Pew study of happiness

There is a Pew Research study on happiness. It's fascinating stuff, even though it's dangerous to draw any conclusions.

Married people are happier than unmarried people. But, does marriage cause happiness, or do unhappy people have trouble attracting a spouse?

People who attend religious services are happier than those who don't. But once again I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that you can make yourself happy by going to church. More likely, the type of personality that causes lack of religiosity also causes unhappiness.

People who make more money are happier. I am not surprised here at all. However, adjusted-for-inflation income has been rising since Pew began doing this study, but the overall level of hapiness remains the same. It's not money or physical possessions themselves which bring happiness, rather it's doing better than one's peers. This confirms what I wrote in my post on human nature, income, and status.

The study, quite surprisingly, tells us that Republicans are happier than Democrats, and this is true even in a multiple regression analysis in which other correlates of being Republican, including income and religiosity, are factored out. But should it be surprising? I previosly mentioned the connection between guilt and liberalism, and it makes perfect sense that people who feel guilty are less happy.

Are liberals less likely to be married because they are unhappy and therefore have trouble attracting a spouse?

Comments

[nobody]

Studies like this is useless for other reasons.

First, a quick glance showed that they actually never defined what happiness is. Second, they failed to ask if happiness is correlated with IQ. Supposedly, ignorance is bliss. Third, they failed to correlate level of empathy with happiness. The questions asked by Pew researchers lack depth and failed to tell us the biological factors behind it.

Chances are, happiness is best measure by some chemical reaction. Those people who report themselves as happy simply have a higher level of chemicals in their system. It is a matter of time before drug companies invent various mood pills that can make you feel anything you want.

Now to the real question. Is chemical induced happiness any less worthy than "naturally" induced happyiness?

[Half Sigma]

I don't think it's necessary to define "happiness." People are asked if they are happy, and what they say is based on the societal definition of the word in combanation with how they actually feel.

High IQ causes higher income, and higher income is correlated with happiness, so I wouldn't assume that smarter people are unhappy.

I suspect that people who are resistant to "groupthink" are unhappy. It's too bad the survey didn't include some questions related to conformity.