IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v16y2015i4p1035-1071.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Informed Pursuit of Happiness: What we should know, do know and can get to know

Author

Listed:
  • Ruut Veenhoven

Abstract

The rational pursuit of happiness requires knowledge of happiness and in particular answers to the following four questions: (1) Is greater happiness realistically possible? (2) If so, to what extent is that in our own hands? (3) How can we get happier? What things should be considered in the choices we make? (4) How does the pursuit of happiness fit with other things we value? Answers to these questions are not only sought by individuals who want to improve their personal life, they are also on the mind of managers concerned about the happiness of members of their organization and of governments aiming to promote greater happiness of a greater number of citizens. All these actors might make more informed choices if they could draw on a sound base of evidence. In this paper I take stock of the available evidence and the answers it holds for the four types of questions asked by the three kinds of actors. To do this, I use a large collection of research findings on happiness gathered in the World Database of Happiness, which serves as an online supplement to this paper. The data provide good answers to the questions 1 and 2, but fall short on the questions 3 and 4. Priorities for further research are indicated. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Ruut Veenhoven, 2015. "Informed Pursuit of Happiness: What we should know, do know and can get to know," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1035-1071, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:16:y:2015:i:4:p:1035-1071
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-014-9560-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10902-014-9560-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-014-9560-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rozemarijn Schalkx & Ad Bergsma, 2008. "Arthur’s advice: comparing Arthur Schopenhauer’s advice on happiness with contemporary research," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 379-395, September.
    2. Cahit Guven, 2011. "Are Happier People Better Citizens?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(2), pages 178-192, May.
    3. R. Veenhoven, 2008. "Healthy happiness: effects of happiness on physical health and the consequences for preventive health care," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 449-469, September.
    4. Ruut Veenhoven & Floris Vergunst, 2014. "The Easterlin illusion: economic growth does go with greater happiness," International Journal of Happiness and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(4), pages 311-343.
    5. Alois Stutzer & Bruno S. Frey, 2008. "Stress that Doesn't Pay: The Commuting Paradox," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 110(2), pages 339-366, June.
    6. Ruut Veenhoven, 2010. "Life is Getting Better: Societal Evolution and Fit with Human Nature," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 105-122, May.
    7. Betsey Stevenson & Justin Wolfers, 2009. "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 190-225, August.
    8. Robert J. B. Goudie & Sach Mukherjee & Jan-Emmanuel De Neve & Andrew J. Oswald & Stephen Wu, 2011. "Happiness as a Driver of Risk-Avoiding Behavior," CESifo Working Paper Series 3451, CESifo.
    9. Ruut Veenhoven, 2000. "The Four Qualities of Life," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-39, March.
    10. Daniel Kahneman & Richard H. Thaler, 2006. "Anomalies: Utility Maximization and Experienced Utility," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 221-234, Winter.
    11. J. Ott, 2011. "Government and Happiness in 130 Nations: Good Governance Fosters Higher Level and More Equality of Happiness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 3-22, May.
    12. Carol Ryff & Burton Singer, 2008. "Know Thyself and Become What You Are: A Eudaimonic Approach to Psychological Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 13-39, January.
    13. Jan Ott, 2010. "Greater Happiness for a Greater Number: Some Non-controversial Options for Governments," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(5), pages 631-647, October.
    14. Jan Ott, 2010. "Good Governance and Happiness in Nations: Technical Quality Precedes Democracy and Quality Beats Size," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 353-368, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Efstratia Arampatzi & Martijn J. Burger & Natallia Novik, 2018. "Social Network Sites, Individual Social Capital and Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 99-122, January.
    2. Emad Mohamed & Sayed A. Mostafa, 2019. "Computing Happiness from Textual Data," Stats, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-24, July.
    3. Moshe Zeidner & Gerald Matthews & Dorit Olenik Shemesh, 2016. "Cognitive-Social Sources of Wellbeing: Differentiating the Roles of Coping Style, Social Support and Emotional Intelligence," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 2481-2501, December.
    4. Salvador Saz-Salazar & Ana Navarrete-Tudela & José Ramón Alcalá-Mellado & Daniel Carlos Saz-Salazar, 2019. "On the Use of Life Satisfaction Data for Valuing Cultural Goods: A First Attempt and a Comparison with the Contingent Valuation Method," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 119-140, January.
    5. Amanina Abdur Rahman & Ruut Veenhoven, 2018. "Freedom and Happiness in Nations: A Research Synthesis," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 13(2), pages 435-456, June.
    6. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn & Marianna Strzelecka, 2017. "Happy Tourists, Unhappy Locals," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 134(2), pages 789-804, November.
    7. Zhenjun Zhu & Zhigang Li & Hongsheng Chen & Ye Liu & Jun Zeng, 2019. "Subjective well-being in China: how much does commuting matter?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1505-1524, August.
    8. Ruut Veenhoven & Felicia Chiperi & Xin Kang & Martijn Burger, 2021. "Happiness and Consumption: A Research Synthesis Using an Online Finding Archive* â€," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440209, March.
    9. Badri Bajaj & Ragini Gupta & Santoshi Sengupta, 2019. "Emotional Stability and Self-Esteem as Mediators Between Mindfulness and Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(7), pages 2211-2226, October.
    10. Harald Strotmann & Jürgen Volkert, 2018. "Multidimensional Poverty Index and Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 167-189, January.
    11. Marta G. Pancheva & Carol D. Ryff & Mario Lucchini, 2021. "An Integrated Look at Well-Being: Topological Clustering of Combinations and Correlates of Hedonia and Eudaimonia," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(5), pages 2275-2297, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Veenhoven, Ruut, 2012. "Evidence based pursuit of happiness: What should we know, do we know and can we get to know?," MPRA Paper 41924, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Luca Stanca & Ruut Veenhoven, 2015. "Consumption and happiness: an introduction," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 62(2), pages 91-99, June.
    3. Ruut Veenhoven, 2011. "World Database of Happiness Example of a focused ‘Findings Archive’," RatSWD Working Papers 169, German Data Forum (RatSWD).
    4. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2018. "Assessing well-being in European regions. Does government quality matter?," Working Papers 2018/06, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).
    5. Gregor Gonza & Anže Burger, 2017. "Subjective Well-Being During the 2008 Economic Crisis: Identification of Mediating and Moderating Factors," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1763-1797, December.
    6. Adam Okulicz-Kozaryn & Rubia R. Valente, 2019. "Livability and Subjective Well-Being Across European Cities," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 14(1), pages 197-220, March.
    7. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Stutzer, Alois, 2014. "Economic Approaches to Understanding Change in Happiness," IZA Discussion Papers 8131, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria, 2022. "Happiness, democracy and socio-economic conditions: Evidence from a difference GMM estimator," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    9. Helliwell, John F. & Huang, Haifang & Grover, Shawn & Wang, Shun, 2018. "Empirical linkages between good governance and national well-being," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 1332-1346.
    10. Martin Rode, 2013. "Do Good Institutions Make Citizens Happy, or Do Happy Citizens Build Better Institutions?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1479-1505, October.
    11. Rocío de la Fuente & Águeda Parra & Inmaculada Sánchez-Queija & Izarne Lizaso, 2020. "Flourishing During Emerging Adulthood from a Gender Perspective," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(8), pages 2889-2908, December.
    12. Christopher Ambrey & Christopher Fleming, 2014. "Life Satisfaction in Australia: Evidence from Ten Years of the HILDA Survey," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 115(2), pages 691-714, January.
    13. Pan Zhang & Zhiguo Wang, 2019. "PM 2.5 Concentrations and Subjective Well-Being: Longitudinal Evidence from Aggregated Panel Data from Chinese Provinces," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-13, March.
    14. Dong, Han & Zhang, Jun & Cirillo, Cinzia, 2019. "Exploring, understanding, and modeling the reciprocal relation between leisure and subjective well-being," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 813-824.
    15. Koch, Christian, 2013. "The Virtue Ethics Hypothesis: Is there a nexus between virtues and well-being?," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 80054, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Koen Decancq & Marc Fleurbaey & Erik Schokkaert, 2015. "Happiness, Equivalent Incomes and Respect for Individual Preferences," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 82, pages 1082-1106, December.
    17. Bruno Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2014. "Economic Consequences of Mispredicting Utility," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 937-956, August.
    18. Badunenko, Oleg & Cordero, Jose M. & Kumbhakar, Subal C., 2021. "Are you slacking? Where do you and your country stand in the happiness pursuit?," MPRA Paper 108316, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Feng Hou, 2014. "Keep Up with the Joneses or Keep on as Their Neighbours: Life Satisfaction and Income in Canadian Urban Neighbourhoods," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 1085-1107, October.
    20. Yew-Kwang Ng, 2011. "Happiness Is Absolute, Universal, Ultimate, Unidimensional, Cardinally Measurable and Interpersonally Comparable: A Basis for the Environmentally Responsible Happy Nation Index," Monash Economics Working Papers 16-11, Monash University, Department of Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:16:y:2015:i:4:p:1035-1071. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.