I found this while looking for something else, and it's so interesting, I thought some of you might enjoy it- I know I did:
Happiness is...
Abi Daruvalla seeks out the Dutch professor who has made the study of happiness his life's work.
What are the vital ingredients to a happy life?
Happiness is not something you would associate with the dreary high-rise office block on the campus of Rotterdam's Erasmus University where Ruut Veenhoven, the world's only professor of happiness, has spent 25 years studying well-being. But he is, says Veenhoven, as happy as the average Dutchman, who scores 7.6 on a scale of 10 in his study 'Happiness in Nations', which compares happiness levels in 90 countries based on data collected between 1946 and 1992.
The Netherlands just misses out on being in the happiness top five – Denmark, Malta, Switzerland are joint winners (both scoring 8), followed by Iceland and Ireland with 7.8 points – but is way ahead some of the most miserable parts of the world (Tanzania 3.2, Zimbabwe 3.3). France scores 6.6, Germany 7.1 and Britain 7.2.
Almost every question you ask Veenhoven is followed by him reaching for his computer mouse to consult the World Database of Happiness (which includes the 'Happiness in Nations' survey).
This incredibly comprehensive website contains 8,000 pieces of research on every conceivable aspect of happiness from around the world and is continually updated and analysed. With a click of the mouse you can find out just about all there is to know about happiness – its correlation to height, birth weight, watching television, intelligence and longevity.
Unhappy 20s
Veenhoven is keen to prove the point and goes for the internet button on the computer in front of him: "People who are unhappy in their 20s are more likely to drop dead in their 60s," he announces a minute or so later.
The research is helping us to build up a picture of 'a happy person' says Veenhoven – but be ready for some surprises. A happy person could be male or female; on the whole there is no difference in happiness levels between the genders, and although women between 15 and 30 tend to be happier than men of the same age the tables are turned when men reach 40 or 50.
The Netherlands just misses out on being in the happiness top five
Age-wise our 'happiness prototype' is younger than 30 or older than 50. Veenhoven: "People experience a dip in happiness in mid-life (between 30 and 50). We're not really sure why but my guess is that people have less freedom and more responsibilities in this period in terms of kids, mortgages and jobs. If you're unhappy in your 20s you're free to try something else like a new job but between 30 and 50 you have obligations so you're less flexible and have less options. This makes people feel trapped."
Happy people are often in a long-term relationship with someone of the opposite sex – heterosexuals are happier than homosexuals says Veenhoven, clicking once again onto his happiness database to check the Danish research in this area: "We don't know why homosexuals tend to be less happy than heterosexuals but this is the case even within the most tolerant countries in the world like the Netherlands and Denmark. This makes it unlikely that societal factors are the cause."
But Veenhoven warns that although a life partner is important, happiness levels of those in a relationship and those who live alone tend to balance out over the longer term, perhaps because single people learn to enjoy their lives.
Freedom and IQ
Research also indicates that jobs in which you are your own boss or enjoy some degree of freedom (such as farmers or journalists) make us happy even if this involves working physically hard and/or long hours. But it doesn't have to be a paid job, as long as you feel you are meaningfully employed (eg full time parent).
There is no correlation between IQ (academic intelligence) and happiness but there is a very strong link between those with social intelligence and happiness (ie people with social intelligence are considerably happier). People who watch more than three hours TV a day – especially if they watch soaps – are unhappier than those who spend less time in front of the box.
Veenhoven's fascination with happiness started when he came to Erasmus University in Rotterdam as a sociology student. "We studied ideologies like Marxism and capitalism but I wanted to know what sort of society really made people happy so I started to collect and analyse data in this field. I was amazed when I discovered that the existence of a welfare state makes no differences to people’s levels of happiness."
Welfare state
Veenhoven researched the correlation between happiness and welfare states in 32 countries in 1990. He calculated the percentage of national income spent by the state on welfare and – to his great surprise – found nothing to indicate that people were happier in countries with higher welfare spending.
Ruut Veenhoven has spent 25 years studying what makes us happy
For example, Sweden, Denmark and Holland spend over 30 percent of gross national product on social security and are all relatively happy countries as are Switzerland and Iceland which spend around one-third less (10 percent) on state welfare systems.
There are several possible answers as to why this is the case, says Veenhoven. "It could be that the state is not necessarily the best way provider of social security. A privatised system for, say, pensions could be better. Another alternative is the Japanese system where your employer provides extensive social security. Or there's the family-oriented approach which is popular in Mediterranean countries."
On top of this, says Veenhoven, a state-controlled social security system is often bureaucratic which alienates people (and thus makes them less happy) or encourages a passive approach to life (which is also not conducive to happiness). Another explanation may also be that people may need lower levels of social security to be happy than many believe.
Another thing that really struck Veenhoven was that having children does not necessarily make people happy and can indeed have a detrimental affect both on your relationship and happiness levels in general – "you have less time for each other and for doing the things you want to do," says Veenhoven who adds that his three children and two grandchildren are certainly a source of happiness as far as he is concerned.
Veenhoven defines happiness as "how much you like the life you are living".
But can you really measure happiness scientifically? Veenhoven believes you can: "Happiness is subjective but there are laws. If you take a hammer and hit someone's finger, they feel pain, everyone would. In the same way people know when they’re happy although they can’t always explain why."
In denial
But, says Veenhoven, you can't just trust someone to tell you the truth when you ask them if they are happy and for this reason methods such as experience sampling (where subjects keep a diary of their feelings) have been developed. A slight discrepancy in favour of happiness in face-to-face interviews is fairly normal but self-deception can go far in some circumstances.
"Some people refuse to admit they are miserable. For example we recently did a study in some Dutch prisons where it seemed inmates were not significantly any less happy than the rest of the population." But freedom is a known factor for happiness and follow-up research based on experience sampling – prisoners noted happiness levels five times a day over two weeks – came up with very different results.
Some people refuse to admit they are miserable
Veenhoven: "Perhaps the prisoners wouldn't admit to being unhappy so as not to lose face. They don’t want to admit they are being punished. It’s very unlikely people can be happy when their liberty has been removed because freedom is s vital component of happiness."
Is it in the genes?
As in most areas of social science, the vexed question of nature or nurture remains controversial when it comes to happiness. But Veenhoven is inclined to believe the role of a 'happiness gene' is of less relevance than many other experts believe.
"Some believe happiness is 60 percent inherited but I would put the figure at around 20 percent. You could live in a lousy environment and still be happy because of your personal circumstances – for example you could live in Zimbabwe [the least happy nation, see above] but if you're the top dog there and have a supportive family and lots of friends, there's no reason you can't be happy. And another important factor is your personal ability to cope with life. People can live in paradise and still be unhappy because they screw up everything in their life."
As for money making you happy, this is only an issue in countries where people can't afford the basics such as food, says Veenhoven. More interesting, he says, is that happy people seem to earn more. A study of students in the US found that those who had answered positively in terms of their optimism were on higher salaries 20 years later than those who had claimed to be unhappy during college. "Happy people are better at networking and are able to work harder," explains Veenhoven.
The seeds of the World Database of Happiness were sown when Veenhoven started filing research data on index cards in the 1980s. By 1984 the project had spawned a number of books and by 1994 the initial website was launched [300,000 hits in the last five years]. Veenhoven is also editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies.
Happiness link
eur.nl
expatica.com. |
