MOTIVATION

Some people seek it at the end of a rainbow, others in the bottom of a glass. But, says Professor Ruut Veenhoven, the secret to true happiness lies in Rotterdam.

HAPPY NOW?

ON THE SIXTH FLOOR OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES block at Erasmus University in Rotterdam you’ll find an office lined with more than 150 box files, the contents of which make up the splendidly named World Database of Happiness. Its curator is 64-year-old bespectacled, bearded sociologist Ruut Veenhoven, editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies and the world’s only Professor of Social Conditions for Human Happiness. Since 1984, Veenhoven has collected, sifted, sorted and analysed more than 8,000 research findings relating to happiness from 130 countries, correlating factors and determinants as diverse as age, marriage, appearance, weight at birth, hours spent watching TV, intelligence, wealth, political democracy, religion and tolerance of minorities.

By his own admission, colleagues “thought I was a little nuts” in the early days, but to Veenhoven’s great satisfaction, the study of what makes people happy is finally becoming a respected academic discipline, with happiness now creeping into the vocabulary of politics and the lexicon of business. He spoke to Velocity about his prescription for a happy life.

‘THE GOOD OLD DAYS’ IS A MYTH

“I was brought up with the idea that life was better in the ‘good old days’, but the data shows that we live longer and happier now than at any time in human history. Happiness is high in most western societies – and getting higher. The Danes are happiest, and have gained half a point on a one to 10 scale in the past 30 years. So happiness is not static. Similarly, in Russia, happiness levels fell after the regime change, and then fell again after the rouble crisis. But levels are now picking up again, as they are in all the former communist countries.”

BAD NEWS MAKES US FEEL HAPPIER

“The media’s tendency to overemphasise misery and danger has the peculiar result that it makes people think they are happier than the average person. The reader of newspaper reports on the miserable lives of other people thinks to himself, ‘I’m a lucky guy!’”

LEFT LEANING POLICIES DON’T MAKE US HAPPIER

“Governments can make us happier by creating free democratic societies and by investing in the quality of the services they deliver. But they should not invest in more social security or income equality measures – the data does not support the leftist agenda. It might seem unfair that Bill Gates earns much more money than we do, but it appears to be something that people can live with. In many Latin American countries, for example, there is great income inequality, but people are generally happy.”

WE ARE BAD AT PREDICTING HAPPINESS

“Our happiness depends partly on our choices, such as whether we choose a job that suits us. Governments could help by financing research into life choices and informing us about the consequences of similar choices made by people in the past. For example, many people tend to choose higher paid jobs, but often that can mean more travel. German research has shown that while people tend to overestimate the impact of higher pay on their happiness, they underestimate the effect of longer commuting times.”

ADVERTISERS ARE ILLUSIONISTS

“Lots of products and services claim to make people happier and marketers want us to believe we will be more happy driving a Mercedes than a Lada. But there is hardly any research on whether a new car actually makes us happier. Until that kind of research is done, companies are selling illusions. Medicine was a largely illusionary product 200 years ago, but finally we have moved to evidence-based medicine. We will eventually move to evidence-based consumer products, and then we will find out whether car owners really are happier than cyclists!”

www.WORLDDATABASEOFHAPPINESS.EUR.NL

WORDS BY IAN WYLIE