HOW MANY PEOPLE YOU KNOW WITHIN A FIFTEEN-MINUTE WALK
OF YOUR HOUSE?
In The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
, Eric Weiner wonders: What if you
lived in a country that was fabulously wealthy and no one paid taxes? What if
you lived in a country where failure is an option? What if you lived in a
country so democratic that you voted seven times a year? What if you lived in a
country where excessive thinking is discouraged? Would you be happy then?
, Eric Weiner wonders: What if you
lived in a country that was fabulously wealthy and no one paid taxes? What if
you lived in a country where failure is an option? What if you lived in a
country so democratic that you voted seven times a year? What if you lived in a
country where excessive thinking is discouraged? Would you be happy then?
How
can you measure happiness?
“Happiness
is a feeling, a mood, an outlook on life. Happiness can’t be measured. Or can
it?
Neuroscientists
at the University
of Iowa
Happy
feelings, in other words, register in the regions of the brain that have
evolved most recently. It raises an intriguing question: Are we, in
evolutionary if not personal terms, slouching toward happiness?”
Some
people should be happier than others…for happiness researchers
WEINER:
“It must be wonderful working in the field of happiness studies.”
VEENHOVEN:
“What do you mean?”
WEINER:
“Well, you must have an abiding faith in mankind’s capacity for happiness.”
VEENHOVEN:
“No, not really.”
WEINER:
“But you’ve been studying happiness, analyzing it your entire life.”
VEENHOVEN:
“Yes, but it doesn’t matter to me if people are happy or not, as long as some
people are happier than others. I can still crunch the numbers.”
The
crime rate
“One
study found that, of all the factors that affect the crime rate for a given
area, the one that made the biggest difference was not the number of police
patrols or anything like that but, rather, how many people you know within a
fifteen-minute walk of your house.”
The
happiest places don’t necessarily fit our preconceived notions
“Extroverts are happier than introverts;
optimists are happier than pessimists; married people are happier than singles,
though people with children are no happier than childless couples; Republicans
are happier than Democrats; people who attend religious services are happier
than those who do not; people with college degrees are happier than those
without, though people with advanced degrees are less happy than those with
just a BA; people with an active sex life are happier than those without; women
and men are equally happy, though women have a wider emotional range; having an
affair will make you happy but will not compensate for the massive loss of
happiness that you will incur when your spouse finds out and leaves you; people
are least happy when they’re commuting to work; busy people are happier than
those with too little to do; wealthy people are happier than poor ones, but
only slightly. So what should we do with these findings? Get married but don’t
have kids? Start going to church regularly? Drop out of that PhD program? Not
so fast.
The
happiest places, he explains, don’t necessarily fit our preconceived notions.
Some of the happiest countries in the world—Iceland
and Denmark
Happiness
and Democracy
“Another
researcher, a Swiss economist named Bruno Frey, examined the relationship
between democracy and happiness across Switzerland
*****
an inspirational novel about the courage to be oneself
freely.
a thought-provoking novel about infatuation.
Copyright © 2013 by THE PYTHAGOREAN
STORYTELLER. All rights reserved.
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