Americans are obsessed with happiness. The pursuit of it, after all, is woven into the Declaration of Independence.
But while the wealth of the US has expanded during the past 50 years, well-being hasn't always kept pace. Edward Diener, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, has spent the past 25 years trying to figure out why.
Rather than see the subject in traditional psychological terms of treating negative emotions, Diener looks at factors that generate contentment. Time magazine dubbed him "Dr. Happiness" last year.
PHOTOS: NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
In other words, his glass is half-full, and he's ready to share it.
Don Mayhew: Can we cut to the chase? What's the secret to happiness?
Edward Diener: There's a question you want to know before then. That is, "Do you really want to be happier? Should you be happier?" ... Because we don't want to make you happier if you're then going to be a goofball and be ineffective.
Don Mayhew: All right, is it good to be happy?
Edward Diener: The answer is a surprisingly strong yes. You're more susceptible to some diseases if you are not happy, if you're stressed-out. Stress reduces the effectiveness of your immune system. There's also some data to suggest that happy people live longer. Unhappy people tend not to be very popular, not to be self-confident, not to be a lot of good things socially.
Don Mayhew: Laughter -- the best medicine?
Edward Diener: Laughter is not a bad thing. There are some emerging data that show that laughter has some good effects on people. It does counter stress response. ... Laughing is a good thing? Yes. Humor is a good thing? Yes. Is it the only thing? Is it sufficient? No.
You have to be careful of these people who say laughter is a magic answer. Because beyond laughter, you need meaning and purpose in life. I'm very suspicious of any answer that's simplistic.
People say, "What's the key to health?" And they say, "Eating right. Well, wait a minute. Exercise. Well, not smoking. Wearing your seatbelt." There's a lot of keys to health. And I think happiness is the same way.
Don Mayhew: Do friends make you happy?
Edward Diener: There's probably some truth to that. But you can do experimental studies where you put people in a good mood, and then they can wait in a room by themselves, or they can wait in a room with other people for the next thing. People who are in a good mood are more likely to wait in the room with other people and to be talkative.
Don Mayhew: What about money?
Edward Diener: After a certain point, it doesn't look like higher and higher income makes people happier. So if you go from poverty up to the middle class, you see a fairly substantial rise in various measures of well-being, like life satisfaction. Going from middle class to wealthy, there still is a rise, but it's pretty small.
We don't say caring about money makes you unhappy. Everybody's going to care about money to some degree. But if you care about money more than you care about love, on average, you're not going to be as happy.
A longitudinal study we did was people at age 18, entering college, said how happy they were. We followed them up in their 30s and found how much money they made. The people who entered college being happy made more money later --
controlling for all the things we could think of: their major, their occupation, their parents' income and their sex.
Don Mayhew: So it's not that money makes you happy, but maybe the other way around?
Edward Diener: We're concluding that it's likely there's a positive influence of happiness on success in the workplace. Then you look at studies in the workplace. Happy workers, supervisors like them more. Happy workers take fewer sick days. They steal less from the workplace.
Don Mayhew: What does make us happy?
Edward Diener: Social relationships are very important. You have to have strong, close people who care about you. As far as we know, that's universal. It crosses all societies. It's not like a culture thing.
A second one is, you sort of need goals to arrange your activities around. ... There's something meaningful that you're doing with your time, not just necessarily hanging out with nothing to do. That's OK for a vacation. But in the long run, you have to think that your life has some purpose or meaning.
Don Mayhew: What role does religion play?
Edward Diener: Religious people, on average, are happier. I'm not trying to get you to be religious. You don't have to be necessarily religious. But I do think thinking about why religious people are happier can help you, even if you're not religious.
Religious people have social support sometimes in their church. They have a value system and a meaning system. It's given to them, so it's easier than making up your own. Now you can make up your own value system. But it takes more work.
Don Mayhew: Did being called "Dr. Happiness" in Time magazine make you happy?
Edward Diener: It's embarrassing in the sense that sometimes it can sound frivolous. There was one reporter, from a different magazine, came and wanted to take a picture, and he wanted me to wear clown shoes.
I'm like, "Wait, I'm a scientist." ... But you have to take the good with the bad.
Don Mayhew: What's the most surprising thing you've learned after studying happiness for 25 years?
Edward Diener: One is people's ability to adapt. ... People under-estimate that. They think, "Gee, if I don't get a raise; gee, if I don't get a promotion; gee, if I don't get tenure; if this happens or that happens, I'm going to be miserable." You might be miserable, but you're going to be miserable for a month. Then most people bounce back.
I used to think happiness came because you got all your goals, and you got everything just right. I really don't believe that anymore.
If I win some award -- the Nobel Prize, right? -- I've really made it. I now believe, you know what? I'll be happy for a month. But you better have some new research to start doing, because you really get the most pleasure from working toward new goals.
You know, the princess lived happily ever after. It doesn't work (by itself). What did she do after that? How did she spend her time? She marries the prince, and then what? She did volunteer work. She had kids. She had to keep doing things that would make her happy or unhappy.
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