There’s research on happiness. One of my favorite experts on happiness is Dr. David Lykken, who, along with Thomas Bouchard is well-known for his work on the Minnesota Twin Study.1 Both have contributed immensely to twin and adoption research. These two and others have made a case for identifiable happiness markers.2
The more of these happiness-making qualities we possess or cultivate, the happier we feel.
Lykken found that most people given food, shelter, and reasonable security feel reasonably happy most of the time. One’s level of education, marital status, political affiliation, nationality, gender, race or income made no difference in their level of happiness. People who lived in the most affluent countries were, on average, only a bit happier than those living in the poorest countries.
Lykken also identified happy-making traits:
- Effectance motivation: productive labor for its own sake.
- Nurturance: caring for, nurturing, and being tender toward the helpless and vulnerable.
- Self-awareness: developing and maintaining a reliable sense of self.
- Future perspective: being able to positively anticipate the future.
- Vicarious experience: the ability to empathize and share vicariously in the experience of others.
- Aesthetic pleasures: Our mysterious ability to take delight in sensory experiences such as looking at art, listening to music, eating a delicious meal, seeing a sunset, enjoying good sex.
- Curiosity: The drive for understanding ourselves, others, and our environment, the delight in discovery.
Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, published a highly readable, entertaining, and empirically-based hodgepodge of happiness markers, including the facts that people with children are, in general, more unhappy than childless couples; that once people earn around $73,000 annually, making more money does not make them happier; and that people usually err in imagining what will make them happy.3
Gilbert has an interesting video on TED that asks, as an example of just how mistaken we can be, whether you’d rather become a lottery winner or a paraplegic.4 The audience, of course, bursts out laughing. Surprisingly, though, the research shows that, one year after becoming paraplegic or winning the lottery, paraplegics and lottery winners are equally happy. This is not what we expect, which emphasizes that we’re not good at accurately predicting likely outcomes before they occur.
Other takeaways from Gilbert’s happiness research include that people:
- exaggerate the long-term emotional effects events will have on them, and their exaggerations are usually mistaken.
- repeat errors of imagining what will make them happy, forgetting that the same old thing leads to the same old results.
- tend to have a basic happiness set-point that doesn’t change much throughout life; some are happier or more optimistic than others.
- who appear happy may merely lack empathy or healthy curiosity.
Those who are the most productive and creative may in fact be those who aren’t satisfied or happy with the condition of the world or their own lives, and make a difference by striving to change it.
Gilbert concludes that happiness is more fleeting than we expect it to be; we must always realize that good times come to an end and that suffering comes to all. Neither suffering nor happiness are permanent. The basic message we may read into this finding is to enjoy things while we can, and to remind ourselves in the midst of suffering that “this, too, shall pass.” It may be conventional wisdom, but we now have research to back it up.
Another interesting researcher and writer on happiness is Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology.
Seligman’s ongoing research has found that the pursuit of meaning rather than the pursuit of pleasure leads to the highest levels of satisfaction. Having meaning and experiencing engagement–being absorbed in one’s work–is the very definition of the full life, he writes. Pleasure is simply the icing on the cake. The question is not therefore whether a person is happy; the question is whether a person’s life has meaning, and are they absorbed by and engaged with what they do?
You can take Seligman’s Approaches to Happiness test to discover which of the three different approaches to satisfaction you favor. I am (no surprises here) all about meaning. How about you?5
The research seems to indicate that not all sadness needs to be relieved or attacked with a bulleted list or prescription against it. Reality is sobering. It seems impossible that a thinking, compassionate person can be aware of the injustice and suffering in the world and walk away, whistling a happy tune. However, many do seem to live their lives with a “don’t worry, be happy” attitude that ignores the very suffering that inspires others to change the world, and to make a difference.
And that’s sad.
endnotes
- David T. Lykken was a behavioral geneticist best known for his work on twin studies. Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. is director of the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Studies at the University of Minnesota. ↩︎
- Ortiz-Ospina, E. and Roser, M. (2017). Happiness and Life Satisfaction. Published online at Our World in Data. Online resource. ↩︎
- Gilbert, Daniel. Stumbling Upon Happiness. Vintage Books, 2007,
New York. $50k in 2007 is worth $76k in 2025. ↩︎ - Gilbert, Dan. The surprising science of happiness. TED, Feb. 2004. ↩︎
- Authentic Happiness Questionnaire Center. University of Pennsylvania ↩︎
resources
“Making Peace” offers reflections on peace and well-being, along with meditations on lovingkindness and happiness.
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