Brian Martin

“Happiness,” chapter 3 of 3
Doing Good Things Better Happiness
(Ed, Sweden: Irene Publishing, 2011)
available at http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/11gt/
Overview
• Most people think having more money and possessions
will make them happier, but these sorts of changes in circum-
stances seldom live up to expectations. Happiness is more
reliably increased by less obvious things such as expressing
gratitude and helping others.
• To develop habits that support happiness, five methods are
valuable: awareness, valuing, understanding, endorsement and
action.
• Most happiness efforts are oriented to individuals. Also
important are collective efforts to structure social life to make
happiness habits easier to maintain.1

Just about everybody wants to be happy — so that means

happiness is a good thing, right? Well, not quite. Just because
everyone wants something doesn’t guarantee it’s good for you.
Nearly everyone likes ice cream, but it’s not the healthiest food.
Nearly everyone with the option chooses to drive a car rather
than walk a few kilometres, but actually that’s bad for people’s
health in the long term.
Happiness, though, doesn’t seem to have a down side.
There’s evidence that being happy makes people healthier and

1 I thank Chris Barker, Sharon Callaghan, Rae Campbell, Lyn Carson

and Ian Miles for valuable feedback on drafts of this chapter.
52 Happiness Doing good things better 53

more productive at work, plus other side benefits. Most impor- of the age of their children.3 The happiness deficit became larger
tantly, being happy seems worthwhile on its own. as children grew older and was largest when they were teen-
It’s possible to imagine exceptions. Laughing hysterically agers. Then, after the children left home, parents’ happiness
might make you fall and hurt yourself. Being happy at someone levels returned to roughly the same as before the children were
else’s misfortune is bad taste. The idea of a happy murderer is conceived.
repulsive. There are some things we shouldn’t be happy about. This result was fascinating because it was unexpected. Talk
There are a few such exceptions, but in general happiness is to parents and most of them will tell you that having children is a
largely considered to be a good thing. This is even more true if wonderful blessing. Then again, some will reveal the terrible
happiness is applied to both immediate pleasure — something struggles they’ve had — especially with teenagers. Very few
that makes you smile — and a more general feeling of satisfac- parents will admit being unhappier or wishing they hadn’t had
tion with life or good will towards the world. children. The closest to this is a comment that, though they love
Pursuing happiness is another matter — craving things, their darling children Johnny and Sally, if they were starting
including happiness, can be a trap and actually lead to more again they might make a different decision.
misery. Pursuing happiness is not the same as being happy. How can the research findings about parents’ happiness
How do you know when someone is happy? You can look deficit be reconciled with most parents’ defence of their decision
at them and see whether they are smiling or laughing, though to have children and their fond memories of a growing family?
these can be faked. Happiness is an inner feeling, and usually The answer is straightforward: the research measures what
you yourself are the best person to judge whether you’re happy. people say about their feelings right now whereas parents, when
So the obvious way to find out whether people are happy is to commenting on the virtues or otherwise of parenthood, are
ask them. That’s exactly how happiness researchers proceed. reflecting on the past. There’s a systematic bias in views about
I started reading about happiness research decades ago. One past happiness.4
of the earliest books I read was The Psychology of Happiness by But can we trust data on happiness? The way happiness is
Michael Argyle. He summarised findings from many studies of usually measured is simply by asking people whether they’re
happiness. One finding was that “Happiness does not vary much happy right now or whether they are generally satisfied or
with age.”2 This is good news or bad news, depending on how
you look at it: as you get older, things won’t seem much better or 3 Ibid., 20.
worse. However, there was an exception: being a parent. On 4 This is called a focusing illusion. For a more recent discussion of
average, parents of growing children reported being less happy research on children and happiness, see Nattavudh Powdthavee, “Think
than non-parents. I remember a graph in Argyle’s book plotting having children will make you happy?” The Psychologist, 22(6), April
findings from several studies of parents’ happiness as a function 2009, 308–310. Many parents were hostile to Powdthavee for claiming
they might be less happy than non-parents: see Nick Powdthavee, The
2 Michael Argyle, The Psychology of Happiness (London: Methuen, Happiness Equation: The Surprising Economics of Our Most Valuable
1987), 156. Asset (London: Icon Books, 2010), 146–148.
54 Happiness Doing good things better 55

contented with their life. This seems extremely subjective. Your grew rapidly in the 1990s and boomed in the 2000s. In 2002, I
judgement of what counts as 7 out of 10 on a happiness scale visited Virginia Tech and, on leaving, was stuck in the airport
might be quite different from mine. When you start comparing for about six hours — flights had been cancelled due to a
happiness between people in their 60s versus those in their 20s, snowstorm. But I didn’t mind: I had picked up the new book
the potential for systematic error seems large. Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman, a prominent US
Then there are comparisons between happiness in Nigeria psychologist, and sat down to enjoy every page.6
and Brazil. Cultural differences in the way terms are used or the Seligman is often called the father of positive psychology,
way people respond to questions might undermine the validity of because he has given authoritative endorsement of the impor-
any observed difference. Indeed, the very idea that happiness is a tance of looking at desirable emotions like happiness. The
universal phenomenon shouldn’t be taken for granted. The majority of psychological research has looked at negative states
question “What is happiness?” has vexed philosophers for like depression and anxiety. The aim of most people in the field,
millennia. Today’s researchers, through their questions and researchers and therapists of all types — including Freudian
analyses, use and create a particular sort of answer to this psychotherapists, practitioners of cognitive behavioural therapy
question — and it is largely based on asking people whether they and dispensers of therapeutic drugs such as antidepressants —
are happy right now or generally satisfied with their lives. has been to move people who are unhappy or disturbed closer to
The alternatives aren’t any better. Can you tell whether average. This can be called negative psychology because it
someone is happy? Their smile might be faked or their bland focuses on treating negative emotions. Positive psychology looks
expression might hide an inner joy. instead at valued emotions and says, let’s see if we can help
Actually, asking people how happy they are is surprisingly someone who is average or above to become even better.7
reliable. If you pick someone and ask them how they feel at In the remainder of this chapter, I look at some findings
different times during the day, the figures can be plotted in a from happiness research.8 I start with things that seldom make
graph showing ups and downs, and these are pretty regular
across different days. Many people’s moods start low on waking 6 Martin E. P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness (New York: Free Press,
up after a night’s sleep, increase to a peak mid-morning, 2002).
decrease a bit around the middle of the day, reach a lesser 7 Prior to positive psychology, positive emotions did receive quite a bit
afternoon peak and then decline until going to sleep.5 Whenever of attention, just not nearly as much as negative emotions.
observations fit a regular pattern, this gives confidence in the 8 Worthwhile non-technical treatments include Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling
results. on Happiness (New York: Knopf, 2006); Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness
Back in 1987, when Michael Argyle wrote The Psychology Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (New York:
of Happiness, happiness research was in its infancy. The field Basic Books, 2006); Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness: A
Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want (New York: Penguin,
5 Robert E. Thayer, The Origin of Everyday Moods: Managing Energy, 2008); Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most
Tension, and Stress (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). Important Skill (London: Atlantic Books, 2007).
56 Happiness Doing good things better 57

people much happier and then turn to things more likely to make rickety walking bridge across a chasm. The other half of the men
a difference. I then relate these findings to five methods for were questioned on firm ground on the far side of the bridge.10
protecting and promoting good things: awareness, valuing, The questionnaire was a ruse. What the experimenters
understanding, endorsement and action. The connection between wanted to study was how the young men responded to the
happiness research findings and these five methods can be made attractive young woman administering the questionnaire who
at the level of individuals, groups and society. In the appendix, I gave the participants her phone number in case they had any
comment on a particular critical view about positive psychology. subsequent questions. In which experimental condition — on the
bridge or on solid ground — would more of the men ring her?
Do we know how we feel? The answer: far more of those interviewed on the bridge. Why?
Timothy Wilson has written a provocative book titled Strangers Because, the experimenters proposed, the young men are more
to Ourselves.9 It summarises fascinating research on the relation- aroused not by the young woman but by fear caused by crossing
ship between the unconscious and conscious mind. One the swaying bridge. But this was unconscious. As Wilson
example: you’re watching a popular film and afterwards the interprets this experiment, the men couldn’t consciously
friend you’re with asks, “What’d you think of that?” You distinguish between arousal due to fear and arousal due to the
respond, “I didn’t think much of it” and your friend says (or woman. An attractive woman was present, so they attributed
thinks) “That’s strange — you were laughing the whole way their arousal to her.
through.” What’s going on here? The laughter was spontaneous, Wilson cites many such experiments. He eventually comes
an unconscious reaction, whereas your post-film comment is a to an astounding conclusion: if you are with someone else, the
considered judgement. Your stern assessment is that the film was other person is — on average — as good a judge of your feelings
light-weight, indeed trashy, so how could it be good? right now as you are yourself.
The key point here is that your friend might be a better This conclusion should apply to happiness. The implication
judge of your response during the film that your own post-film is that most people have only a partial insight into their own
critical self. Numerous ingenious experiments have been feelings and that others around them may have just as much
designed to test this proposition. A famous one involved a insight. Most happiness research, though, continues to rely on
questionnaire administered to young men in two conditions. Half people’s self-assessments. It would be valuable to collect
the men were approached and questioned in the middle of a assessments by others in a person’s life, but this is more
complicated, so it isn’t often done.

9 Timothy D. Wilson, Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive 10 Donald G. Dutton and Arthur P. Aron, “Some evidence for height-
Unconscious (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University ened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety,” Journal of
Press, 2002). Personality and Social Psychology, 30(4), 1974, 510–517.
58 Happiness Doing good things better 59

What usually doesn’t make you happier makes you happier. That’s why people strive to get a high-
According to the research, some things widely thought to paying job and why they put in long hours to get a promotion.
increase happiness in fact don’t usually make people much It’s why people go to court seeking a larger share of estates of
happier. One is climate. You might think that people living in a deceased relatives. It’s why people buy lottery tickets: winning
warm, sunny place would be happier than those in a cold, the lottery is thought to be a dream come true. You suddenly
cloudy, rainy place, where the weather is commonly called have loads of money and can live happily ever after.
miserable. Although the weather might be miserable, people Back in the 1970s, Philip Brickman and collaborators
report being just about as happy. This is a statistical finding. decided to find out whether this common belief was actually
Some individuals might be happier moving to a place where it’s true. They interviewed lottery winners months after their big
warm and sunny but, if so, just as many will be happier moving wins and discovered they were not any happier, on average, than
to the cold and overcast place.11 control subjects who had not won.13
Another thing that seems not to make much difference in When you win the lottery, it’s tremendously exciting. You
happiness levels is having a formal education. It’s true that some may literally jump for joy. You might be on a high for days,
students at university are there to have a good time, but others weeks or months. But eventually you settle down — and things
find it stressful. Furthermore, education doesn’t do much to are different, but maybe not any better. The obvious difference is
make students happier after they graduate. Many students pursue that you have lots of money and all the things money can buy.
degrees so they can obtain a better job at the end — and they But some things aren’t as good as they used to be. Maybe you
expect a better job will make them happier. They are in for used to enjoy having breakfast. But after the win, breakfast isn’t
disappointment. as satisfying as before. Winners found ordinary activities less
The most surprising finding from happiness research is that fulfilling: they didn’t measure up to the massive excitement of
higher income doesn’t bring greater happiness — at least not by the lottery win.
very much.12 Yet nearly everyone assumes that more money Everyone has the same sort of experience in little ways. For
example, suppose you’ve been drinking ordinary coffee for
years, and enjoying it, and then you start drinking a really fine
11 David A. Schkade and Daniel Kahneman, “Does living in California coffee for a while. If you go back to the ordinary coffee, it seems
make people happy? A focusing illusion in judgments of life satisfac- less satisfying than before. Now you have higher expectations.
tion,” Psychological Science, 9(5), September 1998, 340–346. Perhaps this is why so many people complain about coffee.
12 Gregg Easterbrook, The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better
While People Feel Worse (New York: Random House, 2003); Bruno S. Happiness: A Revolution in Economics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
Frey and Alois Stutzer, Happiness and Economics: How the Economy 2008).
and Institutions Affect Well-being (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University 13 Philip Brickman, Dan Coates and Ronnie Janoff-Bulman, “Lottery
Press, 2002); Bruno S. Frey in collaboration with Alois Stutzer, Matthias winners and accident victims: is happiness relative?” Journal of
Benz, Stephan Meier, Simon Luechinger and Christine Benesch, Personality and Social Psychology, 36(8), 1978, 917–927.
60 Happiness Doing good things better 61

They’ve had really good coffee and subsequent coffees seldom it seems normal and your happiness level is back to where it was
measure up. before.
The experience of lottery winners is found pretty much The implications of this finding are profound. The whole
across the board: more money doesn’t make you much happier rat-race of striving for the highest-paying job, buying the most
— on average. It makes some people happier and some people prestigious house and wearing the most trendy clothes is
less happy. illusory: people think having more will make them happier but
The explanation for this is a process called adaptation. After they end up feeling much the same as before.
a while you get used to your higher income so it become routine, Many young people pursue occupations they believe will be
and you revert back to your usual happiness level. This process lucrative, putting in long hours to become lawyers, doctors or
is also called the hedonic treadmill. “Hedonic” refers to corporate executives. They don’t realise they would be just as
happiness. The treadmill is the endless quest for better jobs and satisfied in careers with lesser incomes such as teaching, nursing
higher incomes but, like a treadmill, you’re running in the same or community work. Some students study accountancy even
place the whole time, trying harder but never changing position though they find it tedious, because they think they’ll have better
on the happiness scale. prospects for well-paying jobs than studying physics or
There is an exception. If you’re poor, then more money is philosophy.
more likely to make you happier. But once you’re out of Research indicates that the search for happiness through
poverty, on a decent if modest income, extra income doesn’t making money is misguided. Indeed, evidence suggests that
make such a difference. It does make a slight difference though: people who are more materialistic — who are especially keen to
the super-wealthy are a little bit happier than those with average obtain more money and the things it can buy — are somewhat
incomes. But, as we’ll see, the difference is not very great less happy than average.14
compared to other ways of increasing your happiness. The adaptation process leads to some radical policy impli-
The data supporting the adaptation process are dramatic. cations. To improve the overall happiness of a society, a
People in Britain have been surveyed for decades about their life promising approach is to eliminate poverty. The people who
satisfaction. Income per person has risen dramatically but move from poverty to a decent income will be quite a bit
average satisfaction levels have stayed pretty much the same. happier, whereas those already on reasonable incomes will not
The same thing has been found in other countries, such as Japan be much affected by a relative decline in wealth — even if some
and the United States. of them complain mightily. Furthermore, research suggests that
The findings concerning income apply to all the things that greater equality has many collective benefits for health and
go along with it: fancier cars, larger houses, the latest electronic
gadgets, expensive jewellery. None of these reliably increases
happiness, because you adapt to your new situation. Before long
14 Leaf Van Boven, “Experientialism, materialism, and the pursuit of
happiness,” Review of General Psychology, 9, 2005, 132–142.
62 Happiness Doing good things better 63

welfare.15 But governments seldom make it a top priority to looks, and your happiness level reverts to your norm. What is the
eliminate poverty and promote greater equality. norm? It varies from person to person and seems to be pretty
Good looks — surely being attractive makes you happier. well fixed after early childhood experiences. Some people are
There’s research showing that good-looking people have persistently gloomy: good fortune seemingly cannot cheer them
advantages in life: they are judged more favourably and end up up for long. Others are perpetually positive about their life, being
with better jobs.16 More people want to know them. Just look at cheerful even in the most oppressive circumstances. Each person
models and movie stars and how people are attracted to them. apparently has a “set point” for happiness: whatever their ups
Many people spend lots of time making themselves attrac- and downs, it’s the point to which they return. This seems unfair,
tive, styling their hair, putting on make-up, removing unwanted and it is, because people can’t choose their genetics and
hair, maybe even having cosmetic surgery. Some work out in the upbringing.19 But this is not the end of the story. There are things
gym so they’ll look slim or muscular. So does all this effort lead anyone can do that reliably increase happiness levels above set
to greater happiness? points.
There’s not a lot of research on this, but what there is So far I’ve commented on the things that don’t do much to
suggests that if happiness is your goal, putting effort into increase happiness, like a pleasant climate, more education, a
becoming more attractive is not a particularly good investment.17 high income and good looks. Yet these are exactly the sorts of
One study even found that women who had their breasts things that many people believe will make them happier. A
enlarged committed suicide at a higher rate than other women. typical vision of bliss is having oodles of money, looking
It’s unlikely that having larger breasts makes women more fantastic, being really intelligent and relaxing on a tropical
suicidal: possibly the women who were so dissatisfied with their island. How did so many people end up with such a misguided
bodies that they sought surgery were more prone to suicide.18 sense of how to achieve that elusive goal of happiness?
The process of adaptation no doubt applies to your looks — Rather than try to answer this question — which might
if you have cosmetic surgery, then you get used to your new involve an excursion into the controversial field of evolutionary
psychology, or some heavy political economy — I turn now to
15 Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level: Why More
things that, according to research, reliably make people happier.
Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better (London: Allen Lane, 2009).
16 Daniel S. Hamermesh and Jeff E. Biddle, “Beauty and the labor
market,” American Economic Review, 84(5), 1994, 1174–1194.
19 The set point may not be as fixed as often assumed. Any genetic
17 Ed Diener, Brian Wolsic and Frank Fujita, “Physical attractiveness factors can be affected by environmental conditions, and the effect of
and subjective well-being,” Journal of Personality and Social these conditions can be especially great in infancy and early childhood.
Psychology, 69(1), 1995, 120–129. See Felicia A. Huppert, “Positive mental health in individuals and
18 Eero Pukkala et al., “Causes of death among Finnish women with populations,” in Felicia A. Huppert, Nick Baylis and Barry Keverne
cosmetic breast implants, 1971–2001,” Annals of Plastic Surgery, 51(4), (eds.), The Science of Well-being (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2003, 339–342. 2005), 307–340.
64 Happiness Doing good things better 65

Many of them involve the way people think about the past, Holding grudges is an excellent way of fostering unhappi-
present and future. ness. All you have to do is recall memories of when someone did
something that harmed you, rehearse exactly what happened and
Thinking about the past reignite your sense of outrage. Pretty soon you’ll become so
A friend of mine — I’ll call her Greta — has a very negative resentful and bitter it will be hard to crack a smile.
attitude towards life, especially in her attitude to the past. She There’s a very different way of relating to past events. Two
holds a grudge against every boss she’s had and regrets her lost key mental processes are gratitude and forgiveness. Gratitude is
opportunities, which she attributes to prejudice from others. She thinking about good things and acknowledging them.20 Everyone
broods over these perceived slights and inequities. I used to try has much to be grateful for. It can be major things like having a
to talk her out of this, pointing to the positives in her career and loving family, trusting friends, a decent job and good health. It
life, but it was no use: Greta seemed almost to relish her bitter- can be small things like enjoying a snack, greeting a neighbour
ness. Her attitude was a prescription for unhappiness. or feeling the breeze as you walk along the street.
Research shows that if you dwell on past problems, this For everyone, life is filled with experiences positive and
simply accentuates them in your mind. Essentially you are negative. By noticing and reflecting on the positives, you
reinforcing the circuits in your brain about those particular become happier. A simple exercise is to reflect on three things
memories, elaborating and deepening them so they become you are thankful for, and do this once a week.
magnified beyond their original significance. Grudges are Studies show that people with religious beliefs are happier,
maintained this way. on average, than those without. Perhaps part of this is because
If, on the other hand, you don’t spend too much time giving thanks is an integral part of a number of religions. You
thinking about bad things that happened to you, they gradually don’t need to be religious to express thanks, but developing the
decline in salience and you may forget about them entirely. If habit is easier if you engage in a collective ritual.
you are this sort of person, it can be difficult to have a relation- Many people, in their daily lives, have little to encourage an
ship with a grudge-keeper: the other person is resentful about orientation to gratitude. It’s possible to establish a personal
something that happened years ago while you can’t remember habit, for example reflecting on good things at a regular time or
what it was all about. place, but this can be disrupted. Rituals can be useful, like saying
I once experienced this at a committee meeting when grace at meals, but can become so routine that there is little
“Alice” suddenly accused me and a couple of others of under- emotional impact.
mining her. The incident she referred to had occurred a decade Meanwhile, there are many temptations to focus instead on
earlier and she had never said a thing about it to me, either at the negatives, for example emphasis on longstanding grievances
time it happened or in subsequent years. I had only the vaguest promoted by some groups or the culture of complaint in some
recollection of the issues. Until that meeting, I had no idea she 20 Robert A. Emmons, Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can
was seething with resentment over a perceived slight. Make You Happier (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007).
66 Happiness Doing good things better 67

organisations. Mass media usually concentrate on what is the relationship, continuing it at a modest level, or separating.
happening now and emphasise conflict, disasters and atrocities; Whatever happens, forgiveness can be valuable.
appreciation for the past has relatively little visibility in the
media. No wonder individuals often dwell on resentments rather Thinking about the future
than what they have to be thankful for. What’s the future going to bring? Financial risks? Poor health?
The positive psychology movement is promoting the value Relationship problems? Potential disaster? If you constantly
of gratitude, but so far it has had a limited influence, mainly on worry about what’s going to happen, you can hardly be all that
individuals. There is no popular movement to promote gratitude happy.
rituals. Seligman says some of the positive emotions about the
If expressing gratitude is a good thing, then the goal is to future are “faith, trust, confidence, hope, and optimism.”21 He
make it a regular practice. At an individual level, this is fairly focuses on optimism; one of his earlier books was the widely
straightforward, whereas changing the external conditions is far acclaimed Learned Optimism.22
more difficult. Seligman analyses optimism using two dimensions: per-
Forgiveness is another key process for relating to the past. manence and pervasiveness. Consider permanence first. When
You’ve suffered a hurt. If you blame someone or something — something good happens to you, for example getting on well
which may be quite reasonable — and keep on blaming, you are with a new friend or making progress mastering a challenging
putting yourself in an ongoing negative mental state. Forgiving skill, do you think this is likely to continue — or do you worry
the perpetrator, on the other hand, releases the negativity — or that it will all go sour? If you think the good thing will continue,
some of it, at least. indeed get even better, that’s an attitude reflecting permanence:
There are some amazing examples of forgiveness, for you believe that whatever is going well will be a permanent
example parents forgiving the murderer of their daughter. feature of your life. This can be expressed in a generalisation, for
Forgiving doesn’t mean saying it was okay or that the events are example “I’ll always have good friends” or “I’m good at
forgotten. Forgiving is about understanding what has happened learning.”
and letting it go mentally. The primary benefits are for the If you’re good at one thing — perhaps maintaining friend-
person who does the forgiving. ships — then do you think you are good at all relationships? If
Like gratitude, forgiveness needs to be practised; it can be so, your attitude is pervasive: you apply it to all sorts of areas.
quite difficult to achieve. It can be helpful to start with small You could start with “I get along with Jane” and generalise to “I
things, like when a friend didn’t return your call. Maybe she was can get along with nearly anyone.”
preoccupied or just forgot. When she wouldn’t do something you
really needed, maybe she was overwhelmed or just not ready for 21 Seligman, Authentic Happiness, 83.
that level of commitment. Maybe she’s not perfect. If you
22 Martin E. P. Seligman, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your
forgive, you can move on to the next step, whether it’s building
Mind and Your Life (New York: Free Press, 1998).
68 Happiness Doing good things better 69

If your attitude towards good things involves both perma- So what is it like? Are you mentally relaxed and contented,
nence and pervasiveness, then if one good thing happens — you excited and engaged, or perhaps frustrated by the children,
make friends with Jane — then you think you’ll always be able annoyed at a neighbour, enraged by an incompetent driver or
to make friends with lots of people. That’s certainly optimistic! anxious about an upcoming meeting?
The opposite side is your attitude towards bad things. Let’s I’ve met people whose whole lives seem oriented to the
say you forget an important date and offend a friend. If you think weekend. At work during the week they look forward to Friday
pessimistically, you might say to yourself, “My memory is and on Friday they go drinking with the aim of becoming
hopeless; in fact, I’m just a loser.” An optimistic person takes oblivious to the world. On Saturday they recover from their
the opposite orientation, treating the incident as an exception, hangovers and look forward to a repeat bout. Sunday is another
applying only to the particular circumstances: “I forgot then but I recovery and dread of the coming week.
was distracted so it won’t happen again; I’ll make it up to my In mental terms, these ostensible pleasure-seekers seldom
friend.” enjoy the present moment: during the week they are preoccupied
In summary, an optimistic person assumes good things will with the coming weekend and so not fully experiencing the
continue and apply to all parts of their life, while treating bad present; during their drinking episodes they momentarily feel the
occurrences as temporary and of no wider relevance. That’s all pleasure of liberation from the self24 before succumbing to
easy enough to say, but how can you enter this optimistic way of diminished awareness.
thinking? Seligman recommends arguing with yourself when- Bodily pleasures are one way to obtain happiness in the
ever you start to enter a pessimistic line of thinking. He has a present. For some people alcohol is the means whereas for others
process involving several stages: adversity, belief, consequences, the route is via sex, chocolate or hot baths. To maximise
disputation and energisation.23 Basically it means becoming pleasures of this sort, the key is to savour the experience, namely
aware of the bad thing that happens, articulating your beliefs to spread it out over time and become intensely aware of it.25
about it and the likely consequences, disputing the negative line Savouring a drink would mean taking a sip now and then,
of thinking and coming out on the positive side. focusing on the taste and other sensations. It’s the opposite of
chugging down one glass after another.
Living in the present
You can think about the past and about the future, but this
thinking occurs in the present — right now — just like all 24 Roy F. Baumeister, Escaping the Self: Alcoholism, Spirituality,
experience. How you feel moment to moment is the key to Masochism, and Other Flights from the Burden of Selfhood (New York:
happiness. BasicBooks, 1991).
25 Fred B. Bryant and Joseph Veroff, Savoring: A New Model of
Positive Experience (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,
23 Seligman, Learned Optimism. 2007).
70 Happiness Doing good things better 71

Savouring means paying attention to what’s happening in on. After learning the basics and developing a routine of daily
your body and mind. It is a form of heightened awareness. It is practice, this child finds satisfaction in mastering ever more
mindful experience. challenging repertoire, providing the incentive to practise even
Another way of enjoying life in the present is called flow. more. Further challenges come from playing in orchestras,
One example is when athletes are pushing themselves to the chamber groups and solo performances. Performing can be a
limit of their skills and capabilities. It might be a soccer player source of anxiety, but if the challenge is not overwhelming, even
who, in a game, is fully extended, using well-developed skills a solo performance can be satisfying.
deftly and confidently. In such a situation, the player’s attention For young musicians, there is a standard development path,
is fully engaged with the game — there is no opportunity for moving to more difficult pieces and to a higher desk in an
day-dreaming. Neither is there anxiety due to being over- orchestra and then to other orchestras or chamber groups playing
whelmed, because the player is coping. Athletes in this sort of at a higher level. Eventually the youthful violinist gets a job in a
fully-engrossed mode sometimes say they are “in the zone.” This professional orchestra, providing a terrific challenge. But the
means their mind is totally engaged in the activity, typically for thrill of performing great works with fellow professionals may
an extended time. fade after a number of years, if the violinist continues to improve
This sort of experience can happen in training, too — her skills and becomes familiar with the pieces played by the
whenever the player’s capacities are fully extended, so every bit orchestra. So, in search of a new challenge, she might attempt to
of attention is on the activity. In such a state, time can pass with launch into a solo career or find players of a similar standard to
little awareness. Most players find it immensely satisfying. form a string quartet. After an activity becomes routine —
People in all walks of life, from carpenters to singers, can performing Beethoven’s 5th symphony for the hundredth time
have the same experience. It usually involves exercising well- — it may no longer provide the challenge needed to enter the
developed skills at the limit of one’s capacities, giving a feeling flow state.
of challenge and achievement. The state of flow doesn’t just happen to you — effort is
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this mental required to develop skills and exercise them at the limit of your
state “flow.”26 It’s as if you are flowing along in a satisfying ability. Flow is possible for someone just beginning on the
experience. Worries about the past or thoughts about the future violin, but becomes more likely at higher levels of performance.
disappear because you’re entirely in the activity, in the present. Flow can be seen as a good thing in two ways. First, it can
Flow is so satisfying that people will seek opportunities to be deeply satisfying, worthwhile in itself. Second, it can be
repeat the experience. This often means constantly pushing to harnessed to valuable goals. A skilled violinist can bring joy to
new levels of performance. Imagine a child who learns the violin listeners and play an important role in an orchestra or chamber
at a young age. Most violin pupils don’t continue, but a few push group. Like other aspects of happiness, flow states are not
guaranteed to be beneficial to society. A person might experi-
26 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experi-
ence (New York: Harper & Row, 1990).
72 Happiness Doing good things better 73

ence flow when exercising anti-social skills, such as a surrepti- varied quite a bit depending on how they were feeling at the
tious break-and-enter or an elaborate financial scam. time. Most of them were about 20 years’ old, so their strengths
Flow has not been all that widely recognised until recently. may become more pronounced a few years down the track.
While religions have recommended gratitude for millennia and Seligman recommends finding and developing strengths as
connoisseurs have recognised the value of savouring, it is only the basis for a good life. It will be a life in which you can enter
with Csikszentmihalyi’s work that the widespread significance the flow state regularly, because you are exercising a well-
of flow has been documented. His work has laid the basis for developed skill at the limit of your capacity. That’s a good life
better understanding and valuing the flow state. for you in terms of satisfaction.
How can you find a way to enter the flow state regularly? In summary, most people believe happiness is something
Seligman developed a questionnaire to assess your personal that happens to you, due to your situation in the world, such as
strengths. For example, you rate yourself 1 to 5 on statements making a lot of money, looking beautiful, living in elegant
like “I am always curious about the world” and “I am easily surroundings or eating chocolate. Research shows that these
bored.” After you’ve done lots of ratings — typically requiring sorts of things seldom have a lasting effect, because people adapt
30 minutes or so in the web version — then a score is calculated to their situations. Increasing your satisfaction from life in a
for each of 24 areas of potential strength. If you answered 5 for sustained fashion is far more likely through changing your
“I am always curious about the world” and 1 for “I am easily thoughts and actions, for example by fostering gratitude and
bored” then you’ll have a high score on “curiosity/interest in the forgiveness, developing skills to enable entering the flow state,
world” and vice versa if you answered 1 and 5 respectively. and cultivating an optimistic attitude.
The point of this survey is not to score highly on every Happiness research is surprising because so many of its
strength, but rather to figure out which of your strengths are findings are counterintuitive. People think that they will be
strongest, for example “curiosity/interest in the world,” “valour happier with more money, but actually spending more time with
and bravery” and “leadership.” (All the strengths are couched as friends is far more likely to increase happiness.
positive attributes.) Seligman says you should pursue a life in
which you have regular opportunities to express your greatest Happiness tactics
strengths, which he calls character strengths.27 For sustained happiness, it’s valuable to turn practices fostering
Some people know their interests when very young, but happiness into habits. In a sense, then, happiness itself becomes
others take a while to find their calling — and some never find it habitual. Most of the things required for long-term contentment
at all. When students in my class took the character-strength require practice. The happiness habit is mostly mental and
survey, a number of them were sceptical about the results behavioural: ways of thinking and acting that foster satisfaction.
because they felt their answers weren’t firm, but could have To be sure, brief moments of pleasure are possible for
everyone without particular effort, such as eating ice cream or
27 Authentic Happiness, http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/. laughing at a joke. But even these apparently natural activities
74 Happiness Doing good things better 75

require a certain attitude or orientation to be fully appreciated. happiness by seeking job promotions and more expensive
Some people gobble down ice cream without really thinking cars.
about it; others seldom laugh at jokes, much less tell them. So to
Endorsement When authority figures support happiness
really take advantage of pleasurable moments, some preparation
habits, this provides powerful support for relevant habits.
or effort may be useful to get in the right frame of mind.
Until recently, the most important authorities endorsing
Some people are lucky enough to be happy a lot of the time:
happiness-promoting habits have been religious figures, in
they have a high happiness set-point. Others have to work at
relation to gratitude and forgiveness. The positive psychol-
becoming happier: the happiness habit has to be developed
ogy movement has added a secular endorsement with
through effort. Those with high set-points might become even
authority figures like researchers Martin Seligman and
happier through suitable habits.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
To increase happiness levels at an individual level, what
methods should be used? The aim is to increase things like Action The key to happiness habits is to practise them. All
gratitude, optimism, savouring and flow. For all of these, the five the other elements are fine but don’t accomplish much
standard methods are important. These are the same methods without practice. Happiness is in the doing.
relevant for promoting other good things such as health and
honour codes, as discussed in chapter 1. The how of happiness
Awareness It helps to be aware of the desired mental state, In describing research on happiness, I’ve drawn on the frame-
so you can try to enter it and know when you’re in it. For work used by Seligman in his book Authentic Happiness.
example, you might occasionally express gratitude without Another excellent practical treatment of happiness research,
thinking about it; by becoming aware of expressing oriented to the general reader, is Sonja Lyubomirsky’s The How
gratitude, it’s easier to build it into a more powerful habit. of Happiness.28 Her opening chapters give an overview of
findings about happiness. She makes a strong point that there are
Valuing You need to believe these states of mind are many ways to improve happiness, such as expressing gratitude
valuable. That seems obvious enough, but many people and finding flow, but that for an individual, some of these may
don’t have this sort of belief. For example, some people are be more attractive and effective whereas others are not.
aware of savouring, but don’t pursue it, instead gobbling The main body of her book treats 12 different strategies to
down food, drink and other experiences. achieve happiness, such as relationships and forgiveness,
Understanding You need to understand how these states of providing exercises for developing habits to make these a
mind operate. This helps to resist beguiling arguments to personal practice. All her recommendations are backed up with
pursue other courses of action. For example, it helps to plenty of references.
know about adaptation so that you’re less tempted to pursue
28 Lyubomirsky, How of Happiness.
76 Happiness Doing good things better 77

The How of Happiness can be readily related to the five Action Central to Lyubomirsky’s recommendations is to
happiness tactics. turn happiness strategies into habits.
Awareness Lyubomirsky’s book is itself an exercise in The five happiness tactics thus are quite compatible with The
promoting awareness. She is a happiness researcher herself How of Happiness: every one is integral to Lyubomirsky’s
and therefore has an in-depth understanding of studies in approach.
the field, especially the ones she’s been involved with
directly. She wrote The How of Happiness because she Social obstacles
wanted to make research findings known to a wider Most happiness research focuses on individuals: it looks at
audience. Anyone reading the book will become aware of things that make individuals happy. This partly reflects its home
the 12 happiness strategies, as well as the more basic point in psychology — which as a discipline tends to focus on
that to achieve happiness it is worthwhile putting effort into individuals — and perhaps that many prominent happiness
well-chosen activities. researchers are from countries high in individualism, especially
Valuing Lyubomirsky says that if anything is the secret of the US.
happiness, it is to find happiness-promoting activities that It is certainly true that individuals can do an enormous
you personally value: “the secret is in establishing which amount on their own and with support from family and friends.
happiness strategies suit you best.”29 But left out of this picture is the role of society, namely the way
society is organised, which has an enormous influence on what
Understanding Lyubomirsky says that understanding why individuals decide to do.
happiness strategies work helps in pursuing them: “I In setting up a habit — such as meditating or expressing
describe why these strategies work and how precisely they gratitude — it’s possible to rely on personal willpower. But it’s
should be implemented to maximize their effectiveness far easier to maintain a habit if the external conditions are
using evidence from the latest research.”30 favourable. Setting aside a daily time for meditating when no
Endorsement Lyubomirsky uses scientific research to add one around you is doing it can be a challenge; it’s far easier if
credibility to her recommendations: “I have selected for this everyone else meditates at the same time. That’s one reason why
book only those activities (from among many) that have people go to meditation retreats: meditation is the thing to do
been shown to be successful through science, rather than and doing anything else requires going against expectations.
conjecture.”31 A glance at western culture immediately reveals a range of
obstacles to happiness. The most obvious is consumerism, the
29 Ibid., 70. orientation to buying goods and services. A consumer culture
30 Ibid., 89. involves pervasive advertising, status built on conspicuous
31 Ibid.
78 Happiness Doing good things better 79

consumption, and personal values oriented to consuming as the neighbours have a bigger house or a fancier car, send their kids
road to a better life. to an expensive school and take extended overseas holidays.
Consumerism is not just a fashion: it is deeply entrenched Keeping up with the Joneses still plays an important role in the
in contemporary capitalist economies, which are built on ever- culture of materialism.
growing production that requires ever-increasing consumption to People can opt out of this system. The so-called down-
maintain profits. The belief system underlying consumerism is shifters choose lifestyle over greater affluence. But this remains
that the more you buy and use, the happier you will be. a minority choice. The dominant influences encourage greater
Happiness research shows this is misguided. consumption.
In a consumer society, people expect happiness to come What psychological states are fostered in a consumer
from the outside. They work to make money and then spend society? The most obvious is greed, the desire to have more no
their earnings on houses, cars, clothes and entertainment, all in a matter how much you have already: money, high-status jobs,
frenetic quest for a better life, seldom stopping to question expensive clothes, a private jet. Greed has a long history33 but it
whether the whole enterprise is built on a false premise. is not conducive to satisfaction: even billionaires may want
There are critics of course. Members of the group more. Another thing stimulated by consumerism is envy, the
Adbusters promote what they call subvertisements, which are resentment of others because of what they have. Like greed,
fake advertisements that challenge the assumptions of consumer envy is a destructive emotion that, at its worst, can lead to
culture.32 But you’ll never see an Adbusters ad on television. antisocial behaviour including hurting others. An everyday
Station managers have refused to broadcast them. Even if they example is spreading rumours about co-workers to damage their
did allow Adbusters segments, they would be a token opposition reputations, sabotage their chances for promotion or just to cause
given the enormous money behind conventional advertising, them a hard time.
some of which uses irony and parody as a marketing angle To the extent that greed and envy are fostered, gratitude is
anyway. neglected. Being thankful for what you have is undermined
Canberra, Australia’s national capital, is a small city with a when you want more and resent the possessions and accom-
difference: there are no public advertisements — well, not many. plishments of others.
There are no billboards. It makes a difference, but then public Consider another element of contemporary societies, the
ads are only one part of the environment. The media are filled criminal justice system. In the United States since the 1980s, the
with ads. prison population has dramatically increased so that by 2010
Advertising is just one environmental influence hindering over two million people were incarcerated. Per head of popula-
happiness habits. Perhaps more influential is peer pressure, often tion, this is the highest rate of any country in the world. In the
exerted through witnessing what others have or do. The
33 For an examination of greed, envy and jealousy, see Joseph H. Berke,
32 Kalle Lasn, Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America (New York: The Tyranny of Malice: Exploring the Dark Side of Character and
Eagle Brook, 1999) and the magazine Adbusters. Culture (New York: Summit, 1988).
80 Happiness Doing good things better 81

prison system itself, there are conflicting priorities that, in is vastly more sophisticated than a century ago, so young
simplest terms, can be classified as rehabilitation versus retribu- swimmers, runners, gymnasts and many others are coached to
tion. Much of the US system is oriented to retribution, which develop their skills and their capacity to focus, for extended
basically means punishment. periods, on tasks at just the right level of challenge. This
The explosion in the prison population can be linked to undoubtedly promotes flow.
competition between politicians to be seen as tough on crime, to The trouble is that much of this coaching is oriented to
heavy media coverage of crime, and to what critics call the competitive sport. After the prime years of a person’s competi-
prison-industrial complex, namely the influence on government tiveness are over, often by the age of 30, there are fewer
from companies that make money out of prisons.34 Campaigners opportunities for maintaining athletic involvement. Furthermore,
for more compassionate policies have been marginalised in the many older athletes have jobs that restrict time for training.
past several decades; indeed, even those who present the rational At young ages, parents, teachers and peers can provide a
argument that higher rates of imprisonment don’t reduce crime supportive environment for the pursuit of expert performance:
have had little influence. The overwhelming impression is that training becomes a routine part of daily life, encouraged by key
criminals do not deserve compassion. The orientation is to authority figures. But after leaving home and competitive
blaming and vengeance, not forgiveness. leagues, more willpower is required to keep developing skills:
Forgiveness is a key element in happiness about the past. there are competing priorities and authorities — bosses or family
Individuals can pursue forgiveness. But public policy, especially members — with different priorities. In other words, the
in the US, sends a different message: perpetrators are not environment is no longer as supportive of sporting activities that
forgiven but rather treated harshly and then left to fend for promote flow.
themselves. This is an example of how a structural feature of US Flow requires extended periods of engagement. No inter-
society, namely prison policy and practice, is contrary to the goal ruptions please! The new personal communication technologies
of greater happiness. built around mobile phones and the Internet — texting, Twitter,
I haven’t even mentioned the prisoners themselves. For Facebook and the like — encourage users to constantly shift
most people, prison is one of the last places to go to become their attention. It’s stimulating, to be sure, and exercises the
happier. brain much more than staring at a wall, but it may also make
Next consider flow, the state of full engagement in a flow more difficult to achieve. Of course you can switch off your
challenging task. Flow states are encouraged by opportunities for phone for a few hours while you swim or paint or read, but many
people to develop skills and exercise them. For some people, users become so entranced by being constantly in touch that
flow is becoming easier to achieve because more is known about these interludes become rarer.
how to develop high-level skills. Athletic training, for example, A high-paced society makes it harder to savour experiences
as they happen, because nothing lasts all that long before an
34 See for example Nils Christie, Crime Control as Industry: Towards
interruption. Rather than slowing down to enjoy the present,
Gulags, Western Style, 2nd ed. (London: Routledge, 1994).
82 Happiness Doing good things better 83

users seek the next bit of information in the hope that it will be However, the point here is that the onus is on the individual to
more exciting than the previous one, or at least provide a find a way of achieving happiness, and even for those who try
diversion from the seeming emptiness of no contact. there are many temptations to divert efforts. The result is that
In contemporary Western societies, choices have massively acquiring happiness habits can be quite difficult.
expanded — consumer choices, that is, as a visit to a super- If the goal is greater happiness for everyone, then it makes
market will reveal. Barry Schwartz, in his thought-provoking sense to act on two fronts, namely for individuals to adopt
book The Paradox of Choice, reviews evidence that excess happiness habits and for individuals and groups to pursue social
choice reduces happiness.35 For example, if you buy a product changes that make it easier to develop happiness habits. This is a
with the option of returning it if you don’t like it, you are less very big topic so I’ll just give a few ideas.
likely to be satisfied than if there’s a no-return policy and you People overall will be happier if income levels are more
are stuck with the product. The same applies to relationships: if equal. That’s because bringing poor people out of poverty will
it’s easy to start and terminate close personal relationships, improve their happiness levels quite a bit, whereas lowering the
people are less likely to put the effort into maintaining their income of the extremely wealthy won’t make very much
relationships through difficult periods and more likely to trade in difference to their happiness. In fact, they might end up being
their partner in the hope of finding a better one. With plenty of happier in a more equal society.36 So the goal should be greater
choices in a seemingly wide-open market, the emphasis shifts to equality. This can be pursued on various fronts. One approach is
searching for a better option rather than transforming yourself to to help those who are worse off, for example alleviating
be satisfied with something that is good enough and becomes homelessness and giving greater support for people with mental
better through your own efforts. illness and intellectual disability. Another approach is to provide
I’ve mentioned several of the features of contemporary more facilities available to everyone such as low-cost public
individualised societies that make it more challenging to transport, parks, museums, neighbourhood centres, music clubs
regularly enter a contented state: consumerism, competitiveness, and a range of venues where people can gather to pursue
unforgiving criminal justice systems, continual interruptions and activities that are challenging but not overwhelming at their
excessive choice. These features discourage some of the
practices that foster happiness, but it’s still possible for individu- 36 See for example Alberto Alesina, Rafael Di Tella and Robert
als to achieve a happy life and to adopt personal practices that MacCulloch, “Inequality and happiness: are Europeans and Americans
foster it. For some, this means opting out of the rat-race, for different?” Journal of Public Economics, 88, 2004, 2009–2042; Robert
example finding a satisfying occupation, perhaps lower-paying, H. Frank, Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle
away from the frantic pace of urban living. For others, it means Class (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007); Johannes
Schwarze and Marco Härpfer, “Are people inequality averse, and do they
learning a new way of dealing with the pressures of typical life. prefer redistribution by the state? Evidence from German longitudinal
35 Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less (New data on life satisfaction,” Journal of Socio-Economics, 36, 2007, 233–
York: HarperCollins, 2004). 249.
84 Happiness Doing good things better 85

competence levels. Yet another approach is to promote building Social action

designs that foster community interaction and mutual help, for As well as spelling out happiness-promoting alternatives, such as
example co-housing, as developed in Denmark and adopted greater equality, it’s also essential to think about how to promote
elsewhere, in which people live in complexes with small private them. This is a big task.
rooms and extensive collective areas for eating, child care and One way forward has been well laid out by social move-
socialising.37 ments, such as the peace, labour, feminist and environmental
It’s also possible to promote social rituals that foster movements. They have been campaigning for decades. Activists
happiness. Some holidays are ostensibly about gratitude, for know an incredible amount about analysing problems, presenting
example Thanksgiving in the US, but have been so highly arguments, getting messages to audiences, building organisa-
commercialised that they have been divested of nearly all tions, holding meetings, finding allies, developing strategies, and
content. Rather than concentrate gratitude in occasional big organising actions such as rallies, strikes and boycotts.39
events, it would be better to promote regular small occasions. In fact, some of these movements are part of the quest for
The slow food movement aims to encourage people to take greater happiness. For many decades, peace movements have
time in preparing meals and eating them. Slow food is the campaigned against war, which is a major source of sorrow and
embodiment of savouring, something that is discouraged through angst. The labour movement, when it pushes to help those in
fast food. The slow movement applies this approach to a wide greatest need — workers receiving extremely low wages or
range of activities.38 suffering abuse on the job — helps bring people out of poverty,
If promoting happiness becomes a social goal, it has innu- counter exploitation and give workers dignity, thereby increasing
merable implications for the way society is organised and runs. overall happiness. (On the other hand, when labour organisations
I’ve mentioned a few. This isn’t only an issue of policy for mainly look after well-paid members and neglect the unem-
governments but rather a matter for everyone. ployed or non-unionised sectors of the economy, they do not
address key areas of unhappiness.)
Campaigners for social change that fosters happiness habits
can work in alliance with other movements. They can also learn
a lot from the experience of movement activists. But happiness
itself seems an unlikely basis for a social movement of the
37 Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, with Ellen Hertzman,
Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves, 2d ed. 39 For example, Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals (New York:
(Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1994). Random House, 1971); Virginia Coover, Ellen Deacon, Charles Esser
and Christopher Moore, Resource Manual for a Living Revolution
38 On the slow movement, see Carl Honoré, In Praise of Slow: How a (Philadelphia, PA: New Society Publishers, 1981); Randy Shaw, The
Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed (London: Orion, Activist’s Handbook: A Primer (Berkeley, CA: University of California
2004). Press, 2001).
86 Happiness Doing good things better 87

traditional sort. The usual rationale for a movement is opposition Activists aspire to a better world. They want to challenge
to a problem such as war, exploitation of workers, male domina- and, if possible, eliminate poverty, exploitation, war and other
tion or environmental degradation. Given the presence of social social problems. Most movements are oriented negatively: they
evils, a movement promoting a good thing such as happiness are against something. The peace movement, for example,
may seem self-indulgent, perhaps even a misdirected effort when despite its name, is principally an antiwar movement, with
social problems are so pressing. protests against nuclear weapons, particular wars, arms
In this context, pro-happiness movements have three things manufacture and so forth. There is a lot more activity — at least
to contribute. Firstly, promotion of happiness is likely to bring in the most visible part of the movement — against the problem
more people into traditional movements. One of the key of war than in creating a more peaceful world in places where
elements of happiness is helping others. When people realise that there aren’t any wars.
helping is a greater source of satisfaction than acquiring goods or A lot of campaigning is negative in orientation, emphasis-
status, they are more likely to join organisations or choose ing the problems: “There are no winners in nuclear war”;
careers that allow helping on a sustained basis. This could be a “thousands of children are killed and maimed by land mines
welfare organisation or it could be a campaigning organisation every year.” With these negative messages, it’s natural for
concerned about refugees, homelessness, people with disabili- activists to adopt a serious tone. Activism can come across as a
ties, or any number of worthy causes. One possibility is grim business. Where is the fun?
becoming an activist in a social movement. Promotion of Happy activism is an alternative.40 Rather than wait to be
happiness as a social goal thus is likely to swell the numbers of happy until after the social problem is fixed — which may be
activists in movements. never, or at least many decades hence — the idea is to live the
Secondly, happiness promotion requires rethinking goals. sort of future being sought, which includes being happy in
Established labour organisations, for example, have devoted a campaigning. That means making activities fun, being more
great amount of their effort to gaining increased salaries, oriented to positive outcomes than the current dire situation, and
including for workers who are already well off. Taking on board adopting an optimistic mindset.
insights from happiness research, a labour activist might well Many activists are driven by anger. They are outraged by
suggest redirecting effort towards greater equality, including injustice and want to do something about it, often by blaming
support for those outside the labour force, increases in wages for those they see as responsible. A happiness-driven activist would
those in the lowest-paid jobs, a focus on conditions rather than instead draw on and seek to develop different psychic resources,
wages for those already reasonably well off, and designing work including gratitude, mindfulness, optimism and a commitment to
to foster flow. helping others.
Thirdly, ideas from happiness research can be used to
develop what might be called happy activism. This would be a
40 I thank Sharon Callaghan, Karen Kennedy and Yasmin Rittau for
change from the standard approach in many social movements.
valuable discussions on this topic.
88 Happiness Doing good things better 89

An antiwar activist who cultivates gratitude might seem Likewise, happiness-promoting behaviours, such as fostering
disrespectful to all the people killed and maimed in the operation relationships and helping others, require practice.
of the war system. But gratitude can be a tool for more effective If sustained happiness is based on habits in thinking and
action. What is there to be thankful for? To start, there are other behaving, then what are the ways to promote the habit? For the
committed activists, past and present. There are successes in individual, there are several important ways.
campaigns, however minor. There are absences, such as no
Awareness You need to be aware of what really makes you
nuclear attacks since 1945. There are harmonious relations in
happy. Continually bringing these things to your conscious
many communities around the world. By focusing on what there
mind helps cement your habits.
is to be thankful for, it’s possible to gain ideas about building the
movement, for example thinking of what sustains commitment Valuing You need to value what really makes you happy.
and how campaign successes were achieved. This sounds obvious enough, but many people dismiss
An orientation to happiness in campaigning should make meditation or savouring because they seem to clash with
activist groups more attractive — others will want to be cultural norms.
involved. Some activists do this already: they focus on positive
alternatives, design activities that will be satisfying for everyone Understanding You need to understand what really makes
and make their meetings and interactions a joy. you happy. This helps you to identify temptations and false
claims and respond effectively. For example, if you
Summary understand the process of adaptation, you’re better prepared
to make wise choices.
The strange thing about happiness is that nearly everyone desires
it but so many people are misguided in the way they pursue it, Endorsement When people whose opinion is important to
continuing to seek it in the same ways despite repeated failures. you support things that really make you happy, you’re more
This is most obvious with money: most people think more likely to maintain happiness habits. This could be peers you
money will make them happier although research shows extra respect or a prominent authority figure.
money will have only a small effect, at least when you have Action You need to do the things that make you happy.
enough to start with. This is the most important step in developing and
More generally, people pursue happiness through external maintaining a happiness habit.
things like possessions, holidays, awards and entertainment.
However, research shows that the biggest increases in happiness This all seems straightforward, but there’s a major obstacle: the
can be achieved by changing thinking and behaviour. Some of way the world is organised. It’s harder to be satisfied with what
the valuable mental states are gratitude, forgiveness, optimism, you have when you’re bombarded with advertisements cleverly
flow and mindfulness. Achieving these states is not quick and designed to make you dissatisfied unless you purchase some
easy: practice is needed to develop and maintain mental habits.
90 Happiness Doing good things better 91

product or service. It’s harder to practise forgiveness when ritual Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.41
events — like crime reporting — foster a sense of grievance. Ehrenreich is the acclaimed author of more than a dozen books,
So promotion of happiness requires action at two levels: the most famously Nickel and Dimed, in which she reports on
individual level and the social level. Not that these are independ- working in several low-paying jobs to reveal the hardships of
ent: every step you take to develop gratitude or optimism has those on a minimum wage in the US. She is a long-time critic of
some effect on those around you, while some campaigns, for social inequality and exploitation.
example for humane treatment of prisoners, have direct effects In Bright-sided, she targets the positive thinking movement
on individuals. in the US, illustrating how it ends up blaming the victims of the
Happiness research has mainly focussed on the individual political and economic system for their own failures. She
level. Taken seriously, it has some radical implications and can examines positive thinking in several domains: cancer treatment,
lead to people dropping out of the rat-race and choosing a in which optimism is virtually mandated as an aid to survival;
different lifestyle. But these changes will affect relatively few business, in which retrenched workers are exhorted to be
unless there are some big changes in the way the economy, the positive about their futures (and not blame their former employ-
political system and social life are organised. ers); religion, when material success replaces obedience and
If big changes are going to occur in the way society is good works as a road to salvation; and positive psychology, the
organised, this will require a lot of time and effort. At the science of happiness.
campaigning level, the same five ways are relevant: awareness, I read Bright-sided after completing the first draft of this
valuing, understanding, endorsement and action. chapter, so I was eager to discover how Ehrenreich — whose
Social change is a topic much wider than happiness writings I first encountered and respected in the 1970s — would
research. Nevertheless, there are few things that an orientation to tackle the positive psychology movement. Conveniently, her
happiness can bring to activism. One of them is the idea of central target is none other than Martin Seligman, whose book
happy activism, namely making campaigning a joyful process, Authentic Happiness I used as a launching point for the themes
something lots of people will want to join and that will help in this chapter.
achieve its goals through the means of pursuing them. Ehrenreich and I have approached Seligman in rather
different ways. She begins by recounting his election as
Appendix president of the American Psychological Association, a platform
Ehrenreich’s critique of happiness promotion from which he promoted positive psychology. She obtained an
Before getting carried away with happiness as the ultimate goal, interview with Seligman, but was frustrated by his behaviour:
it’s worth looking at contrary arguments. A good place to start is instead of talking in his office, he took her to a museum and
Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Bright-sided: How the Relentless 41 Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of
Positive Thinking Has Undermined America (New York: Metropolitan
Books, 2009).
92 Happiness Doing good things better 93

interrupted their time together by various promotional activities, In one of my articles, “Scientific fraud and the power
such as a phone call to schedule an interview. In Ehrenreich’s structure of science,” I included deceptive promotion of research
eyes, Seligman comes across more as a preoccupied prima donna findings as a type of fraud — but one so commonplace that it is
than as either a hard-nosed scientist or a contented practitioner of not normally classified as fraud.42 It is convenient to scientific
his own recommendations about happiness. Ehrenreich also tells elites to treat this sort of hype as normal while stigmatising a few
of Seligman’s conservative politics and consulting work for narrow behaviours, such as altering data, as fraud. Ehrenreich
business, seemingly at odds with his emphasis on positive has not shown that positive psychologists have engaged in
thinking rather than material success as a road to happiness. exaggerated promotion any more than other scientists — though
In Bright-sided, Ehrenreich is highly critical of the exces- this is hardly to excuse such promotion.
sive promotion of positive thinking, especially when it serves to Ehrenreich criticises Seligman’s formula H = S + C + V, in
distract from a realistic understanding of problems and to which H, happiness, is the sum of S, an individual’s set point, C,
discourage collective action to address them. So in addressing the particular circumstances of a person’s life, and V, factors
positive psychology, she is especially critical of researchers under voluntary control. She says H cannot be a simple sum of
when they cross the line from objective assessment of the the three variables S, C and V, but is instead a more complex
evidence and become uncritical boosters of the virtues of function of S, C and V, which should be written H = f (S, C, V).
happiness. Anything smacking of hucksterism is suspect in her Of course she is correct. When I saw Seligman’s formula in
eyes. As a prime target she scrutinises claims that happiness Authentic Happiness, I assumed it was illustrative rather than
contributes to better health and longevity, picking flaws in literal. Anyone familiar with science would readily see that the
several studies. formula cannot be additive, especially given that Seligman does
I am sympathetic with Ehrenreich’s criticism of exagger- not begin to operationalise any of the factors, namely show how
ated claims that go beyond the research findings concerning they can be measured. Ehrenreich is technically correct in her
happiness. But this is hardly a special sin of positive psychology. criticism, but I don’t think it says much about positive
Scientists in all sorts of fields regularly tout their findings as psychology.
breakthroughs as a tool for obtaining more research funding. More important is Ehrenreich’s critique of claims that
Great advances in the study of cancer have been announced for happiness leads to improved health and longevity. She examines
decades. Within psychology itself, hype for findings is routine, several studies, pointing out limitations. However, I would
including in the mainstream research what can be called question Ehrenreich’s initial statement that “The central claim of
“negative psychology,” namely the study of how to bring people positive psychology, as of positive thinking generally, is that
in negative states, like depression and anxiety, closer to normal. happiness — or optimism, positive emotions, positive affect, or
In the US, television viewers can watch lengthy advertisements positive something — is not only desirable in and of itself but
for prescription antidepressants. So far, there’s no equivalent
42 Brian Martin, “Scientific fraud and the power structure of science,”
promotion of positive psychology.
Prometheus, 10(1), June 1992, 83–98.
94 Happiness Doing good things better 95

actually useful, leading to better health and greater success.”43 particular the individualistic orientation of psychology more
That is not how I read the research on happiness. Most authors generally. Ehrenreich might just as well criticise negative
see happiness as the key goal. Better health and greater success psychology for treating depression as a defect solely of the
might be spin-offs, but they are hardly the main purpose. individual, ignoring the role of social arrangements.
Seligman, for example, says that the objective state of one’s Ehrenreich treats Seligman as the personification of
health has relatively little effect on one’s happiness, but the way positive psychology, or at least as the prime illustration.
you think about your health has a significant effect. He is more Following the quote above, she states:
concerned about the effect of health on happiness than the effect
Seligman himself explicitly rejects social change, writing of
of happiness on health.
the role of “circumstances” in determining human happi-
More generally, what is the point of being successful —
ness: “The good news about circumstances is that some do
career, wealth, fame, accomplishments — without happiness?
change happiness for the better. The bad news is that
The positive psychology movement is more about psychological
changing these circumstances is usually impractical and
states as ends in themselves than as means to some other goal.
expensive.” This argument — “impractical and expensive”
Key areas in positive psychology — a few of which I
— has of course been used against almost every progressive
discussed in this chapter — deal with thinking about the past,
reform from the abolition of slavery to pay equity for
present and future. An example is the role of gratitude in
women.45
happiness, including how fostering gratitude can increase
happiness. Ehrenreich does not address this research and Rather than throwing out positive psychology because of a
therefore, as I see it, has missed the crucial core of positive Seligman-style dismissal of social change, I think it is more
psychology. productive to make a different interpretation of positive psychol-
Where Ehrenreich hits the mark is in criticising the ogy or, in other words, to draw different implications from its
individualistic orientation of positive psychology, and the findings. Firstly, Seligman focuses solely on large-scale circum-
resulting bias in favour of adjusting to current social conditions stances; it is quite possible for individuals to change their own
rather than challenging and changing them: “Like pop positive circumstances, to some degree, to foster their own happiness.
thinking, positive psychology attends almost solely to the Secondly, Ehrenreich ignores a key research finding, that
changes a person can make internally by adjusting his or her helping others can be a great source of lasting satisfaction.
own outlook.”44 This is precisely my view. However, an orien- Helping others can occur at the individual level, such as helping
tation to the individual is not inherent in the findings of someone across the street, but also at the collective level,
happiness research but may simply reflect contingencies, in through organisations such as Amnesty International or social
movements such as the labour or feminist movements. Partici-
43 Ehrenreich, Bright-sided, 158–159.
44 Ibid., 171. 45 Ibid.
96 Happiness Doing good things better 97

pating in a movement for social betterment can be rewarding in mous with accepting the system and trying to adapt to it.
itself as well as helping change the circumstances that affect However, this connection between positive thinking and power
many people’s lives and therefore their happiness. isn’t inherent in positive thinking. It’s just as possible to be
Thirdly, Seligman’s statement that “changing these circum- positive about workers, women and the disadvantaged and to be
stances is usually impractical and expensive” is correct only on positive about efforts by trade unions, feminists, environmental-
the individual level: for an individual to end a war, single- ists and other social movements.
handed, is indeed impractical and expensive. But Seligman’s Ehrenreich might be right that “realism” is needed, namely
statement is incorrect at the collective level: when large numbers objective thinking rather than positive thinking. However, it is
of people combine their efforts to change circumstances, a good hardly realistic to think about eradicating war or world poverty.
outcome is far more feasible and the per-person costs are Positive thinking can play a valuable role when harnessed to
minimised. That is the experience in numerous countries where efforts for social change. Perhaps, given the long-standing
popular nonviolent action has overthrown repressive regimes.46 connection between positive thinking and defence of the status
Ehrenreich’s critique of positive thinking would, in my quo, it might be better to use a different word, such as commit-
opinion, be better formulated as a critique of positive thinking in ment or dedication. There could, though, be a perverse delight in
service of the establishment. Towards the conclusion of Bright- adopting the idea of positive thinking to radical ends.
sided, she says
Over the last couple of decades, as icebergs sank and levels
of debt mounted, dissidents from the prevailing positive-
thinking consensus were isolated, mocked, or urged to
overcome their perverse attachment to negative thoughts.
Within the United States, any talk of intractable problems
like poverty could be dismissed as a denial of America’s
greatness. Any complaints of economic violence could be
derided as the “whining” of self-selected victims.47
Ehrenreich is really complaining about the way powerful and
wealthy interests have turned positive thinking into a tool for
maintaining their privileges, so that being positive is synony-

46 Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall, A Force More Powerful: A Century

of Nonviolent Conflict (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000).
47 Ehrenreich, Bright-sided, 201.