What Makes People Happy?
By Julie Baumgardner
The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“I believe most people want to be happy and will actually pursue those things in life that they believe will bring them happiness,” said Dr. Arthur C. Brooks, author of Gross National Happiness: Why Happiness Matters for America and How we Can Get More of It. Brooks, a professor of Business and Government Policy at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs was very surprised about what he discovered that actually makes people happy. “I have always thought that marching to the beat of my own drummer and making up my own values as I went along were the right things to do to find happiness.”
After assessing a great deal of data on the topic – large surveys conducted by the best and most impartial data-collection organizations in the world - Dr. Brooks found that the factors that equate to a happy life are not the things we typically think about such as making a lot of money, having the perfect body or even making good grades in school.
“The key to happiness is a life that reflects traditional values and practices like faith, hard work, marriage, charitable giving and freedom,” said Dr. Brooks. “I believe that the pursuit of happiness is a deeply moral obligation on both the personal and the national level. Your happiness affects me. Happy people treat others better than unhappy people do. They are more charitable, have better marriages, are better parents, act with greater integrity and are better citizens.”
Studies show that approximately 85 percent of Americans identify with a religion. Religious Americans, those who attend a place of worship almost every week or more, are happier than those who rarely or never attend. The 2004 General Social Survey showed that 43 percent of religious people said they were very happy with their lives compared with 23 percent of the nonreligious. This connection between faith and happiness holds regardless of one’s particular faith expression.
“When it comes to work most Americans say that even if they became independently wealthy they would not quit their job,” said Dr. Brooks. “Research shows that most Americans like or even love their work and equate job satisfaction with life satisfaction. Of those who stated they were very happy with their lives, 95 percent were also satisfied with their jobs.”
Contrary to popular belief, marriage brings happiness for many people. A 2003 study that followed 24,000 people for more than a decade documented a significant increase in happiness after people married. Researchers also believe that happiness brings marriage. Happy people are more likely than unhappy people to get married. A 2007 poll found that the top five factors people consider essential to happiness within marriage are (in order): sharing household chores, good housing, adequate income, a happy sexual relationship, and faithfulness.
“While there are studies that indicate that marital happiness takes a nosedive when children enter the picture, children also tend to come bundled with a lot of other things that truly do make us happy,” said Dr. Brooks. “Children are clearly part of a happy lifestyle.”
Americans have gotten much richer over the past several decades but there has not been a meaningful rise in the average level of happiness. In 1972, 30 percent of Americans said they were very happy. By 2004, the percentage of very happy Americans stayed virtually unchanged at 31 percent, even though there had been a 50 percent real increase in average income. The data clearly shows that individuals get little or no extra happiness as they get richer – even massively richer.
“The evidence is clear that gifts to charitable organizations and other worthy causes bring substantial life satisfaction to the givers,” said Dr. Brooks. “People who give money to charity are 43 percent more likely than non-givers to say they are very happy. It doesn’t matter whether the gifts go to religious or secular organizations. The more people give the happier they get.”
The last predictor of happiness is freedom. People who consider themselves free are a lot happier than those who don’t.
“Researchers have shown that economic freedom brings happiness, as does political and religious freedom,” said Dr. Brooks. “However, moral freedom (a lack of constraints on behavior) does not. People who feel they have unlimited moral choices in their lives when it comes to sex or drugs, for example, tend to be unhappier than those who do not feel they have to many choices in life.”
Brooks contends that without proper values, our jobs and our economy will bring us soulless toil and joyless money. Our education will have little meaning and there will be no reason to fight or make peace to protect our way of life.
“The pursuit of happiness is central to everything we do and our values are what make this pursuit possible,” said Dr. Brooks.
