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: The path to happiness is paved, depending on whether you survey poets or parents, by a secure and well-paid job, moral and political freedom, or perhaps even romantic love. Yet, only recently have psychologists and normally well-grounded economists begun to weigh in on the lofty question of what makes people happy. Their attempts to identify the determinants of well-being have led to many intriguing insights that may offer guidance for adventurous policymakers.
Economists have long resisted the study of happiness, or ‘hedonics’, because its study is fraught with methodological complication. Traditionally, they inferred well-being by looking at changes in more visible markers such as income or consumption. Documenting changes in happiness across people and over time is, in comparison, quite daunting. Why not simply ask individuals how happy they are? The usual worry is that individuals may not even be aware of their own well-being and the scale used by one may not be commensurable with that used by another.
However, some scientists have recently turned to the laboratory where measuring happiness is more manageable. One can code facial expressions to infer positive and negative emotions, or compare the ease with which a subject is able to recall positive and negative life events. New technology even permits psychologists to observe what may be bodily cues of well-being such as specific areas of brain activation or the speed with which the skin conducts electric currents. One outcome of this research has been to validate certain survey measures of well-being as surprisingly reliable. A handful of economists have since applied the discipline’s impressive statistical tools towards uncovering the demographic and behavioural causes of happiness.
One basic question is whether individual happiness can improve over time? For the most part, people are healthier, much wealthier, and have more choice than forbearers plagued by disease, poverty, and oppression, let alone the absence of TV, U2 concerts, running water, and antibiotics. Yet, are people happier than they were 50 or 1,000 years ago? Imagine that tomorrow, you win the lottery or a car crash robs you of mobility. Surveys of those who have experienced such highs and lows suggest that happiness and sadness ensue, but only for a few months before a (near) complete return to baseline well-being. Psychologist Daniel Gilbert has even demonstrated people are maladaptively poor at forecasting their reaction to the future—if you want to accurately predict your future well-being, just...
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