✶Explainer08:30
Why happiness and well-being are not the same thing
Angner separates happiness, a good-feeling mental state psychologists call positive affect, from well-being, which is having your life go well and flourishing. The two usually travel together but can come apart. Some goals are worth pursuing even when they add no happiness or cost you happiness.
- Happiness = a mental state that feels good (positive affect)
- Well-being = your life actually going well and flourishing
- A good life includes happiness but is not reducible to it
- Some things are good for you even if they don't make you happier
“Some things are good for us even if they don't make us happier.”
#happiness#well-being#philosophy#psychology
✶Explainer24:30
Why high aspirations can make you less happy
How happy you are depends on both what you attain and how much you aspired to. The more you get the happier you are, but the more you aspire to the less happy you are. A student who expected an A hates a B; one who feared failing celebrates a D. The trap: this seems to argue for lowering all standards, but well-being sometimes requires pursuing hard goals that make you miserable.
- Happiness = a function of attainment relative to aspiration
- High-aspiration people attain more yet report less happiness
- Expectations, not just results, set how good the outcome feels
- Don't over-correct into abandoning all goals: well-being needs some
“the more you get, the happier you are. But the more you aspire to, the less happy you are.”
#aspiration#expectations#happiness#goals
✶Explainer49:30
The big four predictors of unhappiness
The factors most strongly indicative of happiness are poverty, unemployment, poor health and religiosity. The first three drag happiness down; being religious is associated with being significantly happier than atheists, possibly through the companionship and community of regular worship.
- Big four: poverty, unemployment, poor health, religiosity
- Religious people are on average significantly happier than atheists
- Companionship and community may be the shared mechanism
- These are population averages, not individual guarantees
“poverty, unemployment, poor health, and religiosity. Those seem to be the big four.”
#happiness#religiosity#health#predictors
✶Explainer51:30
Unemployment damages happiness far beyond lost income
Unemployment is a huge predictor of unhappiness, and the harm goes well past the lost paycheque. Losing a job makes people feel redundant, unappreciated and useless, and severs the daily social contact many get mainly through work. A decent job to go to matters for happiness even setting income aside.
- Unemployment predicts unhappiness beyond the income loss
- It triggers feelings of redundancy and uselessness
- Work is a primary source of daily companionship for many
- Companionship recurs as a mechanism across happiness findings
“unemployment seems to matter beyond the loss in income”
#unemployment#work#companionship#happiness
✶Explainer55:30
Why we adapt to some health conditions but not others
Humans adapt to many health conditions, returning toward baseline happiness, as in Adam Smith's man with a wooden leg who rediscovers the pleasures of solitude and society. But conditions that interrupt you constantly, like chronic pain or incontinence, resist adaptation and leave a lasting dent in happiness. Environment and technology also decide how much a condition costs you.
- We adapt to many conditions, drifting back toward baseline happiness
- Adam Smith's wooden-leg man rediscovers life's pleasures over time
- Chronic pain and incontinence interrupt constantly and resist adaptation
- Society and technology (glasses, ramps) shape a condition's real cost
“the ones that are easier to adapt to are not going to harm your happiness quite as much over time as the others do”
#health#adaptation#chronic-pain#adam-smith
✶Explainer17:30
Why parenthood is easier on happiness in continental Europe
The happiness hit from having a child varies by country, and public policy is a big reason. Parental leave with salary, universal healthcare and family support cushion the financial and health shocks of a new child. Continental Europe fares better than the US and UK, where healthcare tied to employment adds a brutal risk for new parents.
- The happiness effect of a child varies sharply by location
- Parental leave and healthcare cushion the financial strain
- Continental Europe outperforms the US and UK on this
- US healthcare tied to employment holds new parents to ransom
“America is ruthless. You get 3 and 1/2 days off and you're expected to be back in the office answering emails while they're still cutting…”
#policy#parenting#healthcare#happiness