Evening Out the Happiness Train

I find happiness studies fascinating. According to Justin Wolfers at Freakonomics, happiness inequality in the United States is decreasing both among gender and race, despite increasing among those with education differences. The graph below shows how happiness inequality is generally decreasing in each of the groups listed.

Our key finding is that most of the movements in happiness inequality reflect changes in happiness inequality within even narrowly-defined demographic groups, and these changes are quite pervasive.

While this is a statistical explanation, it simply begs the question: What changes could have narrowed happiness inequality so pervasively? And juxtaposing our observed trends in happiness inequality with measures of income inequality — which have pretty much risen for the past four decades in a row — presents a real puzzle. How might we reconcile these trends?

I have my theories...perhaps happiness isn't as dependent on income as some would like to claim.


I believe that happiness is evening out because happiness has everything to do with life attitude. Richer people are becoming less happy because they have realized that money can't buy them the most important things is life, and they spend so much time concerned about their money that their enjoyment of it actually decreases. Poorer people are becoming more happy because they have growing access to all the fundamentals in life and often times their poorness is only poor in relative terms. People without money have been profoundly good at focusing on the more 'meaningful' elements of life throughout history.

The main idea??? HAPPINESS IS NOT DEPENDANT ON INCOME (beyond a basic needs/survival level). I get sick of hearing that assumption over and over again. Many people without money are the most satisfied and happy I have ever met.

When people do attempt to base their happiness on their real or perceived level of financial prosperity (or any other externality for that matter)---that is when they will never achieve the happiness that alludes them.

Smiles Are Contagious; I Dare You Not to Smile at These

Check out Great Smiles - Happy Life - The Happiest Blog on Earth which features new smiles everyday. A great idea. People share their best smile photos with the site and they post a new one every day. I know some smilers. You know, people who smile even when the world is crashing and burning around them, but gosh darn it, they just can't wipe that smile off their face... The world needs more smilers.

And by the way, who can't smile at faces like these?




Come on. Don't fight it. I know you're smiling.

Finally, A Happy News Only Source

What a novel idea. HappyNews.com is a news site that doesn't make you feel depressed after reading it (unless you are the Grinch or take pleasure in other's misfortune that is). This news source only publishes positive stories. I'd say it is a welcome relief. Finally, some news that helps to restore a little hope in humanity and happiness in our days.

Sometimes I get bogged down by the traditional negative news stories after negative news story, from violence, fires, hurricanes, war, corruption, poverty, to lying, stealing, cheating, terrorism, and dying. If I am watching TV and the local news pops on, I can hardly stand it. I have to go find the remote and change the channel (or go read a book). While I am a huge proponent of staying informed, following the news is sometimes just asking to much. And that is a sad truth about the condition of our world.

Enough with my diatribe though...add some HappyNews to your life.

Link courtesy of Jazz over at Jazz Spot Thanks.

Conservatives are more happy

Studies have proved that conservatives are almost consistently more happy than liberals.

Non-partisan survey data clearly show a large, persistent “happiness gap” favoring the political right.

Why is this? There are many conjectures. Arthur Brooks seems to think it corresponds with religion. People who are religious just tend to be happier and the religious right happens to make up a big chunk of the republican party. I guess I can see that, but I have my own theories.

I think it has a lot to do with policy. Leftists tend to think EVERYTHING is wrong and needs to changed which says a lot about trust in government and a prevailing fatalist world view, making happiness harder to achieve on even a smaller individual scale. Rightest on the other hand, are more likely to favor tradition with suggests happiness with the current state of affairs. Also, social responsibility starts at the individual instead of from the top down, so that makes happiness easier to attain when you are in control.

Myself personally, I think there a lot of problems in the world but I am confident that life is good, no matter what situation. Regardless of what is imposed upon you, life is what you make it friends. We determine our own levels of happiness.

Sad? Give happiness a try.

I think that the Happiness Project book/blog is a good idea. I quote from Gretchen Rubin:

THE HAPPINESS PROJECT--a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn’t.

The Happiness Project

I think happiness studies are so intriguing. I really think happiness has a lot to do with personality and environment or perception of relativity.

Although shifting the topic a little, one of my favorite quotes of all times is by John Tomlinson (although I think he was quoting it from Katz and Liebes) "Unhappiness is the greatest leveler."

Think about that in your social stratification, globalization, and economic welfare studies. Who cares what you've got if you are less unhappy than others? If people who have everything are still unhappy, and people who have nothing are unhappy, is it really a redistribution of wealth that is indeed needed, or something else?