If you're happy and you know it
| 4 May, 2011 | Richard P. Grant |
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Being happy seems to be important to a lot of people. The pursuit of happiness (if not its attainment) is stated to be an ‘unalienable Right’ in the American Declaration of Independence. But what makes us happy?
According to a report in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry getting older doesn’t necessarily make you curmudegeonly, and on the whole (at least in England) we’re happier than we used to be. In fact, happiness isn’t associated with age[free evaluation] one way or another, but it is associated with (among other things) being a white, British male, owning your own home (which you share with a spouse), being well-educated, having an active social life and going to church.
(Being well-educated? Calvin is on shaky ground when he tries to be excused from Miss Wormwood’s lesson, claiming that ‘ignorance is bliss’ is a patriotic prerogative.)
Christer Allgulander writes, “The finding that men are happier than women deserves further study. A Darwinian comment is that happy people are more likely to survive.” Interesting. But how this ties into how being happy rather than hopeful makes you fat is yet another question we need to study, I feel.
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Why is it a surprise that white, affluent males should be happier than anyone else? They have de rigueur access to the fruits of the combined labors of all people simply because they were born white, male, and to affluent parents. They can tell themselves with impunity that they are the raison d’etre of the Universe itself. Why wouldn’t they be happier than those doomed by accidents of birth to be female, non-white, and poor?
In these kinds of studies, seems like what you find depends on what you’re looking for. Other studies have reported that happiness correlates with health (not even mentioned here), wealth and youth. I saw a report once that said kids who believe in Santa Claus are happier than kids who don’t. For what it’s worth….
“We were poor, but we were *happy*”
No?
Oh well.
I have to agree with Mightythor, example of a study conducted by Dr Ronit Peled where being happy might protect against breast cancer. However, it is universal to know that happiness has nothing to do with age. But there is a huge difference between wanting to be happy and just being plain happy. (Interesting comment by Richard as the sentence is in past-tense, i wish to rephrase- “we were poor, but we are always happy”)
I am hoping that all of the pre-cursors of being married are not required as a whole. “active social life and going to church” MAY be a problem for me, though as a dog walker I guess I get to meet other dog owners on occasions.
And does ‘owning your own home’ mean that its fully paid off? Ooops, there goes another point. The biggest surprise about this was the difference between the genders. I have worked in market research before, and I imagine that the same issues of question control plague researchers. How do you evaluate who is truly happy, and is it the same scale as for everyone?
I dont doubt the research, just be interesting if it is repeatable and if practical applications can come from it.
Happiness is a state of mind and hence cannot be measured with current technology. One may say “I am happy” and always keep smiling but that does not mean he /she really is.
And of course, the desire and craving for more does not end even one becomes affluent or rich.