Greater Happiness for a Greater Number: Some Non-controversial Options for Governments

There are dramatic differences in average happiness across nations ranging from 3.24 in Togo to 8.00 in Denmark on a 0–10-points scale. These differences are an indication that collective conditions in nations are important for happiness. Can governments play a role in the creation of such conditions? This question is addressed in an analysis of average happiness in 131 nations in 2006. The following sub-questions are considered. (1) Is there a positive correlation between average happiness in nations and the quality or the size of governments? (2) Can we explain a positive correlation in terms of causality? (3) Can we specify causality by discerning direct and indirect effects? (4) What about governments and inequality in happiness? (5) What can governments do to increase happiness intentionally? The conclusion is that the technical quality of governments is an important cause for average happiness in nations, and this causality can be specified to some extent. Good governments also reduce inequality of happiness in nations eventually. The implication is that governments can increase average happiness, and in due time reduce inequality in happiness, and that they have some non-controversial options to do so on purpose.     

Happiness Runs in a Circular Motion: Evidence for a Positive Feedback Loop between Prosocial Spending and Happiness

We examine whether a positive feedback loop exists between spending money on others (i.e. prosocial spending) and happiness. Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness. Afterward, participants chose whether to spend a monetary windfall on themselves or someone else. Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the near future. Thus, by providing initial evidence for a positive feedback loop between prosocial spending and well-being, these data offer one potential path to sustainable happiness: prosocial spending increases happiness which in turn encourages prosocial spending.     

Happiness Enrichment and Sustainable Happiness

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Sustainable happiness research has recently received renewed attention. Studies present exercises intended to enhance happiness. A comprehensive process by...     

Formalizing Happiness

The level of happiness of an individual who accepts the consequences of authoritative policy decisions is a clearly different concept from the utility that is delivered to the same individual by these policies and it depends on the whole range of elements that compose the political environment. This paper proposes a formal notion of happiness that is neither identical nor detached from the notion of utility. Our analysis focuses on how the introduction of new policies or new decision rules in the awareness of the society might influence the individual and the social level of happiness and, thereafter, the optimal policy choices of an ideology oriented authority. The main result indicates that a change in the policy (or decision rule) awareness on behalf of the society might lead to a direct alteration of the authority’s implemented policy. That is, if the society becomes aware of a "better" policy (in social terms) than the one implemented today, then the authority might need to implement something "better" for the citizens, even if this "better" policy assigns a lower utility level to the authority.     

Height and Happiness in a Developing Country

This paper analyzes the Indonesian Family Life Survey to estimate the relationship between height and happiness in a developing country, Indonesia. This paper finds that tall men and women are happier than their short counterparts and that the magnitude of the relationship is large. More important, a parsimonious set of channels is identified to substantially explain the relationship between height and happiness: education and earnings for men, and education and relative position of earnings for women. However, for men but not for women, height still exhibits a non-negligible relationship with happiness even after controlling for an extensive array of covariates.     

Simmel on Happiness

The article gives an overview of Simmel's thought on happiness between the 1890s and 1918. The focus is on the effects of Simmel's general orientation towards the Lebensphilosophie, especially via his reception of Nietzsche. Throughout his writings Simmel displays a distance against traditional views of happiness as an aim of action. Within the framework of Lebensphilosophie happiness becomes a quality of essentially lived life (or, following Nietzsche, heightened life). As a consequence, Simmel's concept of happiness tends to emphasize connotations of felicity, and can therefore be interpreted as a modern, secularized variant of traditional beatitudo.     

Happiness is Flextime

We study how work a schedule flexibility (flextime) affects happiness. We use a US General Social Survey (GSS) pooled dataset containing the Quality of Worklife and Work Orientations modules for 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, and 2014. We retain only respondents who are either full-time or part-time employees on payrolls. For flextime to be associated with greater happiness, it has to be more than just sometimes flexible or slight input into one’s work schedule, that is, little flextime does not increase happiness. But substantial flextime has a large effect on happiness–the size effect is about as large as that of household income, or about as large as a one-step increase in self-reported health, such as up from good to excellent health. Our findings provide support for both public and organizational policies that would promote greater work schedule flexibility or control for employees.     

幸福是什么

幸福概念深刻而复杂,我们可以在且个层次上把握幸福概念。首先,幸福是人生重大的快乐;进一步说,是人生重大需要和欲望得到满足的心理体验,是人生重大目的得到实现的心理体验;最终是达到生存和发展的某种完满的心理体验。     

Hedonism and Happiness

Hedonism is a way of life, characterised by openness to pleasurable experience. There are many qualms about hedonism. It is rejected on moral grounds and said to be detrimental to long-term happiness. Several mechanisms for this 'paradox of hedonism' have been suggested and telling examples of pleasure seekers ending up in despair have been given. But is that the rule? If so, how much pleasure is too much? An overview of the available knowledge is given in this paper. The relation between hedonism and happiness has been studied at two levels: that of the nation and the individual. At the national level average happiness is correlated with moral acceptance of pleasure and with active leisure. At the individual level it is similarly linked with hedonistic attitudes and also correlated with hedonistic behaviours such as frequent sex and use of stimulants. In most cases the pattern is linearly positive. The relation between happiness and consumption of stimulants follows an inverted U-curve, spoilsports and guzzlers are less happy than modest consumers. Yet, these data cannot settle the issue, since the observed relations may be spurious or due to the effects of happiness on hedonism rather than the reverse. Even if we can prove a positive effect of (mild) hedonism on happiness, there is still the question of how that gains balances against a possible loss of health. A solution is to assess the effect of hedonistic living on the number of years lived happily.     

Mill on Happiness

Abstract

In this paper, I argue against the standard interpretation of Mill as a hedonistic utilitarian, and argue instead that Mill holds a ‘eudaimonic’ conception of happiness. I begin by clarifying exactly what I mean by a eudaimonic conception of happiness, and then examine the textual evidence for this eudaimonic interpretation, as well as the evidence against the standard hedonistic interpretation. Naturally, a great deal of the paper will revolve around an analysis of Mill's Utilitarianism, but special attention will also be paid to On Liberty, reading it as a development of Mill's moral theory rather than a mere application of it.     

The Relationship Between Adult Happiness and Self-Appraised Childhood Happiness and Events

The primary purpose of the present research was to relate questionnaire-assessed self-reported childhood happiness and events to adulthood happiness in 387 nonclinical participants. Although childhood happiness and adult happiness were found to be significantly correlated (r = .28, p < .001), there was little relationship between reported adult happiness and reported specific childhood events and circumstances. Childhood events and circumstances, however, were much more highly correlated with childhood happiness (R = .64). Thirty-four percent of the persons who said they were unhappy or very unhappy as a child, but only 9% who said they were happy or very happy as a child, reported that they were unhappy or very unhappy as adults.