I've been talking about and reading up on happiness studies for a few years (not as much recently though) but haven't summarized the most important parts of it in written form before - so I thought this was something useful to do.

Anything seems wrong, or is there anything important I have missed here?

I’m thinking about writing a version with linked sources – but I’m not sure if it is worth the time (since most of this has been acquired over a period of years without taking comprehensive notes).

1. Most things we think are important are not that important
-Money (though some helps, especially for life satisfaction)
-Career
-Big house
-Material things
-Marriage
-Attractive partner (or having had many partners)
-Looks (though some cosmetic surgery can have positive long term effects)
-Education
-Intelligence (do we think this?)
-Having children
-Social status
-Health
-Climate

So just about everything we strive for, except good relations with friends and exercise (and mental health) does not affect our happiness much. A main reason for this is that humans are very good to adapt psychologically to their circumstances, both positive and negative.

Another reason is that psychological factors are very important – in particular the character traits (high) extraversion and (low) neuroticism and these might seem hard to change (partly since they seem quite heritable, around 40-50% of the variation).

Distinguish between life satisfaction (how satisfied we are with life) and affect balance (our balance of positive to negative feelings). These are surprisingly only moderately correlated. The material factors mentioned above affect our affect balance even less than our life satisfaction.

When comparing nations economy does seem to matter though. GDP is one of the main determinants of happiness. Latin American nations score higher and ex-Soviet block nations lower. Scandinavian nations, in particular Denmark, typically have the very highest levels of happiness.

Happiness is typically measured through questionnaires, asking things like how satisfied you are with life (1-10) or to what degree you feel pain at the moment (eg 1-6).

2. Relations are really important, especially close relations.
-develop constructive, positive relationships
-spending time on friends and family (social skills might help to get friends)
-pets
-touch
-spending money on relations, if needed

3. Finding meaning in life is important
-religion or something else
-find your goals in life
-do kind acts

4. Positive thinking
-gratefulness/optimism
-avoiding rumination
-forgiving/writing about emotionally important experiences

5. Positive experiences
-savoring, remembering, anticipating
-spending on experiences
-sex, partying, alcohol

6. Health and exercise
-exercise
-eating right (good fats and avoiding bad)
-meditation and mindfulness

7. Avoiding things that correlate with unhappiness
-loneliness
-work
-commuting
-chronic pain
-mental disorders
-lack of control?

Brief pitch
What matters is your personality and close relations – not the things we usually strive for (money, attractive partner, children or even health).
Hanging out with friends and finding meaningful goals to strive for.
–> Give one good unexpected tip here also! 3 good things? (5 minutes meditation with link?) Any other?

Happiness Strategies
Gratefulness visit/letter
Gratitude diary/Three good things
Focus on your strengths
Meditation/mindfulness
Exercise
Set up meaningful goals
Do 5 kind things
Best possible self
Doing more fun activities
Quantified Self
Getting smaller apartment with less commute
Spending more time on friends
More extraverted behavior
Smiling
…

Good.

Reminds me of a quote I recently read: "“Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body.” - George Carlin (!)

If you want to help summarise utilitarian positions on a 'landing page' for utilitarianism, are you in touch with Pablo Stafforini?

I thought marriage was a pretty robust one for making people happy?

I think that falls under "spending time with friends and family" and "sex".

Marriage is a good point. I recall it doesn't seem to contribute much to affect balance. The proposed explanation I've heard for this is that it is due to time use: while it is really good to spend time with your partner married people typically spend a lot less time with their friends (and I think also more on housework, childcare and perhaps also work) - which seems to cancel out the emotional benefits.

I cannot exactly recall the studies on how marriage affects life satisfaction, but yes I believe it should have an effect here.

There is also the question of whether marriage has a distinct effect from living with a partner, which might be possible (at least for life satisfaction).

Ryan: I am in touch with Pablo.

Here are two links to excellent LessWrong posts about happiness:

http://lesswrong.com/lw/4su/how_to_be_happy/

http://lesswrong.com/lw/bq0/be_happier/

I've recently read that spending time in a park, or in a "natural" environment can help to increase your level of happiness, and that writing down every night 3 things that made you happy during the day is a good exercise too. Funny thing is that, since I've started to write down these 3 things per day, I've realized that I very often list things like "swimming in the sea" or "walking in the park". So, at least in my case, it seems that there is a correlation between "nature" and happiness. I find it particularly interesting because I never considered myself a fan of "country" life and I always thought I prefer big cities. In this respect living in Australia is a good compromise, because there are many big parks right in the middle of big cities (and you can walk by the Ocean seaside too!). Anyway, I definitely recommend to write down these three happy things per day, and to sometimes read what you wrote in the previous days. Somehow it forces you to focus more on whatever makes you happy during the day (and once you know what makes you happy, it's easy to find strategies to make you happier).

Francesca

writing down every night 3 things that made you happy during the day is a good exercise too.

Yes, Richard Wiseman mentions this exercise in his great book, 59 Seconds. Here's a relevant blog post.

Thanks! I didn't know that book
f

Good point of nature. I've also had similar experiences and recall reading about some of these studies - however I'm unsure about how strong the effect is. That is also one worry I've had with typical interventions, such as 3-good things. On the other I think Seligman made some pretty impressive claims about it - such that it got severely depressed people to get good enough to rise from their beds, etc.