The myths of happiness

• Is happiness related to age

  • A survey of 170,000 people of all ages in 16 different countries found no differences, all people are equally happy - mean score was 80% satisfaction with life
  • Different factors at different ages contribute to happiness (Herzog et al 1982)
• Is happiness related to gender?

  • Ingleharts survey found that 80% of men and 80% of women said they were ‘fairly satisfied’ with life
  • Another study calculated that person‘s gender accounted for 1% of global well-being
  • However, women are twice as vulnerable as men to depression
• Is happiness to race or culture?

  • AA’s report nearly twice as much happiness as European-Americans
  • There are notable differences between countries - Portugal 10% happy vs Netherlands 40%
• Is happiness related to money?

  • A survey in 1993 found that 75% of American collrge students selected being well off financially as an essential life goal, compared with 39% in 1970
  • Peoole are rich do not report greater happiness - a survey of people on the forbes rich list found that 37% were less happy than the average Amercian