In pursuit of happiness

Prof. Daniel (Dan) Gilbert is trying to nail what on earth we mean by "happiness" by charting the ups and downs of 5000 lives worldwide.

Data is based on over 5,000 people from 83 countries. Track Your Happiness is a research project that uses smartphones to collect information.

We now know that once you earn about $75,000 per year, your happiness won't increase with more income, but your satisfaction will.

Most of us think that it is fun to let our minds wander (which happens about half the time). But our data show that when the mind is wandering, people are less happy, not more. People are happiest when thinking about what they are doing and not something else. This is true even when commuting or washing up.

Happy thoughts do not make us happy. People who are "here and now" seem happier than those who aren't. That's one reason why social interaction makes people happy. When you talk to someone, your mind rarely wanders because you are listening and thinking about what to say. Interaction keeps us tethered to the moment. It doesn't allow us to float away.

The list of what else makes us happy includes friendships, health, money, sleep and sex. The only real surprise is children, who have a small but reliably negative impact on happiness.

We found that people are much happier with irreversible than reversible decisions because we rationalise the former but not the latter. Someone mentioned this was the essential difference between living with or marrying your girlfriend. If your wife does something mildly annoying you shrug your shoulders, but when your girlfriend does it you wonder if you should keep shopping. As soon as I saw that result I went home and proposed.

Extracts from an interview with Daniel (Dan) Gilbert from "In pursuit of happiness" in the New Scientist - 16 April 2011

"To me, life is like an orchard. You pick the fruit when you see it. For years, I bummed around the world looking for happiness. Then one day I realised happiness isn't something you find. All the happiness in the world is between your two ears." 

By Jim Unger "Herman - The Third Treasury".

For more...

view TED Talk: Dan Gilbert on the surprising science of happiness

Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong — a premise he supports with intriguing research, and explains in his accessible and unexpectedly funny book, "Stumbling on Happiness". 


The Action for Happiness project states that despite big increases in income, UK and US citizens are no happier now than in the 1950s. The reasons are fairly clear. While people care about their income, they value more how income relates to the prevailing norm. But since it is impossible for a society to improve relative income, long-term economic growth is not a feasible route to a happier society.

Compared with the past, people are less happy with their marriages and, in most countries job satisfaction has fallen. There has also been a collapse of trust in the UK and the US. In the 1960s, around 60 per cent considered that "most other people can be trusted"; now it is around 30 per cent.

Mental health is worse today than in the 1960s. Twice as many adolescents have emotional or behavioural problems as in the 1970s, with similar trends seen in students in the US and Australia.

Action for Happiness asks people to commit to increasing happiness and to decreasing misery - and equips them with the tools to do so.

From Richard Layars - Programme director of well-being at the London School of Economics

Daffodil © Jennifer Phillips