Happiness: Its Meaning, Measurement and Importance Dan Weijers

Overview L1 (today): –Happiness and the meaning of life L2 (Thurs 19 July): –Measuring happiness L3 (Thurs 26 July): –Happiness and public policy

Main Goal

Introductions Name? Why have you come along? The key to happiness in your opinion?

Happiness: Its Meaning, Measurement and Significance L1: Happiness and the Meaning of Life

Objective Understanding what’s really important in life

What (Really) Matters? What advice would you give a child?

What (Really) Matters? Wellbeing The good life Happiness The meaning of life

Theories of Wellbeing… Explain what ultimately makes a person’s life go better for them

One Thing or Many? One simple thing: –Just pleasure One complex thing: –Informed, authentic, and morally based positive feelings A list of things: –Happiness, friendship and truth

Subjective vs Objective Does just our personal opinion matter? Or can we be wrong?

Who Are We to Say What is Objectively Good for Us?

Theories of Wellbeing Mental State (Hedonism) Desire/Life Satisfaction Flourishing Objective List

Mental State Theories Folk: get pleasure now! Philosophers: maximise pleasure over your entire life Key: All that matters is how you feel (your mental states) Well-beingHappiness+ve net balance of good over bad mental states Especially hedonism

What about Truth & Freedom? Compare two lives –Same experiences –Different reality Double agent partner Sponsored children all died Whose life is better? What should we do about a happy slave?

Desire Satisfaction Theories Based on desire/preference-satisfaction Informed: adequately informed desires only Ideal: desires that fit some objective criteria only Key: All that matters is getting what you want (or should want) Well-beingHappiness Having most or more of your desires satisfied Sometimes

Is the Satisfaction of Our Desires Good for us? How would “omniscient you” advise yourself? Having a desire satisfied does not seem valuable unless it is the right desire

Objective List E.g. W.D. Ross’ account: –Knowledge, Pleasure, Virtue and the proper apportionment of pleasure to virtue Can’t we explain knowledge with pleasure or desire-satisfaction?

Flourishing Theories Developing one or all of your species’ fundamental traits Aristotle: Flourishing is the soul expressing virtue E.g. cowardice – courage - rashness Key: All that matters is being the best you can be (given that you’re a human) Well-beingFlourishingDeveloping & expressing natural capacities

Why is Fulfilling Our Natural Capacities Good? Is excellence in reasoning or long-distance running better for us? Unnatural things can be good for us too! –E.g. Pacemakers, wings etc.

Best Theory of Wellbeing? Mental State (Hedonism) Desire/Life Satisfaction Flourishing Objective List

Next Week How to measure wellbeing Special guest for first half

Happiness: Its Meaning, Measurement and Importance L2: Measuring Happiness

Objectives Show how various types of happiness are measured Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the approaches Understand the limitations of measurements

Are you Happy? A simple and a complicated question How we go about answering it depends on what we take ‘happiness’ to mean Or, it depends on how the question is asked

How Can I Find Out How Happy You Are? Indirectly –Look at your wealth/income –Look at your capabilities or your quality of life indicators (More) Directly –Observe your behaviour –Brain scans –Ask you

Looking at Your Income Used by: –Some economists & politicians –Most of us as an indicator of ‘national progress’ Income is an indicator of ability to satisfy preferences (and thereby make yourself happy)

Margin of Discontent Gap between what we have and what we want Two solutions:  ‘Sages’ solution: “Give up wanting” – Hard & boring?  ‘Economic growth solution: “People satisfy their wants by increasing their possessions, thus becoming happier”

Looking at Your Income Used by: –Some economists & politicians –Most of us as an indicator of ‘national progress’ Income is an indicator of ability to satisfy preferences (and thereby make yourself happy) Benefits: Easy to calculate and compare on large scale Problems…

Does $$ Make Us Happy?  Reducing the margin of discontent makes people happier  Economic growth helps consumers to reduce their margin of discontent If 1. and 2. are both true, then why have we gotten richer… but not happier? Evidence?

Materialism Doesn’t Pay Very High

Adaptation Lottery winners return to pretty much the same level of happiness after 1 year (contested) The more we have: –The more we want and –The more we think we need Evidence?

So, Does $$ Make Us Happy? So, unless you are materialistic, more $$ makes very little difference to our happiness – much less than: –A loving relationship –Volunteering –A rewarding job But materialistic people seem to have a pretty strange idea of happiness Having said all this… who would not want to win lotto?

Discussion Can money not buy happiness or are we just spending it on the wrong things? Is it possible to avoid adapting to new things that bring us happiness? Has anyone sacrificed money for happiness? How did it go?

Looking at Your Capabilities/QoL Indicators Used by: –Some economists & politicians –Often encouraged by NGOs Income, access to education, healthcare, clean environment, employment, political freedoms etc. Benefits: Not too hard to calculate and compare on large scale Problems…

Aren’t We all Capable of Happiness? People from all walks of life report themselves as happy, even those whose circumstances look dire to us Adaptation (again) Relativity of happiness Determinants of happiness –Evidence?

Determinants of Happiness

Discussion What is more important, freedom, education, or happiness? Which is better, a long life of medium happiness or a medium life of great happiness? Should we focus on genetic technology and cognitive behavioural therapy instead of circumstances?

Observe Your Behaviour Used by: –A few academics –Just about all of us! By observing body language and behaviour we can tell how happy someone is Benefits: easy to do, especially with people you know well Problems: impractical on large scale and…

Smile! Smiling is the main way to tell if someone’s happy… but only if they are real smiles real smiles Duchenne (real) smiles can be noticed by the ‘sparkle’ in the eyes

Scanning Your Brain Used by: –A few academics Activity in specific areas of the brain are measured and compared to the other direct measures of happiness

Cute baby = Left side

Deformed baby = Right side

Causing (Ratty) Pleasure

Scanning Your Brain Used by: –A few academics Activity in specific areas of the brain are measured and compared to the other direct measures of happiness Benefits: becoming increasingly accurate Problems: very impractical on large scale and still mysterious

Discussion If happiness has a biological cause in the brain, then we will be able to influence it with drugs, surgery, bionics etc… but should we? If our brains show equal ‘happiness activity’, then are we equally happy? How can we know this?

Asking You Used by: –Psychologists –Occasionally by economics academics You think about and answer a question regarding your happiness. After all, who could be better than you at judging how happy you are? Benefits: Not too hard to calculate and (possibly) compare on large scale Problems… depend on the question…

3 Types of Questions I Can Ask You (3 Levels of Happiness) 1)How are you feeling right now (from 1 to 7)? –Introspection 2)All things considered, how happy are you these days (from 1 to 7)? –Introspection, comparative judgement 3)On the whole, how good do you think your life is (from 1 to 7)? –Introspection, comparative judgement, relative to conception of ‘the good life’

Level One Happiness: Feeling Happy in the Moment How are you feeling right now? –Introspection Level One Happiness (Nettle) –Mood –Pleasure –Joy –Absence of pain and suffering (negative feelings) Fear, Anger, Sadness, Disgust, Pain

Level One Happiness: Feeling Happy in the Moment Is there really such a thing? How good are we at getting it right? –Introspection –Smiling.. –Brain scans How good is it to have?

Level Two Happiness: Judging Your Happiness All things considered, how happy are you these days? –Introspection, comparative judgement Level Two Happiness (Nettle) –Total net Level One happiness (Kahneman) –Well-being –Satisfaction –Judgement about feelings Can be distorted by biased judgements

Level Two Happiness: Judging Your Happiness Is there really such a thing? How good are we at getting it right? –Appraisal biases –Aspirational biases How good is it to have?

Level Three Happiness: Thinking You Have a Good Life On the whole, how good do you think your life is? –Introspection, comparative judgement, relative to conception of ‘the good life’ Level Three Happiness (Nettle) –Eudaimonia –Fulfilling potential –Quality of life Doesn’t always require Level 1 or 2 happiness

Level Three Happiness: Thinking You Have a Good Life Is there really such a thing? –Subjectively: yes –Objectively: interesting question How good are we at getting it right? How good is it to have?

Happiness ‘Continuum’ Level 1 -Momentary feelings -Mood -Pleasure or joy -Not suffering Level 2 -Judgements about feelings -Net level 1 happiness -Well-being -satisfaction Level 3 -Holistic evaluation of value of life -Flourishing -Needn’t include happiness More emotional, sensual, and reliable More cognitive, moral, and easily biased

Discussion When (if ever) are our judgments about how we feel accurate enough to make decisions by? For self- and governmental –assessment, which method of measuring happiness: –Provides the best gauge of actual happiness (most accurate/ reliable)? –Is the easiest to carry out? Or, suggest another method

How to Find Out More Further reading: –Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile By Daniel Nettle –Stumbling on Happiness By Dan Gilbert Multimedia info: – – g.org/ g.org/

Happiness: Its Meaning, Measurement and Significance L3: Happiness and Public Policy?

Objectives Use our previous learning (about what happiness is, how valuable it is and if we can measure it) to help us… Decide what we should do about happiness regarding public policy

So What Should the Government Do? Main goal of government?: –Happiness –Well-being –High living standards –$$$/freedom/rights SWB/Happiness measures/studies? –No role –Directly inform policy (alone or with others) –Use to create objective measures

Unemployment Raise taxes to make more public sector jobs? Make it harder to fire people?

Commuting Less time commuting could make us happier Should the government encourage virtual workplaces?

Advertising Rosser Reeves –Manager of a successful advertising company While holding up two coins: –“[Making] you think that this quarter is more valuable than that one”

The Benefits of Advertising Winston Churchill: “Advertising nourishes the consuming power of men. It creates wants for a better standard of living… It spurs individual exertion and greater production.” Advertising improves our well-being

Does Advertising Make Us Dissatisfied? Beautiful (photo-shopped) women are in adverts everywhere we look

Does Advertising Make Us Dissatisfied? Beautiful (photo-shopped) women are in adverts everywhere They make us unhappy/ dissatisfied Should we remove tax breaks for pictorial advertising? Should we ban pictorial advertising?

Policy- making ↑ Well-being (WB) Fairness Sustainability Equality Subjective WBObjective WB OverallDomain-Specific Mental state/ hedonism Life Satisfaction theories Objective List/ Flourishing Quality of Life Indicators Traditional Economic Indicators Health/ healthcare Freedom Trust Safety Environ- ment Education Equality Production Income Employ- ment Justice Wealth Survey Pager Day reco- nstruction Survey “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life?” Survey Rate agreement “I have good friends” HAPPINESS Happiness Brain scan Behav- ioural

Living Standards Treasury vision: –“working for higher living standards for NZers” Living Standards Framework (LSF) –Explain ‘living standards’ Living Standards Tool –“assist policy analysts to consider the [LSF] in their day-to-day work”

Treasury’s Key Objectives “working for higher living standards for NZers” 1.Improved economic performance 2.A high performing state sector that supports NZ’s international competitiveness 3.A stable and sustainable macro-economic environment

Living Standards Framework

Living Standards Tool

My View

Policy- making ↑ Well-being (WB) Fairness Sustainability Equality Subjective WBObjective WB OverallDomain-Specific Mental state/ hedonism Life Satisfaction theories Objective List/ Flourishing Quality of Life Indicators Traditional Economic Indicators Health/ healthcare Freedom Trust Safety Environ- ment Education Equality Production Income Employ- ment Justice Wealth Survey Pager Day reco- nstruction Survey “All things considered, how satisfied are you with your life?” Survey Rate agreement “I have good friends” HAPPINESS Happiness Brain scan Behav- ioural

SWB as “Crosscheck”

Measuring Progress

So What Should the Government Do? Main goal of government?: –Happiness –Well-being –High living standards –$$$/freedom/rights SWB/Happiness measures/studies? –No role –Directly inform policy (alone or with others) –Use to create objective measures

How to Find Out More Further reading: –Happiness: Lessons from a New Science By Lord Richard layard Multimedia info: – Search for “living standards” – –

Bhutan vs. New Zealand In Bhutan, happiness (they define it more like peaceful serenity) is the most important driver of policy –Since the late 1980’s In New Zealand, it’s often ‘the effect on the economy’ –On jobs or per capita incomes or GDP

Other Topics Foreign aid The media’s portrayal of progress Education Health