How do you do happiness?
February 1, 2024.
I’m frankly fascinated by Happiness Studies. This is truly a noble discipline, focused on easing the human condition with hard science.
At first happiness researchers confronted the obvious; personality factors like extraversion, and emotional stability are often said to underscore the fundamentals of human happiness.
But it was when researchers studied the impact of circumstances, they noted something important. Unlike personality, circumstances are more supple and permeable because they include the behavioral choices that humans make daily.
Thanks to this breaking research, we now suspect that your daily living circumstances and your expression of your personality are roughly equally essential to your happiness.
This research corrects initial efforts which skewed the importance of personality on happiness by overemphasizing it’s importance.
In other words, personality is only half the story of human happiness.
What about the rest of us… traumatized and tormented souls?
For neurotic humans who are introverted and dysthymic, change may feel improbable, this sounds like bad news for their hopes for ordinary human happiness.
But this research indicates that your personality is only part of the arc of your happiness.
Unlike personality, circumstances are far more within your control, because they include the things that humans do each day.
In other words, even if you’re neurotic, changing your routines might actually make you happier!
Dr. William Hobbs, the study’s first author, said:
“If we look at the research, it suggests that people are just happier because they have a happy personality.
Our study suggests that’s not the case, that there are many drivers of happiness.
For some it might have to do with personality, for others saving money, exercising or spending time with family and friends.”
How the study was conducted
The conclusions come from an analysis of over 1,000 humans who responded to open-ended survey questions.
Instead of using closed-ended questions, the researchers decided to ask this singular, open-ended question:
“What do you do to make life go well?”
When they analysed the study subject responses, they discovered that both personality and circumstances provided roughly an equal contribution to how a happy human feels.
As in prior research, they confirmed that humans with stable emotions tend to be happier than those who are neurotic — and we ‘ve understood for quite some time that this trait can be profoundly challenging to change.
However, changing your circumstances, for example, making healthier lifestyle changes such as exercising, making efforts toward better sleep hygiene, and watching what you take into your body are more conducive for healthy change than working on your personality.
Dr. Hobbs said:
“If we don’t use self-ratings and closed-ended questions to study happiness, then things like health and money and to some extent social connectedness are just as strongly associated with happiness as personality.
If we correct for this methodological problem, then they look about the same.”
How do you do happiness?
Be well, stay kind, and Godspeed.
RESEARCH:
For ‘Living Well’, Behaviors and Circumstances Matter Just as Much as Psychological Traits
William Hobbs and Anthony Ong. 2023.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 120(12): e2212867120.
