Toward better lives. The Promise of Sustainable Happiness - Boehm & Lyubomirsky - 2009 - Article

How to foster greater happiness? This chapter discusses why some people are happier than others. In doing so, the focus is on the distinctive ways that happy and unhappy individuals construe themselves and others, how they respond to social comparisons, make decisions, and self-reflect.

Why are some people happier than others?

Research has shown that "objective circumstances" such as money, marital status, and sex, explain little variation in people's level of well-being. In fact, subjective experiences appear to be a more influential factor. To put it differently, happy people are inclined to perceive and interpret their environment differently from their less happy peers. In fact, a growing body of research indicates that happy people are able to maintain and enhance their level of happiness though the use of multiple adaptive strategies focused on themselves and others, social comparison, decision making, and self-reflection.

Construal

Happy people tend to view the world more positively, both related to past life experiences and present life experiences. In contrast, unhappy people tend to evaluate their past life effects relatively unfavorable at both time points. In fact, research indicates that happy and unhappy people experience similar events but interpret them differently.

Social comparison

With regard to social comparison, the fundamental idea is that happy people are less sensitive to feedback about other people's performances, even when that feedback is unfavorable.

Decision making

Research has shown that happy and unhappy people have different strategies for decision making. Happy people tend to be more satisfied with all the options that are available, and only express dissatisfaction when their sense of self is threatened. In the event of many options, happy people tend to be more likely to satisfice, that is to be satisfied with an option that is merely "good enough". Unhappy people, on the other hand, tend to be more likely to maximize their options. They seek to make the absolute best choice.

Self-reflection

Happy people tend to be less likely to excessively self-reflect and dwell upon themselves. This has been examined in several studies, in which for instance students were led to believe that they had failed a course. It appeared that unhappy people engage more in negative and maladaptive dwelling than happy people do so, and their excessive dwelling not only makes them feel bad, but also brings about significant detrimental outcomes.

Can less happy people learn happiness-promoting strategies?

Are unhappy people able to learn happiness-enhancing strategies? Well, there appears to be some doubt about the possibility of increasing and maintaining happiness. First, many studies have shown that genetics are a substantial factor, accounting for approximately 50 percent of the variation present in happiness. Second, according to the hedonic treadmill, people quickly adapt to circumstantial changes, especially positive ones, and therefore eventually return to their baseline level of happiness. Third, there appears to be a strong association between happiness and personality. Since personality traits are characterized as (relatively) stable and fixed in nature, this may hinder variation in happiness across time, 

These pessimistic thought about changing the level of happiness are challenged by the sustainable happiness model, proposed by Lyobomirsky, Sheldon and colleagues (2005). According to this model, happiness is influenced by three factors: one's set point (50%), one's life circumstances (10%), and the intentional activities in which one engages (40%). The most promising factor for causing change in happiness is represented by intentional activity, accounting for approximately 40% of possible variation. Intentional activities are characterized by commited and effortful acts in which people deliberately choose to engage. These activities can be behavioral (for example practicing random acts of kindness), cognitive (for example expressing gratitude) or motivational (for example pursuing intrinsic significant life goals). Two benefits of intentional activities are that they are naturally variable and tend to have a beginning and an end point, which allows to work against adaptation. That is, it is much more difficult to adapt to something that is constantly changing than to something that is relatively stable.

Nowadays, intentional activities are used as the basis of happiness interventions. Preliminary evidence has shown that happiness interventions that involve such intentional activities can be effective in increasing and maintaining happiness. To date, this research has not yet studied effects on the long term. Hence, future studies should examine the long term effects of happiness interventions that involve intentional activities. Further, future research should study the effects of culture and social support on the effectiveness of the interventions.  Another interesting issue to examine is whether activities may increase happiness more effectively for happy people (who presumably already have implemented similar strategies in their daily lives) or unhappy people (who presumably have more to gain regarding their level of happiness)? And, are some strategies a better fit for one group versus another?