As a coach, I meet a certain group of clients who believe that money is a means to an end, and the end is happiness. This is not an uncommon misconception. In a 2006 Gallup survey, 73 percent of Americans believed they would be happier if they made more money.
Happiness Defined
Before we go into the hard facts about money and happiness, let us define what happiness is. To psychological researchers, happiness is life experience marked by a preponderance of positive emotion. Feelings of happiness and thoughts of satisfaction with life are two prime components of subjective well-being.
So does money really buy happiness?
With most of the world concerned with making more money, this has been a hot topic of interest amongst psychologists and sociologists. What they found was surprising.
The Hard Facts
- The wealth of nations affects happiness of citizens only to a certain level. Prosperous nations have happier and more satisfied people (these also tend to be countries with high literacy, civil rights, and stable democracies), but the correlation between national wealth and well-being tapers off above a certain level.
- Wealth of individual only determines happiness of individual to a certain extent. Happiness of people often do not rise with rising income. Despite having greater comforts such as high-speed computers, the latest gadgets, bigger houses, we are not much happier, reported economist Richard Easterlin. The association between income and happiness tapers off once people have sufficient income to afford life’s necessities and a measure of control over their lives.
Figure 1: Economic growth and happiness. American's average buying power has almost tripled since the 1950s, while reported happiness has remained almost unchanged. (Happiness data from National Opinion Research Center General Social Survey; income data from Historical Statistics of the United States and Economic Indicators.)
Why is it so?
Adaptation
We humans are prone to adaptation. Do you recall an incident where you first enter a toilet and found it smelly, but 10 minutes later, you may be thinking “what smell?” You have adapted to the smell of the toilet. Adaptation is a survival tool which allows us to thrive in this ever-changing environment.
However this also means that we would not have contented with our situation for long. Sooner than we might expect, we will adapt improvements in circumstances and recalibrate our emotions around the new “adaptation level.” Thus, finds Daniel Gilbert in his studies, summarized in Stumbling on Happiness, emotions have a shorter half-life than most people suppose.
What does it mean for you: To prevent yourself from simply adapting to your circumstances, make it a point to keep a gratitude journal to remind yourself of things you are thankful for. Being able to be grateful for what you have focuses your mind on the positive, and enhances your sense of well-being.
Social Comparisons
The tapering of happiness level is also a result of our social comparisons. As people climb the ladder of success, they tend to compare upward, and when they start comparing to people better than them, they start feeling dissatisfied with what they already have.
What does it mean for you: Do not compare with others. Learn the art of contentment. The only person you should be comparing to is the person you were yesterday. Simply be at your best at all times and happiness will follow.
Other traits of happy people
Surprisingly, age, gender, race, do not have much to play in determining one’s happiness level. What directly affects one level of happiness is:
1. Self-esteem and state of mind
People who have high self-esteem, optimism, extroverted, and a sense of personal control tend to be happier in their personal lives. Twin and adoption studies have revealed that some of these traits, such as extraversion are genetically influenced, as is happiness itself.
2. Experience of flow in work and leisure
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi reports increased quality of life when work and leisure engage one's skills. Between the anxiety of being overwhelmed and the boredom of being underwhelmed lies the unself-conscious, absorbed state of flow.
3. Being in meaningful relationships
Humans are social animals, with an evident need to belong. For most people, solitary confinement is misery. Having close friends, and being with them, is pleasure. In National Opinion Research Center surveys of more than 42,000 Americans since 1972, 40 percent of married adults have declared themselves very happy, as have 23 percent of never married adults. The marital happiness gap also occurs in other countries and is similar for men and women. The causal arrows between marriage and happiness appear to point both ways: an intimate marriage, like other close friendships, offers social support; but happy people also appear more likely to attract and retain partners.
4. Having faith in something greater than themselves
The same National Opinion Research Center surveys reveal that 23 percent of those never attending religious services report being very happy, as do 47 percent of those attending more than weekly. In explaining the oft-reported greater happiness and ability to cope with loss among people active in faith communities, psychologists have assumed that faith networks may offer social support, meaning, and assistance in managing the "terror" of one's inevitable death.
Conclusion
Instead of blindly running in the rat race to earn more money so that you can be happy, it’s time to take a step back. Happiness is a journey, not a destination, and the more you try to race towards happiness, the more it eludes you.
To have happiness, simply choose to be happy. Start choosing more experiences in life that would generate positive emotions, hang around with positive people, develop meaningful relationships, have gratitude, and strive to be the best you can be!
References
Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, Knopf, 2006
Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis, Basic Books, 2006
David G. Myers, The Pursuit of Happiness, Harper Paperbacks, 1993.
Martin E. P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness, Free Press, 2002.
Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness, Penguin Press, 2008.
David Myers, Psychology of Happiness, Scholarpedia, 2(8):3149, 2007Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Rethinking happiness: The science of psychological wealth, Malden, MA: Blackwell/Wiley, 2009.
