Keys To Happiness....

Want to be happy? A 26-year study of Germans suggests it's not that hard:

• Marry someone who's not neurotic.
• Focus more on friends and family, less on material goods.
• Get involved in making the world a better place.
• Have a job but also enough time for leisure.
• Stay physically active.
• For men, don't be underweight. For women, don't be obese.

These are, of course, wildly simplified suggestions. But the researchers, in Germany, Holland and Australia, developed them after studying a lot of data on a lot of people. They worked from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey, which has been doing every-five-year interviews with Germans since 1984 and currently has over 60,000 people enrolled.

The findings are interesting because currently psychologists and economists are in disagreement about just how happy people can be. Since the 1980s psychologists have generally subscribed to the set-point theory of happiness, which says that happiness is between 40 and 50% genetic. According to this theory, once you're an adult there's not much you can do about how happy you are. One large study of twins said "trying to be happier may be as futile as trying to be taller."

But since the 1990s economists have been looking at how the world we live in affects happiness levels, and what can be done to change them. They call happiness a "subjective utility" and focus on ways that government and social policies can affect the overall happiness of citizens.

Analysis of the German data, published in today's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, appears to show that happiness can indeed change over time, indicating that social policy could have an effect. The paper says:

Key choices relate to one's partner, the trade off between work and leisure, social participation, and healthy lifestyle. Life goals and choices have as much or more impact on life satisfaction than variables routinely described as important in previous research, including extroversion and being married or partnered. If we use these last two variables as benchmarks, it appears that partner's level of neuroticism, one's own commitment to family and altruistic goals, church attendance, participation in social events, and regular exercise are all equally or more important than being extroverted). For both men and women, doing fewer paid hours of work than they want apparently has close to the same impact on life satisfaction as not being married/partnered. For women, being obese actually reduces life satisfaction more than not having a partner.

Other interesting findings:

-- Finding a partner who is similar to oneself doesn't seem to be linked to long-term happiness, despite some research suggesting that partners with similar personalities are likely to be happier.

-- Being neurotic oneself makes one even more unhappy, but being with someone who is neurotic has a substantial effect on life satisfaction and doesn't get better no matter how long one is married.

-- "Women whose partners give high priority to family goals are significantly happier than women whose partners give family matters low priority."

-- Being involved in religion (in the German study either Christianity or Islam) correlated with spending more time on volunteer activities, and higher priority to altruistic and family goals and therefore higher levels of happiness

-- "The evidence indicates that people who consistently prioritize non zero-sum altruistic goals or family goals are more satisfied with life than people who prioritize goals relating to their own career and material success. Giving priority to altruistic goals is strongly association with higher life satisfaction." In fact, "prioritizing success and material goals is actually harmful to life satisfaction."

-- Working too little is worse than working too much (presumably because you don't have enough money), but not having work at all is worst of all.

-- For men, being underweight is associated with lower life satisfaction. Obese women (a body mass index of over 30) were relatively unhappy, but women who were overweight (BMI of between 25–29.9) has average levels of life satisfaction.

By Elizabeth Weise