Good health unequivocally increases people’s happiness. But while richer
individuals and those with steady partners tend to be happier than others, the
happiness they report does not necessarily come from their incomes and
relationships. Rather, happy people tend to become richer and are more likely
to find steady partners.
These are among the findings of new research by Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell
and Paul Frijters, published in the July 2004 Economic Journal. Their study
of around 7,500 people, who have been questioned repeatedly about their
lives during the course of the 1990s, shows that:
· Richer workers have a higher base level of happiness: on a scale of 0-
10, those with incomes twice as high have happiness levels 0.25
higher. Those whose income rises also become happier, but by only a
very small amount: a doubling of income raises happiness by no more
than about 0.1 on the 0-10 scale. In short, it is more the case that
happy people become richer than the other way around.
· People with many children are unhappier: those with two children are
0.14 less happy than those without children. But those who get more
children do not see their happiness change. So it seems to be those
who are already miserable who have (many) children.
· Individuals with steady partners are happier than those without, by 0.23
on the 0-10 scale. In addition, those who find a steady partner become
happier, though only by 0.07. Hence, steady partners increase our
happiness. At the same time, those already happy are more likely to
find steady partners than those who are miserable.
· Health increases happiness. This effect appears entirely causal: an
increase in reported health (that is, the answer to the question ‘how
healthy are you all things considered?’ on a 0-10 scale) by 1 increases
happiness by 0.35.
The strength of this study is that it uses a very large and detailed sample of
individuals to examine the circumstances of happy people and whether
changes in living circumstances lead to changes in happiness. Much previous
work was based on few individuals and neglected to make the distinction
between an association and causality.
For example, it has often too easily been said that ‘those with steady partners
are happier, therefore steady partnerships make you happy’. This neglects the
very real possibility that people with steady partners may have been happy
before they found steady partners and that it is indeed relatively happy people
for whom it is easier to find steady partners.
These results indeed indicate that most of the difference between people with
steady partners and those without is not due to having a steady partner, but
due to the happier personalities of those that find steady partners. Similarly,
people with happy personalities are more likely to obtain higher incomes
rather than the other way around.
The bottom line of this research is thus that personality traits affect not only
happiness, but also the world of work and family. So we cannot say much
about what makes people happy without taking account of personality traits.
It can be seen as the duty of governments to allow their citizens to be happy
and thus to have an interest in what makes them happy. These researchers
argue that this means we should be interested in how policies affect the
personality traits of citizens.
They conjecture that the main reason that ‘modern states’ have much happier
citizens than other countries is because their citizens are raised to be
optimistic and in control of their own lives. The idea is that a positive ‘can do’
attitude makes citizens in modern states so much happier than citizens of rigid
undemocratic states.
ENDS
Note for Editors: ‘How Important is Methodology for the Estimates of the
Determinants of Happiness?’ by Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell and Paul Frijters is
published in the July 2004 issue of the Economic Journal.
Ferrer-i-Carbonell is at the University of Amsterdam; Frijters is at the
Australian National University.
For Further Information: contact Ada Ferrer on +31-20-525-6137 (email:
A.FerrerCarbonell@uva.nl); Paul Frijters on +61-2-6251-6575 (home), +61-2-
6125-3292 (work) or email: paul.frijters@anu.edu.au; or RES Media
Consultant Romesh Vaitilingam on 0117-983-9770 or 07768-661095 (email:
romesh@compuserve.com).