depressing; quite the contrary. Recognizing that happiness exists – and that it’s a delightful visitor that never overstays its welcome – may help us appreciate it more when it arrives. </p>
<p>Furthermore, understanding that it’s impossible to have happiness in all aspects of life can help you enjoy the happiness that has touched you. </p>
<p>Recognizing that no one “has it all” can cut down on the one thing psychologists know impedes happiness: <a href="http://www.witf.org/mental-health/2013/06/how-envy-destroys-happiness.php">envy</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank T. McAndrew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The positive psychology movement led to hundreds of studies dedicated to improving human happiness. So why has nothing changed?Frank T. McAndrew, Cornelia H. Dudley Professor of Psychology, Knox CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/428172015-06-25T02:52:59Z2015-06-25T02:52:59ZMeasures of happiness tell us less than economics of unhappiness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83916/original/image-20150604-11737-o19jls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C41%2C995%2C564&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Happiness about a new car is relative - it depends on your expectations and on what other people have. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-242077372/stock-photo-young-woman-receiving-the-keys-of-her-new-car.html?src=x7_6Yu2XUU4jEEjv8A9Ycw-1-76">Shutterstock/Minerva Studio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of a series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/on-happiness">On Happiness</a>, examining what it means and how it might be achieved in the 21st century.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p>All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. </p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>– Tolstoy, Anna Karenina</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Money doesn’t buy you happiness, but it does buy you a better class of unhappiness.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>– unsourced, but perhaps a modification of a remark by Spike Milligan</strong></p>
<p>Over the past 20 years or so, the study of the economics of happiness has boomed. By contrast, the economics of unhappiness has been almost entirely neglected.</p>
<p>The neglect of happiness is not simply a quirk of nomenclature, like the use of “health economics” to describe a field that is almost entirely concerned with responses to illness and disability. The central problem in the economics of happiness has been to determine how people’s answers to questions of the form “How happy are you?” are related to economic variables like income and employment. Unhappiness is never considered, except as the absence of happiness.</p>
<p>Even the most basic results of the economic theory of happiness are, to a substantial extent, spurious artefacts of the analytical framework rather than genuine facts about how people experience happiness.</p>
<p>The crucial finding <a href="http://clubtroppo.com.au/2007/02/21/whats-wrong-with-the-layard-thesis/#comments">is this</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Cross-country data shows pretty consistently that on average happiness increases with income, but at a certain point diminishing returns set in. In the developed world, people are not on average happier than they were in the 1960s.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Self-assessed happiness ratings are relative</h2>
<p>The data that supports this consists of surveys that ask people to rate their happiness on a scale, typically from 1 to 10. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/map-happiness-benchmark_n_5592194.html">Within any given society</a>, happiness tends to rise with all the obvious variables: income, health, family relationships and so on. But between societies, or in Western societies like Australia over time, there’s not much difference even though both income and health (life expectancy, for example) have improved pretty steadily for a long time.</p>
<p>This sounds like a striking discovery, but actually it tells us little. An example illustrates the point. Suppose you wanted to establish whether children’s height increased with age, but you couldn’t directly measure height.</p>
<p>One way to respond to this problem would be to interview groups of children in different classes at school and ask them the question: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how tall are you?”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83917/original/image-20150604-11710-1ao4hyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83917/original/image-20150604-11710-1ao4hyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83917/original/image-20150604-11710-1ao4hyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83917/original/image-20150604-11710-1ao4hyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83917/original/image-20150604-11710-1ao4hyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83917/original/image-20150604-11710-1ao4hyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83917/original/image-20150604-11710-1ao4hyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83917/original/image-20150604-11710-1ao4hyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A class of children’s ratings of how tall they are don’t even tell us whether their group is tall or short overall.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-158646758/stock-photo-portrait-of-cute-boy-standing-with-friends-in-a-row-at-kindergarten.html?src=oPV4EouSDPdvUdeTJTNIPA-1-52">Shutterstock/Tyler Olson</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The data would look pretty much like reported data on the relationship between happiness and income. That is, within the groups, you’d find that kids who were old relative to their classmates tended to be report higher numbers than those who were young relative to their classmates (for the obvious reason that, on average, the older ones would be taller than their classmates).</p>
<p>But, for all groups, the median response would be something like 7. Even though average age is higher for higher classes, average reported height would not change (or not change much).</p>
<p>So you’d reach the conclusion that height was a subjective construct depending on relative, rather than absolute, age. If you wanted, you could establish some sort of metaphorical link between being old relative to your classmates and being “looked up to”. But in reality height does increase with (absolute) age.</p>
<p>The problem is with the scaling of the question. A question of this kind can only give relative answers. Since we have no internal scale of happiness that would allow us to say “I feel 6.3 today”, the only way to answer the question we have been asked is with reference to some implicit expectation of what constitutes, for example, an above-average level of happiness, which might justify the answer 7 or 8. </p>
<p>In a society where most people are hungry most of the time, having a full belly might justify such an answer. If everyone has enough to eat, but mostly rice or beans, you might consider yourself happy to be eating roast chicken. And so on.</p>
<p>Inevitably, therefore, the income and health status needed to report yourself as more than averagely happy will depend on what you consider average. Critically, this is true whether or not people in rich societies are in fact happier, and whether or not the average person is happier now than the average person in 1960. A relative scale tells us nothing one way or the other.</p>
<h2>Why unhappiness is more revealing</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83915/original/image-20150604-11715-1qf0v1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83915/original/image-20150604-11715-1qf0v1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/83915/original/image-20150604-11715-1qf0v1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83915/original/image-20150604-11715-1qf0v1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83915/original/image-20150604-11715-1qf0v1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83915/original/image-20150604-11715-1qf0v1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83915/original/image-20150604-11715-1qf0v1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/83915/original/image-20150604-11715-1qf0v1u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=893&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">With objective causes such as hunger, unhappiness may reveal more about well-being than happiness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/faugusto/73577336">Flickr/Filipe Moreira</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If we think instead about unhappiness, a very different set of research questions emerges. While happiness is an elusive and subjective concept, there are plenty of objective sources of unhappiness: hunger, illness, the premature death of loved ones, family breakdown and so on. We can measure the way these sources of unhappiness change over time, and compare this to subjective evidence.</p>
<p>The shift of focus from happiness to unhappiness has important implications – most notably with respect to the central dividing line of modern politics, the welfare state. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/robin-hood-and-piggy-bank-what-the-welfare-state-does-for-us-25790">welfare state</a> is not an institution much associated with happiness. Few people, if asked to list the sources of happiness in their life, would nominate the receipt of unemployment benefits, or a stay in a public hospital. What the welfare state does, or tries to do, is to remove or ameliorate many of the sources of unhappiness in a market economy: illness, loss of income through unemployment or inability to work, homelessness and so on.</p>
<p>The track record of the welfare state has been one of remarkable success. This can be seen by comparing outcomes in modern welfare states with those in the United States, where the <a href="http://rooseveltinstitute.org/policy-and-ideasroosevelt-historyfdr/new-deal">New Deal</a> produced only a stunted, and stinting, version of the welfare state. Despite its technological leadership and its founders’ <a href="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html">endorsement of the pursuit of happiness</a>, the US leads the developed world on numerous measures of unhappiness, including <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279981/">premature mortality</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2696644/">food insecurity</a>, <a href="http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=All">incarceration</a> and inadequate <a href="http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/in-the-literature/2013/nov/access-affordability-and-insurance">access to health care</a>.</p>
<p>These achievements have not earned the welfare state much love on the political right. Whatever the ostensible concerns about fiscal sustainability, the real motive for most attacks on the welfare state is the feeling that unhappiness is good for us, or at least good for other people. Malcolm Fraser, in his now-forgotten incarnation as an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evolution-of-malcolm-fraser-was-a-wonderful-thing-to-behold-39175">admirer of Ayn Rand</a>, put this sentiment as well as anyone when he opined that “<a href="http://andc.anu.edu.au/australian-words/meanings-origins?field_alphabet_value=171">life wasn’t meant to be easy</a>”.</p>
<p>Despite decades of relentless attacks from the political right, with the support of “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way">Third Way</a>” converts from social democracy, the welfare state remains largely intact, and remarkably popular. We have even seen some limited expansions: examples include <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_Part_D">Medicare Part D</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act">Obamacare</a> in the US and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (<a href="http://www.ndis.gov.au/what-is-the-ndis">NDIS</a>) in Australia.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, a renewal of the social democratic project will require new theoretical foundations. Hopes that such a foundation could be found in the economics of happiness have so far not been fulfilled. What we need is an improved understanding of the economics of unhappiness.</p>
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<p><em>This article is based on an essay by the author, What Happiness Conceals, which is part of a newly published collection, <a href="http://uwap.uwa.edu.au/products/on-happiness-new-ideas-for-the-twenty-first-century">On Happiness</a>: New Ideas for the Twenty-First Century (UWA Publishing, June 2015).</em></p>
<p><em>You can read other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/on-happiness">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Quiggin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While the economics of happiness has boomed, the economics of unhappiness has been neglected. Yet there are many objective sources of unhappiness that good economic research might tackle productively.John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics , The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.