summary of the happiness hypothesis

The Happiness Hypothesis Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:   The Happiness Hypothesis is the most thorough analysis of how you can find happiness in our modern society, backed by plenty of scientific research, real-life examples and even a formula for happiness.

Favorite quote from the author:

Table of Contents

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The happiness hypothesis review, audio summary, who would i recommend the happiness hypothesis summary to.

If you’re looking for a scientifically proven way to find happiness, you’ve come to the right place.

These blinks show that Jonathan Haidt , social psychologist and professor at NYU , has pulled out all the stops.

In the beginning of The Happiness Hypothesis , he establishes a metaphor, which then serves throughout the rest of the book to explain happiness in different contexts.

He says our brain is divided into two main parts.  Your limbic system is in charge of your basic instincts , the needs for sleep, food and sex.

The neocortex is, as its name suggests, a newer part of the brain, responsible for your rational thinking . It’s what keeps your limbic system in check and makes sure you don’t run around naked on the street, overeat, or sleep in when you’re supposed to go to work.

While the neocortex follows suit to your thoughts, your limbic brain doesn’t. It’s fully in charge of your heart rate, moving while you sleep or the knee-jerk reflex .

Haidt therefore describes the limbic brain as a wild elephant,  with your neocortex being  the rider , trying to control the elephant.

Unhappiness comes from the rider and the elephant disagreeing, and Haidt uses this metaphor to show you what you can do to close the gap between the two.

50% to 80% of your baseline level of happiness is determined in your genes , but by changing your thoughts you can still train the elephant .

For example, your limbic brain is trained to recognize danger everywhere, in order to survive, but by  becoming an optimist , you can lessen this behavior, which isn’t quite so useful today.

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

A large chunk of our happiness comes from our social relationships , and the first step towards improving them, is understanding them.

Reciprocity is the principle on which we interact, which is why you feel guilty if you don’t return a favor and  Sheldon feels compelled to give a gift back . We feel so strongly about it, that we’d prefer to get nothing, rather than receiving an unfair share .

You can use this principle the next time you fight with your spouse or roommate: Just admit some of the things you did wrong . Your friend will start to reciprocate and also admit what they did wrong, helping both of you to resolve the conflict.

Doing this also helps lessening your self-serving bias , since your elephant thinks it’s always right and your rider usually defends it.

Next to your relationships, your work is one of the few factors that matters a lot to your happiness.

The adaptation principle shows that whatever lucky event or adversity we face, we get used to it. This was proven in a study showing that people who won the lottery and people who became paralyzed both returned to their baseline happiness levels after one year.

However, what you spend your time working on is one of those external circumstances that has a big impact, thanks to the progress principle . It says that we draw much more happiness from working towards a goal , rather than reaching it.

So try to find meaningful work  you’re good at – as Confucius says: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Your most important relationship in your life will likely be the one with your partner or spouse. But on your quest for love , don’t just rely on passion . No matter how much “in love” you are at the beginning of the relationship, it naturally fades – and that’s okay.

Haidt says we must seek to develop companionate love , which is what best friends, brothers, sisters and family members share. Having someone at your side through the ups and downs of life, sharing your joy and sadness and exploring and learning together creates a much stronger bond, which can last you a lifetime, but it takes time to develop.

So don’t give up a relationship once passion fades, but give your companionate love time to develop.

The rider and the elephant might also disagree about who you are.  For example your rider can try to preserve your image of being an efficient, career-driven manager, while your elephant just wants to cut himself some slack and play soccer with his buddies.

It often takes a crisis for us to see these differences, which is why adversity can make us happier.  This is especially true for people in their teens and twenties, who spend a lot of time thinking and looking for meaning in their lives. A crisis gives you the chance to see what the elephant really wants and help the rider adjust your self-image to match your true desires.

Lastly, we need to feel connected to something greater than ourselves , which is why religion has a place in our lives. Even if you’re an atheist, you probably believe in karma, destiny or fortune. That’s a good thing! Belief gives us a sense of awe , because it makes us realize that we’re a small part of something much greater.

• Surround yourself with the people you love the most and live in accordance with reciprocity
• Do work that matters to you
• Find a partner who will stand by your side through sunshine and rain
• Allow yourself to be part of something greater

These are just some of the things I learned from these blinks, as there were so many good insights, let alone in the book.

These blinks did an awesome job. I read parts of The Happiness Hypothesis , and every page hits you with a new insight. I don’t know how I would’ve summarized it, but Blinkist did it.

I would have liked to learn about the formula here (Haidt gives a formula for happiness in the book, consisting of your biological set points, the conditions of your life, and your voluntary activities), but I don’t mind that they went for the rider and the elephant metaphor.

Using this throughout all blinks made the summary very consistent and actionable. The book is great, the summary is superb – I highly recommend you get both.

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:

The 27 year old who burns through one love relationship after another, the 47 year old who still slaves away in a corporate job she hates in hope for a good retirement and anyone who thinks happiness is just something your born with.

Last Updated on December 5, 2022

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

*Four Minute Books participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising commissions by linking to Amazon. We also participate in other affiliate programs, such as Blinkist, MindValley, Audible, Audiobooks, Reading.FM, and others. Our referral links allow us to earn commissions (at no extra cost to you) and keep the site running. Thank you for your support.

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The Happiness Hypothesis

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

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The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt - Summary and Book Notes

Haidt explores different paths to happiness, examines them through the lens of modern research, and proposes a revised 'Happiness Hypothesis'.

This is a great rundown of positive psychology's main findings. Haidt writes clearly while backing up his arguments with research. The book has solid recommendations for improving happiness levels.

Highly recommend for anyone who:

• Wants to understand how happiness works
• Wants to shape their lives to improve well-being
• Has limited knowledge of psychology

Psychology majors could probably skip this one.

Quick Summary

Good fortune or bad, you will always return to your happiness setpoint—your brain’s default level of happiness—which was determined largely by your genes.

• Attachments bring pain, but they also bring our greatest joys
• People need obligations and constraints to provide structure and meaning to their lives
• The turn in philosophy from character to quandary was a profound mistake
• The human mind does perceive “divinity.”
• "Why are we here?" and "How ought I to live?" are separate questions, don't conflate them.
• Vital engagement does not reside in the person or in the environment; it exists in the relationship between internal and external factors.
• People gain a sense of meaning when their lives cohere across the three levels of their existence
• The final version of the happiness hypothesis is that happiness comes from between . You have to get the conditions right and then wait.

If you are a pessimist:

• consider meditation , cognitive therapy , or even Prozac .
• Second, cherish and build your social support network .
• Third, religious faith and practice can aid growth, both by directly fostering sense making and by increasing social support

Buy The Happiness Hypothesis on Amazon.

Recommendations for Further Reading

The following are rough notes I took while reading. These are mostly paraphrased or quoted directly from the book.

we have a deep need to understand violence and cruelty through “the myth of pure evil.”

The myth of pure evil is the ultimate self-serving bias, the ultimate form of naive realism . And it is the ultimate cause of most long-running cycles of violence because both sides use it to lock themselves into a Manichaean struggle.

Baumeister found that violence and cruelty have four main causes:

• greed/ambition (violence for direct personal gain, as in robbery)
• sadism (pleasure in hurting people).

greed/ambition explains only a small portion of violence, and sadism explains almost none.

• high self-esteem
• moral idealism.

when someone’s high esteem is unrealistic or narcissistic, it is easily threatened by reality; in reaction to those threats, people—particularly young men—often lash out violently.

Baumeister questions the usefulness of programs that try raise children’s self-esteem directly instead of by teaching them skills they can be proud of.

to really get a mass atrocity going you need idealism —the belief that your violence is a means to a moral end.

the world we live in is not really one made of rocks, trees, and physical objects; it is a world of insults, opportunities, status symbols, betrayals, saints, and sinners. they are a consensual hallucination.

once anger comes into play, people find it extremely difficult to empathize with and understand another perspective.

The Pursuit of Happiness

recent research in psychology suggests that Buddha and Epictetus may have taken things too far. Some things are worth striving for, and happiness comes in part from outside of yourself

THE PROGRESS PRINCIPLE

The elephant and the rider metaphor : The rider represents the conscious controlled processes and the elephant represents all of the automatic processes.

here’s the trick with reinforcement: It works best when it comes seconds—not minutes or hours—after the behavior.

The elephant works the same way: It feels pleasure whenever it takes a step in the right direction. The elephant learns whenever pleasure (or pain) follows immediately after behavior, but it has trouble connecting success on Friday with actions it took on Monday.

when it comes to goal pursuit, it really is the journey that counts, not the destination.

“the progress principle”: Pleasure comes more from making progress toward goals than from achieving them. Shakespeare captured it perfectly: “Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”4

THE ADAPTATION PRINCIPLE

We are bad at “affective forecasting,” that is, predicting how we’ll feel in the future. We grossly overestimate the intensity and the duration of our emotional reactions.

Within a year, lottery winners and paraplegics have both (on average) returned most of the way to their baseline levels of happiness.

When we combine the adaptation principle with the discovery that `people’s average level of happiness is highly heritable , we come to a startling possibility: In the long run, it doesn’t much matter what happens to you.

“hedonic treadmill.”

Men have more freedom and power than women, yet they are not on average any happier. (Women experience more depression, but also more intense joy). People who live in cold climates expect people who live in California to be happier, but they are wrong.

at the lowest end of the income scale money does buy happiness. once you are freed from basic needs and have entered the middle class, the relationship between wealth and happiness becomes smaller.

Only a few activities avoid the adaptation principle:

• dependable companionship, which is a basic need; we never fully adapt either to it or to its absence.
• religious people are happier, on average, than nonreligious people.

This effect arises from the social ties that come with participation in a religious community, as well as from feeling connected to something beyond the self.

THE HAPPINESS FORMULA

Yes, genes explain far more about us than anyone had realized, but the genes themselves often turn out to be sensitive to environmental conditions .

each person has a characteristic level of happiness, but it now looks as though it’s not so much a set point as a potential range or probability distribution .

Whether you operate on the high or the low side of your potential range is determined by many factors that Buddha and Epictetus would have considered externals.

Voluntary activities, therefore, offer much greater promise for increasing happiness while avoiding adaptation effects.

One of the most important ideas in positive psychology is what Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, Schkade, and Seligman call the “happiness formula:”

The level of happiness that you actually experience (H) is determined by your biological set point (S) plus the conditions of your life (C) plus the voluntary activities (V) you do.

There really are some external conditions (C) that matter:

people who must adapt to new and chronic sources of noise (such as when a new highway is built) never fully adapt. Noise, especially noise that is variable or intermittent, interferes with concentration and increases stress.

Even after years of commuting, those whose commutes are traffic-filled still arrive at work with higher levels of stress hormones.

• Lack of control.

People who undergo plastic surgery report (on average) high levels of satisfaction with the process, and they even report increases in the quality of their lives and decreases in psychiatric symptoms (such as depression and anxiety)

• Relationships.

conflicts in relationships—having an annoying office mate or room-mate, or having chronic conflict with your spouse—is one of the surest ways to reduce your happiness.

in the happiness formula, C is real and some externals matter.

FINDING FLOW

Two different kinds of enjoyment. One is physical or bodily pleasure. At meal times, people report the highest levels of happiness, on average.

The other is Flow : the state of total immersion in a task that is challenging yet closely matched to one’s abilities.

The keys to flow: There’s a clear challenge that fully engages your attention; you have the skills to meet the challenge; and you get immediate feedback about how you are doing at each step (the progress principle).

In the flow experience, elephant and rider are in perfect harmony.

distinction between pleasures and gratifications: Pleasures are “delights that have clear sensory and strong emotional components."

Gratifications are activities that engage you fully, draw on your strengths, and allow you to lose self-consciousness.

Seligman proposes that V (voluntary activities) is largely a matter of arranging your day and your environment to increase both pleasures and gratifications

You can find out your strengths by taking an online test at www.authentichappiness.org .

people experienced longer-lasting improvements in mood from the kindness and gratitude activities than from those in which they indulged themselves.

Choose your own gratifying activities, do them regularly (but not to the point of tedium), and raise your overall level of happiness.

MISGUIDED PURSUITS

Evolution seems to have made us “strategically irrational” at times for our own good;

People would be happier if they reduced their commuting time, took longer vacations

Conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption follow different psychological rules. Conspicuous consumption is a zero-sum game

Activities connect us to others; objects often separate us.

“consume” more family time, vacations, and other enjoyable activities.

The elephant cares about prestige, not happiness,

" Paradox of Choice ”: We value choice and put ourselves in situations of choice, even though choice often undercuts our happiness.

paradox mostly applies to people they call “maximizers"

"satisficers”—are more laid back about choice. They evaluate an array of options until they find one that is good enough, and then they stop looking. Satisficers are not hurt by a surfeit of options.

THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS RECONSIDERED

Most people (with the exception of homeless people) are more satisfied than dissatisfied with their lives.

Another reason for Buddha’s emphasis on detachment may have been the turbulent times he lived in

Yes, attachments bring pain, but they also bring our greatest joys

would like to suggest that the happiness hypothesis be extended—for now—into a yin-yang formulation: Happiness comes from within, and happiness comes from without.

Buddha is history’s most perceptive guide to the first half; he is a constant but gentle reminder of the yin of internal work.

But I believe that the Western ideal of action, striving, and passionate attachment is not as misguided as Buddhism suggests.

Love and Attachments

“contact comfort” is a basic need that young mammals have for physical contact with their mother.

the attachment of mother and child is so enormously important for the survival of the child that a dedicated system is built into mother and child in all species that rely on maternal care.

Bowlby’s grand synthesis is called Attachment Theory .

two basic goals guide children’s behavior: safety and exploration. A child who stays safe survives; a child who explores and plays develops the skills and intelligence needed for adult life.

These two needs are often opposed, however, so they are regulated by a kind of thermostat that monitors the level of ambient safety. When the safety level is adequate, the child plays and explores. But as soon as it drops too low, it’s as though a switch were thrown and suddenly safety needs become paramount.

If you want your children to grow up to be healthy and independent, you should hold them, hug them, cuddle them, and love them.

Give them a secure base and they will explore and then conquer the world on their own.

Harlow, Bowlby, and Ainsworth can help us understand grown-up love.

Some people change style as they grow up, but the great majority of adults choose the descriptor that matched the way they were as a child.

How did human females come to hide all signs of ovulation and get men to fall in love with them and their children?

the most plausible theory in my opinion begins with the enormous expansion of the human brain

There were physical limits to how large a head hominid females could give birth to and still have a pelvis that would allow them to walk upright.

our ancestor—evolved a novel technique that got around this limitation by sending babies out of the uterus long before their brains were developed enough to control their bodies. Humans are the only creatures on Earth whose young are utterly helpless for years, and heavily dependent on adult care for more than a decade.

active fathers, male-female pair-bonds, male sexual jealousy, and big-headed babies all co-evolved—that is, arose gradually but together.

But from what raw material could a tie evolve between men and women where one did not exist before?

It didn’t take much change to modify the attachment system, which every man and every woman had used as a child to attach to mom, and have it link up with the mating system

TWO LOVES, TWO ERRORS

Take one ancient attachment system, mix with an equal measure of caregiving system, throw in a modified mating system and voila, that’s romantic love. I seem to have lost something here; romantic love is so much more than the sum of its parts.

myth of “true” love—the idea that real love burns brightly and passionately, and then it just keeps on burning until death

But if true love is defined as eternal passion, it is biologically impossible.

two kinds of love: passionate and companionate.

Passionate love is the love you fall into.

companionate love, in contrast, as “the affection we feel for those with whom our lives are deeply intertwined.”

if passionate love is a drug—literally a drug—it has to wear off eventually.

Passionate love and companionate love are two separate processes, and they have different time courses.

People are not allowed to sign contracts when they are drunk, and I sometimes wish we could prevent people from proposing marriage when they are high on passionate love

The other danger point is the day the drug weakens its grip.

True love, the love that undergirds strong marriages, is simply strong companionate love, with some added passion, between two people who are firmly committed to each other.

WHY DO PHILOSOPHERS HATE LOVE?

In the ancient East, the problem with love is obvious: Love is attachment.

people need close and long-lasting attachments to particular others.

several reasons why real human love might make philosophers uncomfortable. First, passionate love is notorious for making people illogical and irrational,

two less benevolent motivations are at work. First, there may be a kind of hypocritical self-interest in which the older generation says, “Do as we say, not as we did.”

second motivation is the fear of death.

when people are asked to reflect on their own mortality, they find the physical aspects of sexuality more disgusting,

FREEDOM CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

people who had fewer social constraints, bonds, and obligations were more likely to kill themselves.

people need obligations and constraints to provide structure and meaning to their lives

Having strong social relationships strengthens the immune system, extends life (more than does quitting smoking), speeds recovery from surgery, and reduces the risks of depression and anxiety disorders.

As a character in Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit said, “Hell is other people.” But so is heaven.

The Uses of Adversity

“ Adversity hypothesis ,” which says that people need adversity, setbacks, and perhaps even trauma to reach the highest levels of strength, fulfillment, and personal development.

When is adversity beneficial, when is it harmful?

POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH

Psychopaths are not violent (although most serial murderers and serial rapists are psychopaths). They are people, mostly men, who have no moral emotions, no attachment systems, and no concerns for others.

One of the most common lessons people draw from bereavement or trauma is that they are much stronger than they realized, and this new appreciation of their strength then gives them confidence to face future challenges.

The adversity hypothesis has a weak and a strong version . In the weak version, adversity can lead to growth, strength, joy, and self-improvement

The weak version is well-supported by research, but it has few clear implications for how we should live our lives.

The strong version of the hypothesis is more unsettling: It states that people must endure adversity to grow , and that the highest levels of growth and development are only open to those who have faced and overcome great adversity.

Psychologists often approach personality by measuring basic traits such as the “ big five ”: neuroticism, extroversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness (warmth/niceness), and conscientiousness

psychologist Dan McAdams has suggested that personality really has three levels, and too much attention has been paid to the lowest level, the basic traits.

second level of personality, “characteristic adaptations,” includes personal goals, defense and coping mechanisms, values, beliefs, and life-stage concerns (such as those of parenthood or retirement) that people develop to succeed in their particular roles and niches.

The third level of personality is that of the “life story.” The life story is written primarily by the rider.

You create your story in consciousness as you interpret your own behavior , and as you listen to other people’s thoughts about you. It is more like a work of historical fiction that makes plenty of references to real events and connects them by dramatizations and interpretations that might or might not be true to the spirit of what happened.

Most of the life goals that people pursue at the level of “characteristic adaptations” can be sorted—as the psychologist Robert Emmons has found—into four categories:

• work and achievement
• relationships and intimacy
• religion and spirituality
• generativity (leaving a legacy and contributing something to society).

People who strive primarily for achievement and wealth are, Emmons finds, less happy, on average, than those whose strivings focus on the other three categories

At the third level of personality, the need for adversity is even more obvious: You need interesting material to write a good story.

people who are mentally healthy and happy have a higher degree of “ vertical coherence ” among their goals. Higher-level (long term) goals and lower-level (immediate) goals all fit together well so that pursuing one’s short-term goals advances the pursuit of long-term goals.

BLESSED ARE THE SENSE MAKERS

When bad things happen to good people, we have a problem.

Psychologists have devoted a great deal of effort to figuring out who benefits from trauma and who is crushed. Optimists are more likely to benefit than pessimists.

When a crisis strikes, people cope in three primary ways:

• active coping (taking direct action to fix the problem),
• reappraisal (doing the work within—getting one’s own thoughts right and looking for silver linings)
• avoidance coping

If you are a pessimist, you are probably feeling gloomy right now. But despair not! If you can find a way to make sense of adversity and draw constructive lessons from it, you can benefit, too. And you can learn to become a sense maker by reading Jamie Pennebaker’s Opening Up .

Pennebaker asked people to write about “the most upsetting or traumatic experience of your entire life,” preferably one they had not talked about with others in great detail. He gave them plenty of blank paper and asked them to keep writing for fifteen minutes, on four consecutive days.

The people who wrote about traumas went to the doctor or the hospital fewer times in the following year.

it’s not about steam; it’s about sense making.

You have to use words, and the words have to help you create a meaningful story.

• The second step is to cherish and build your social support network .

And finally, no matter how well or poorly prepared you are when trouble strikes, at some point in the months afterwards, pull out a piece of paper and start writing.

Pennebaker suggests34 that you write continuously for fifteen minutes a day, for several days. Don’t edit or censor yourself; Before you conclude your last session, be sure you have done your best to answer these two questions: Why did this happen? What good might I derive from it?

When people older than thirty are asked to remember the most important or vivid events of their lives, they are disproportionately likely to recall events that occurred between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.

adversity may be most beneficial for people in their late teens and into their twenties.

Knowledge comes in two major forms: explicit and tacit.

Tacit knowledge is procedural (it’s “knowing how” rather than “knowing that”),

The strong version of the adversity hypothesis might be true, but only if we add caveats: For adversity to be maximally beneficial, it should happen at the right time (young adulthood), to the right people (those with the social and psychological resources to rise to challenges and find benefits), and to the right degree (not so severe as to cause PTSD).

The Felicity of Virtue

The Greek word aretē meant excellence, virtue, or goodness, especially of a functional sort.

Thus in saying that well being or happiness (eudaimonia) is “an activity of soul in conformity with excellence or virtue,” Aristotle was saying that a good life is one where you develop your strengths, realize your potential, and become what it is in your nature to become.

Franklin himself admitted that he failed utterly to develop the virtue of humility, yet he reaped great social gains by learning to fake it.

THE VIRTUES OF THE ANCIENTS

When we Westerners think about morality, we use concepts that are thousands of years old, but that took a turn in their development in the last two hundred years.

Most approaches then specified actions that were good and bad with respect to those virtues.

these ancient texts rely heavily on maxims and role models rather than proofs and logic. When moral instruction triggers emotions, it speaks to the elephant as well as the rider.

many ancient texts emphasize practice and habit rather than factual knowledge.

the ancients reveal a sophisticated understanding of moral psychology. They all knew that virtue resides in a well-trained elephant. They all knew that training takes daily practice and a great deal of repetition.

Why the shift away from Tacit Knowledge?

• First, the Greek mind that gave us moral inquiry also gave us the beginnings of scientific inquiry. Science values parsimony, but virtue theories, with their long lists of virtues, were never parsimonious.
• Second, the widespread philosophical worship of reason made many philosophers uncomfortable with locating virtue in habits and feelings.

Kant turned the problem around and said that people should think about whether the rules guiding their own actions could reasonably be proposed as universal laws. This simple test, which Kant called the “ categorical imperative ,” It offered to make ethics a branch of applied logic

Bentham was the father of utilitarianism

The argument between Kant and Bentham has continued ever since. Descendants of Kant (known as “deontologists” from the Greek deon, obligation) try to elaborate the duties and obligations that ethical people must respect, even when their actions lead to bad outcomes

Descendants of Bentham (known as “consequentialists” because they evaluate actions only by their consequences) try to work out the rules and policies that will bring about the greatest good, even when doing so will sometimes violate other ethical principles

They both believe in parsimony. They both distrust intuitions and gut feelings, which they see as obstacles to good reasoning. And they both shun the particular in favor of the abstract

This turn from character ethics to quandary ethics has turned moral education away from virtues and toward moral reasoning.

believe that this turn from character to quandary was a profound mistake , for two reasons.

• First, it weakens morality and limits its scope. Where the ancients saw virtue and character at work in everything a person does, our modern conception confines morality to a set of situations that arise for each person only a few times in any given week
• The second problem with the turn to moral reasoning is that it relies on bad psychology.

Many moral education efforts since the 1970s take the rider off of the elephant and train him to solve problems on his own.

Trying to make children behave ethically by teaching them to reason well is like trying to make a dog happy by wagging its tail.

THE VIRTUES OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Peterson and Seligman suggest that there are twenty-four principle character strengths, each leading to one of the six higher-level virtues.

strengths test (at www.authentichappiness.org).

• Wisdom : • Curiosity • Love of learning • Judgment • Ingenuity • Emotional intelligence • Perspective
• Courage : • Valor • Perseverance • Integrity
• Humanity : • Kindness • Loving
• Justice : • Citizenship • Fairness • Leadership
• Temperance : • Self-control • Prudence • Humility
• Transcendence : • Appreciation of beauty and excellence • Gratitude • Hope • Spirituality • Forgiveness • Humor • Zest

Here’s my favorite idea: Work on your strengths, not your weaknesses

[In Haidt's class] the final project is to make yourself a better person, using all the tools of psychology, and then prove that you have done so. the most successful ones usually either use cognitive behavioral therapy on themselves (it really does work!) or employ a strength, or both.

HARD QUESTION, EASY ANSWERS

it true that acting against my self-interest, for the good of others, even when I don’t want to, is still good for me? Sages and moralists have always answered with an unqualified yes, but the challenge for science is to qualify: When is it true, and why?

[Children] go through a phase in which many rules take on a kind of sacredness and unchangeability. During this phase, children believe in “immanent justice”—justice that is inherent in an act itself.

In this stage, they think that if they break rules, even accidentally, something bad will happen to them, even if nobody knows about their transgressions.

HARD QUESTION, HARD ANSWERS

Does helping others really confer happiness or prosperity on the helper?

the evidence suggests that they often gain happiness.

When a person increased volunteer work, all measures of happiness and well-being increased (on average) afterwards, for as long as the volunteer work was a part of the person’s life.

The elderly benefit even more than do other adults,

two of the big benefits of volunteer work are that it brings people together, and it helps them to construct a McAdams-style life story.

THE FUTURE OF VIRTUE

Should we in the West try to return to a more virtue-based morality? I believe that we have indeed lost something important—a richly textured common ethos with widely shared virtues and values.

Anomie is the condition of a society in which there are no clear rules, norms, or standards of value . In an anomic society, people can do as they please; but without any clear standards or respected social institutions to enforce those standards, it is harder for people to find things they want to do. Anomie breeds feelings of rootlessness and anxiety and leads to an increase in amoral and antisocial behavior.

the history of America ever since has been one of increasing diversity. In response, educators have struggled to identify the ever-shrinking set of moral ideas everyone could agree upon.

This shrinking reached its logical conclusion in the 1960s with the popular “values clarification” movement, which taught no morality at all.

(For a sensitive analysis from a more liberal perspective of the need for “cultural resources” for identity creation, see Anthony Appiah’s The Ethics of Identity .)

We have paid a price for our inclusiveness, but we have bought ourselves a more humane society,

I wondered whether celebrating diversity might also encourage division,

two main kinds of diversity—demographic and moral. Demographic diversity is about socio-demographic

nobody can coherently even want moral diversity.

Liberals are right to work for a society that is open to people of every demographic group, but conservatives might be right in believing that at the same time we should work much harder to create a common, shared identity .

Divinity With or Without God

In all human cultures, the social world has two clear dimensions: a horizontal dimension of closeness or liking, and a vertical one of hierarchy or status.

My claim is that the human mind perceives a third dimension, a specifically moral dimension that I will call “divinity.”

the human mind simply does perceive divinity and sacredness, whether or not God exists.

The logic of disgust.

Disgust was originally shaped by natural selection as a guardian of the mouth:

But disgust doesn’t guard just the mouth; its elicitors expanded during biological and cultural evolution so that now it guards the body more generally.

THE ETHIC OF DIVINITY

when people think about morality, their moral concepts cluster into three groups, which he calls the ethic of autonomy , the ethic of community , and the ethic of divinity .

educated Americans of high social class relied overwhelmingly on the ethic of autonomy in their moral discourse, whereas Brazilians, and people of lower social class in both countries, made much greater use of the ethics of community and divinity.

Purity is not just about the body, it is about the soul. If you know that you have divinity in you, you will act accordingly:

the ethic of divinity had been central to public discourse in the United States until the time of the World War I, after which it began to fade (except in a few places, such as the American South—

Eliade says that the modern West is the first culture in human history that has managed to strip time and space of all sacredness and to produce a fully practical, efficient, and profane world.

had never even wondered whether “uplift” is a real, honest-to-goodness emotion.

Jefferson went on to say that the physical feelings and motivational effects caused by great literature are as powerful as those caused by real events. He even said that it was the opposite of disgust. He chose the word “elevation,”

moral elevation appears to be different from admiration for nonmoral excellence.

Witnessing extraordinarily skillful actions gives people the drive and energy to try to copy those actions. Elevation, in contrast, is a calmer feeling, not associated with signs of physiological arousal.

Although people say, in all our studies, that they want to do good deeds, in two studies where we gave them the opportunity to sign up for volunteer work or to help an experimenter pick up a stack of papers she had dropped, we did not find that elevation made people behave much differently .

oxytocin might be released during moments of elevation. Oxytocin causes bonding, not action. Elevation may fill people with feelings of love, trust, and openness, making them more receptive to new relationships. yet, given their feelings of relaxation and passivity, they might be less likely to engage in active altruism toward strangers.

For many people, one of the pleasures of going to church is the experience of collective elevation.

This love has no specific object; it is agape. It feels like a love of all humankind

AWE AND TRANSCENDENCE

Something about the vastness and beauty of nature makes the self feel small and insignificant, and anything that shrinks the self creates an opportunity for spiritual experience.

Drugs in this class [have the] ability to induce massive alterations of perception and emotion that sometimes feel, even to secular users, like contact with divinity, and that cause people to feel afterwards that they’ve been transformed.

When people bring a reverential mindset and take the drugs in a safe and supportive setting, as is done in the initiation rites of some traditional cultures, these drugs can be catalysts for spiritual and personal growth.

William James analyzed the “varieties of religious experience,” including rapid and gradual religious conversions and experiences with drugs and nature. James found such extraordinary similarity in the reports of these experiences that he thought they revealed deep psychological truths.

we experience life as a divided self, torn by conflicting desires.

Religious experiences are real and common, whether or not God exists , and these experiences often make people feel whole and at peace.

In the rapid type of conversion experience, the old self, full of petty concerns, doubts, and grasping attachments, is washed away in an instant, usually an instant of profound awe.

Maslow suggested that all religions are based on the insights of somebody’s peak experience. Peak experiences make people nobler, just as James had said, and religions were created as methods of promoting peak experiences and then maximizing their ennobling powers.

Religions sometimes lose touch with their origins , however; they are sometimes taken over by people who have not had peak experiences—the bureaucrats and company men who want to routinize procedures and guard orthodoxy for orthodoxy’s sake.

But what is most surprising in Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences is Maslow’s attack on science for becoming as sterile as organized religion.

scientists and philosophers had traditionally held an attitude of wonder toward the natural world and the objects of their inquiry. But in the late sixteenth century, European scientists began to look down on wonder.

THE SATANIC SELF

the development of the self may have been crucial to the development of human ultrasociality. the self also gave each one of us a personal tormenter.

It is important to note that the self is not exactly the rider—much of the self is unconscious and automatic—but because the self emerges from conscious verbal thinking and storytelling, it can be constructed only by the rider.

The self is the main obstacle to spiritual advancement,

But I am trying to understand the mutual incomprehension of the two sides in the culture war, and I believe that Shweder’s three ethics—particularly the ethic of divinity—are the key to it.

Many of the key battles in the American culture war are essentially about whether some aspect of life should be structured by the ethic of autonomy or by the ethic of divinity.

liberals were much more permissive and relied overwhelmingly on the ethic of autonomy; conservatives, much more critical, used all three ethics in their discourse.

I do not entirely lament the “flattening” of life in the West over the last few hundred years. An unfortunate tendency of three-dimensional societies is that they often include one or more groups that get pushed down on the third dimension and then treated badly, or worse.

Because the culture war is ideological, both sides use the myth of pure evil.

Happiness Comes from Between

There appear to be two specific sub-questions to which people want answers, and for which they find answers enlightening. The first can be called the question of the purpose of life: “ What is the purpose for which human beings were placed on Earth? Why are we here? ”

Either you believe in a god/spirit/intelligence who had some idea, desire, or intention in creating the world or you believe in a purely material world in which it and you were not created for any reason;

The second sub-question is the question of purpose within life: “ How ought I to live? What should I do to have a good, happy, fulfilling, and meaningful life? ”

When people ask the Holy Question, one of the things they are hoping for is a set of principles or goals that can guide their actions and give their choices meaning or value. Aristotle asked about aretē (excellence/virtue) and telos (purpose/goal), and he used the metaphor that people are like archers, who need a clear target at which to aim. Without a target or goal, one is left with the animal default.

In my adolescent existentialism, I conflated the two sub-questions. Because I embraced the scientific answer to the question of the purpose of life, I thought it precluded finding purpose within life.

religions teach that the two questions are inseparable.

For the rest of this chapter I will ignore the purpose of life and search for the factors that give rise to a sense of purpose within life.

LOVE AND WORK

The computer metaphor has so pervaded our thought that we sometimes think about people as computers, and about psychotherapy as the repair shop or a kind of reprogramming. But people are not computers, and they usually recover on their own from almost anything that happens to them .

think a better metaphor is that people are like plants.

If people are like plants, what are the conditions we need to flourish?

Love and work are, for people, obvious analogues to water and sunshine for plants. people and many other mammals have a basic drive to make things happen.

Karl Marx’s criticism of capitalism was based in part on his justified claim that the Industrial Revolution had destroyed the historical relationship between craftsmen and the goods they produced.

most people can get more satisfaction from their work.

Take the strengths test and then choose work that allows you to use your strengths every day, thereby giving yourself at least scattered moments of flow.

If you are stuck in a job that doesn’t match your strengths, recast and reframe your job so that it does.

Work at its best, then, is about connection, engagement, and commitment. As the poet Kahlil Gibran said, “Work is love made visible.”

Happiness comes not just from within, as Buddha and Epictetus supposed, or even from a combination of internal and external factors. Happiness comes from between.

Vital engagement does not reside in the person or in the environment; it exists in the relationship between the two.

CROSS-LEVEL COHERENCE

If your lower-level traits match up with your coping mechanisms, which in turn are consistent with your life story, your personality is well integrated and you can get on with the business of living.

People are multilevel systems in another way: We are physical objects (bodies and brains) from which minds somehow emerge; and from our minds, somehow societies and cultures form.

To understand ourselves fully we must study all three levels—physical, psychological, and sociocultural

[People gain a sense of meaning when their lives cohere across the three levels of their existence](/cohesion) .

You can’t just invent a good ritual through reasoning about symbolism. You need a tradition within which the symbols are embedded, and you need to invoke bodily feelings that have some appropriate associations. Then you need a community to endorse and practice it over time.

Meaning and purpose simply emerge from the coherence, and people can get on with the business of living. But conflict, paralysis, and anomie are likely when a community fails to provide coherence , or, worse, when its practices contradict people’s gut feelings or their shared mythology and ideology.

GOD GIVES US HIVES

Do humans compete, live, and die as a group?

As long as each human being has the opportunity to reproduce, the evolutionary payoffs for investing in one’s own welfare and one’s own offspring will almost always exceed the payoffs for contributing to the group; in the long run, selfish traits will therefore spread at the expense of altruistic traits.

human beings evolve at two levels simultaneously: genetic and cultural.

Cultural elements, however, don’t spread by the slow process of having children; they spread rapidly whenever people adopt a new behavior, technology, or belief.

groups that parlayed those beliefs into social coordination devices (for example, by linking them to emotions such as shame, fear, guilt, and love) found a cultural solution to the free-rider problem and then reaped the enormous benefits of trust and cooperation.

HARMONY AND PURPOSE

From Wilson’s perspective, mystical experience is an “off” button for the self. When the self is turned off, people become just a cell in the larger body, a bee in the larger hive.

Newberg believes that rituals that involve repetitive movement and chanting, particularly when they are performed by many people at the same time, help to set up “resonance patterns” in the brains of the participants that make this mystical state more likely to happen.

THE MEANING OF LIFE

The final version of the happiness hypothesis is that happiness comes from between. You have to get the conditions right and then wait.

Some of those conditions are within you, such as coherence among the parts and levels of your personality. Other conditions require relationships to things beyond you: Just as plants need sun, water, and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger.

It is worth striving to get the right relationships between yourself and others, between yourself and your work, and between yourself and something larger than yourself. If you get these relationships right, a sense of purpose and meaning will emerge.

Conclusion: On Balance

Psychology and religion can benefit by taking each other seriously, or at least by agreeing to learn from each other while overlooking the areas of irreconcilable difference.

But the most important lesson I have learned in my twenty years of research on morality is that nearly all people are morally motivated. Selfishness is a powerful force, particularly in the decisions of individuals, but whenever groups of people come together to make a sustained effort to change the world, you can bet that they are pursuing a vision of virtue, justice, or sacredness .

Each culture develops expertise in some aspects of human existence, but no culture can be expert in all aspects.

liberals are experts in thinking about issues of victimization, equality, autonomy, and the rights of individuals, particularly those of minorities and nonconformists. Conservatives, on the other hand, are experts in thinking about loyalty to the group, respect for authority and tradition, and sacredness.

good place to look for wisdom, therefore, is where you least expect to find it: in the minds of your opponents.

## Further Reading

• The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt - Haidt explores morality and it's effects on politics and religion.
• Book Notes on Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari - More on the history of humankind
• More on Cohesion for the self.
• The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz - More on satisficers and maximizers

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TOBY SINCLAIR

Coach | Teacher | Advisor

• Toby Sinclair
• Feb 23, 2020

Happiness Hypothesis Summary - Jonathan Haidt

Updated: Jun 2, 2021

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⭐ Toby's Rating: 7/10 - Recommended For: Everyone

3 Big Ideas:

The Happiness Hypothesis Summary:

Happiness Formula (H = S + C + V) - Happiness = Set Level + Conditions + Voluntary activities

Set Level -The set-point theory of happiness suggests that our level of subjective well-being is determined primarily by heredity and by personality traits ingrained in us early in life, and as a result remains relatively constant throughout our lives

Conditions – Relationships(connection) is one of the most important conditional factors to happiness. You can never adapt if you lose connections.

Voluntary activities – Focus on activities that bring joy to others. Such as showing gratitude, kindness, favours.

Retrain the Elephant – A strong metaphor throughout. Rider = Rational Brain Elephant = Compulsive, Irrational brain. Lasting happiness does not occur through an epiphany. It occurs through focusing on the relationship between rider and elephant and retraining the elephant. You need to consistently act your way to change through tiny habits.

Coherence is a strong theme throughout. Living coherently leads to happiness. This includes coherence between different levels of your personality, personal values, the environment you live and work within, relationships you have.

The Happiness Hypothesis Quotes:

“Happiness is not something that you can find, acquire, or achieve directly. You have to get the conditions right and then wait. Some of those conditions are within you. Other conditions require relationships to things beyond you: Just as plants need sun, water, and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger “

“Work less, Consume less, Attach less, Connect more”

Tobys Takeaway:

The biggest takeaway from the Happiness Hypothesis:

Focus on building good relationships in my life.

Relationships between myself and others, between myself and work, between myself and a greater purpose.

Buy Happiness Hypothesis on Amazon

Big Ideas Expanded

The Happiness Hypothesis Summary of ideas expanded:

The brain sends bad feedback signals quicker than good. We are wired for negativity bias.

Three beliefs depressed people hold:

I’m no good

My world is no good

My future is hopeless

Three best ways to change thought patterns:

CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)

Throughout the Happiness Hypothesis, this metaphor is used. The rider and the elephant.

The rider and the elephant are often in conflict. The elephant usually wins.

Streetlight Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effect

You can’t change your mind(or anything else) through willpower alone. You need to act your way to changes through tiny habits done consistently such as meditation and thinking habits formed through CBT

Our search for knowledge is flawed. We search for facts that confirm our position and once found we stop thinking and looking for alternatives (Confirmation Bias)

Our perception of others is often correct. Our perception of self is flawed. We have significant blind spots. The ego is strong. We see ourselves through rose-tinted spectacles

Naive Realism – we see the world objectively, everyone else is wrong!

Progress Principle – Joy comes through the journey towards the goal not the achievement of the goal.

Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work

Adaptation Principle – In the long run, it doesn’t matter what happens to you, good or bad, you will ultimately return to your happiness equilibrium which is largely influenced by your genes. Also referred to as Hedonic Treadmill

Relationships(connection) is one of the most important factors to happiness. You can never adapt if you loose connections.

Experiences, such as going to a concert, give more happiness due to their social value. They bring connection

Voluntary Activity essential is to your daily habits. Build reciprocal habits can have the biggest effect. Such as showing gratitude, kindness, favours for others

Happiness = work less, consume less, attach less, connect more

3 levels of personality (McAdams):

Basic internal traits (having)

Personal values, goals, projects (doing)

Life Story (making)

Coherence between the 3 levels is essential for happiness

3 typical responses to tragedy :

Active response(taking action)

Reframing (such as into a positive)

4 types of Life Goals :

Work/Achievement – People least happy if they drive towards this goal

Relationship

3 ways to manage your environment :

Adapt – respond to changing environment

Shape – changing the environment to suit needs

Select – choosing the environment to work within

People are not computers. The technology metaphor is now so pervasive we see people as machines. And therapy as the repair shop. Our metaphors are wrong. People are more like plants

Most plants will come back to life without repairing plant. Focus on

the conditions. Fix the environment the plant(person) will naturally spring back to life.

vital conditions for humans to flourish:

Social connection (love)

Compelling purpose or goal greater than ourselves

Vital Engagement = Flow + Meaning

Coherence is important for individuals happiness. Coherence at the three levels of your personality. If you do not have coherence, it is likely you will be tormented . Without good skills to diagnose your personal system, you may struggle to find the problem You need coherence with your personal “optimisation” goal.

When you do find coherence, it may be one of the most profound moments in your life.

Items which need coherence: – Habits – Goals – Values – Work – Love

These items are always in healthy tension but importantly there needs to be coherence.

Coherence needed at all levels:

Psychological

We have an internal desire to share learning and ideas. The desire to reciprocate shares this even further and creates a virtuous cycle. Helping others succeed is hard-wired into humans.

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The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

Jonathan haidt.

297 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think? Rate this book Write a Review

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Community reviews.

In the review below, you will see the metaphor of the elephant and the rider, where the rider is the rational mind trying to rein in the emotional elephant. For Haidt, Pinker, and a broader class of the TED talk cognoscenti, they are to the masses as the rider is to the elephant. For example, in his later work Haidt serves as judge and jury of what injustices are worthy of protest. He then insists that protestors presume that institutions and people are operating in good faith (and therefore not to be criticized), while presuming, I kid you not, that these protestors are criticizing his friends at academic institutions because they have mental health issues due to poor parenting. Through it all, he appears wholly unaware that every opinion on popular culture he holds aligns entirely with the narrow economic and social interests and connections he holds, and the magnitude of every problem he considers is directly related to the extent to which it affects him and his colleagues. In a way, his example is a helpful post-script to this book. If writing such a book on how your brain operates is not enough to free you from the biases and self-serving instincts within, reading it certainly isn't enough either. You may agree or disagree with his views on "cancel culture", but it's hard to maintain that Haidt is the humble bringer of ancient wisdom to find modern truth. ORIGINAL REVIEW: When pitching Jonathan Haidt's "Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom" to friends, I often find myself explaining away the title -- no, it's not another self-help book and yes, it's about more than just plastering a silly smile on your face. With that said, the title is appropriate; Haidt is chiefly concerned with what's responsible for making humans happy. The title fails, however, to convey the breadth and depth of Haidt's search, which touches on philosophy, psychology, economics, evolution, and cognitive science, and skips effortlessly across the centuries, from the Stoics' philosophical minimalism to Ben Franklin's pragmatism to Robert Cialdini's work on Influence. Haidt documents the evolution of the human mind, producing an overarching narrative that explains everything from the use of gossip and prozac to mental tendencies that steer men away from their stated values and towards self-destruction. Along with Kluge, this book has profoundly shaped the way I view my brain. Before Haidt, I was aware that our brains appeared to systematically work against our best interest, and that these tendencies manifested in more general cognitive biases. Haidt, however, takes you behind the curtain, and provides a look at what exactly is going on in your brain and the evolutionary logic behind it. This book provided a more systematic take on cognition than the discrete observational work I had previously encountered. My interest in correcting my cognitive failings largely emanates from my concern with my ability to grasp the truth. Haidt rightly adds that it's profoundly important to happiness in general. Cognitive therapy has allowed many to escape depression by directly attacking distortions in thought. These depressive distortions are direct relatives to those that scare up trouble in all of our lives, and Haidt provides an excellent primer on how to exorcise your cognitive demons through a few different means, thereby improving the way you think and possibly making you happier.

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The Happiness Hypothesis Summary and Key Lessons

“The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” is a book by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist. In this work, Haidt explores the connection between ancient wisdom and modern psychology to understand the nature of happiness and how it can be achieved in our contemporary lives.

Quick Summary : Haidt delves into various cultural and religious teachings from the past, comparing them with scientific research on well-being and contentment. He identifies common principles, suggesting that happiness is a blend of inner harmony, social connections, and purposeful living, challenging us to reevaluate their perceptions of happiness.

The Happiness Hypothesis Summary

Introduction to the ancient wisdom.

Haidt begins by delving into the teachings of ancient philosophers and religious texts, highlighting the universal quest for happiness and meaning. 

He introduces the central metaphor of the book – the idea of a rider (conscious reasoning) on an elephant (automatic processes or intuition). 

This metaphor suggests that while we might believe our rational side is in control, it is the elephantine intuition that truly drives our actions . 

This concept is essential in understanding the various hypotheses about happiness presented in the book.

The Divided Self

Haidt explores the idea that the human mind is divided into parts that sometimes conflict. 

Drawing from ancient philosophies, he discusses concepts like the battles between passions and reason, body and soul, and ego and id. Through this, he suggests that internal conflicts are a significant source of human misery . 

However, by understanding and mastering these divisions, one can move towards a harmonious existence and, consequently, happiness.

The Role of Adversity and Challenges

Contrary to the modern notion that happiness is the absence of adversity , Haidt emphasizes the importance of challenges and adversities in personal growth and happiness. 

He refers to the concept of “ post-traumatic growth ” and demonstrates how some individuals find meaning and increased satisfaction after undergoing significant challenges. 

This perspective offers a refreshing view on happiness , suggesting it isn’t just about pleasant experiences but also about growth and resilience.

Relationships and Happiness

Haidt delves deep into the importance of human connections, love, and work in the pursuit of happiness. He discusses the role of love and attachments, emphasizing the significance of meaningful relationships . 

By synthesizing various studies and ancient teachings , Haidt argues that while love can bring joy, it can also bring pain, emphasizing the importance of balance. 

Furthermore, the role of work, especially work that aligns with one’s values and passions , is highlighted as a critical component of a fulfilling life.

The Pursuit of Happiness in Modern Times

In the concluding sections, Haidt contrasts ancient wisdom with modern understandings of happiness. 

He addresses the challenges of the modern world, such as materialism and the constant pursuit of more , which often lead to a sense of emptiness. 

By revisiting the central metaphor of the rider and the elephant , Haidt offers strategies for aligning one’s conscious reasoning with intuition, leading to a more integrated, authentic, and ultimately happier life.

Also Read: In Defense of Food Summary and Key Lessons

Key Lessons

1. understanding the dichotomy of mind.

Our minds are not singular entities but are composed of conflicting parts. The metaphor of the rider (conscious reasoning) and the elephant (intuition) is particularly powerful in illustrating this. 

While we might believe we’re making rational decisions, our intuition often holds more sway than we realize. To achieve happiness and contentment, it’s crucial to recognize and harmonize these two components.

By being more self-aware, you can begin to notice when your ‘elephant’ is taking the lead, especially during emotional decisions. 

Over time, through reflection and practice, you can guide your ‘rider’ to work in harmony with your ‘elephant’ , leading to more aligned and satisfying choices.

2. The Value of Adversity

Modern society often promotes the idea that happiness is the absence of problems or adversity. 

However, Haidt challenges this notion by highlighting the role of challenges in personal growth. 

Adversities, while painful in the moment, can lead to “ post-traumatic growth ,” wherein individuals emerge stronger, wiser, and often more fulfilled than before.

So, instead of viewing challenges or failures negatively, you can reframe them as opportunities for growth. 

By adopting a growth mindset, you’ll be better equipped to navigate hardships, extract lessons from them, and emerge more resilient and content.

Also Read: The Secret Summary and Key Lessons

3. The Importance of Meaningful Connections

While individual achievements and personal success are essential, the significance of human connections cannot be understated. Meaningful relationships, whether they are familial, platonic, or romantic , play a pivotal role in our overall happiness and well-being. 

However, it’s essential to strike a balance, as love can bring both joy and pain.

Prioritize building and maintaining strong, meaningful relationships in your life. Spend quality time with loved ones, communicate openly, and foster deep connections. 

At the same time, recognize the importance of boundaries and ensure that relationships are healthy and mutually beneficial .

Final Thoughts

“The Happiness Hypothesis” offers a comprehensive exploration of the nature of happiness, drawing from ancient wisdom and modern science . Haidt provides a nuanced understanding of happiness, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, relationships, and purpose. The book challenges the reader to reflect on their own beliefs about happiness and provides actionable insights for those seeking a deeper sense of fulfillment in life.

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A team of Editors at Books That Slay.

Passionate | Curious | Permanent Bibliophiles

• Sep 17, 2023

The Happiness Hypothesis Jonathan Haidt Summary

Are you tired of hearing that happiness only comes from within? That no matter what is going on out there, you can be happy? From Buddha to the ancient Greeks, they all advocated the idea that your happiness only depends on the way you think. But that is only half true. In the book, the happiness hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt examines the fundamental question of how happiness can be achieved. He says that happiness comes from having the right relationship between one’s personality and surroundings. In this summary, I’ll share with you three key lessons that can change your beliefs about happiness.

Key Lesson #1 : Happiness comes from between

Have you ever heard the saying, "Happiness comes from within," from Buddha or other gurus? It sounds good, but it's bullshit if you take it literally. They want you to believe that your happiness only depends on your thoughts and not on what is going on out there. But how can this be even remotely true? We humans are social creatures. Are you telling me that being around people who love and support you or being in a deep and meaningful relationship won't have a huge effect on your happiness? Of course, it will. We humans are wired to share experiences with others, and if we have someone in our lives to share those experiences, our happiness exponentially increases. However, what those gurus say about happiness not being something you can achieve directly, I think that is true. For happiness, you have to get the conditions right and then wait. Of course, some of these conditions are within you, such as avoiding negative thinking and overanalyzing. But many other conditions are outside of you, such as the environment you're in, including social and work settings. Just like plants need sunlight, water, and good soil to grow, humans need love, work, and a connection to something larger to thrive. It's essential to work on your relationships with others, your work, and your connection to something bigger than yourself. If you can get these relationships right, you'll find a sense of purpose and meaning in your life, which can lead to happiness. So, for happiness, work on not just yourself but also your relationship with others.

Key Lesson #2 : What doesn’t kill you can make you happier

Have you ever heard the saying "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger"? Well, it turns out that this can also make you happier. Sometimes when people go through really tough experiences, they may become sad and unhappy. But research shows that in many cases, people who face adversity can actually benefit from it. For example, I have a couple of friends who lost their jobs or loved ones. Although they felt really bad at first, now they are more confident than ever because they know they survived something they thought they couldn't. During tough times, people often come together and form closer relationships, which as we talked about in the last lesson, can contribute a lot to our happiness. Another benefit of going through tough times is that it usually makes us more realistic about life. When we face difficulties, we get a chance to reflect on who we are and make changes. For instance, when I lost my father a few years ago, it was really hard for me and I was sad for a while. But it made me think about how I was living my life. I realized that I didn't have a clear direction and was just hoping for things to make me happy. I decided to take control of my life and made many changes. Now, I am much happier than before, even though I went through a tough time.

Key Lesson #3 : Humans have a basic need for the divine

No matter how happy you might be, I bet there are times when you think something is missing from your life. I am gonna suggest that thing might be a connection to something beyond yourself, or what I like to call divine. It turns out that even if you're not a religious person, you can still benefit from some of the religious experiences. If you look at all the religions, you will see all of them have one thing in common. People in all religions come together to take part in a shared experience, it can be singing, praying, or chanting. One of the things I love to do is to go to churches or temples and take part in these shared experiences. It always amazes me how deeply those experiences touch my heart. They create a feeling of awe in me. These experiences make me to feel connected to something greater than myself. Even though I might not know anybody there or not share their religion, I always feel connected to people around me when I am praying and chanting with them. And a lot of research confirms that experiencing such things that inspire awe, can help us become happier and better people. These experiences connect us to something greater than ourselves and can bring us closer to others, especially in group activities like prayer or chanting. We have a basic human need for the divine, and without it, we may feel like we're lacking something important.

So, in summary, by studying happiness, we can design a more fulfilling life. Just make sure don’t fall into the trap of believing that happiness comes from only your thoughts. It turns out that your surroundings, especially your relationship with others play a huge role in happiness. Also, going through hard times can potentially make you happier. And by taking part in the collective experiences of praying or chanting we can satisfy our natural need for the divine and make ourselves happier.

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Book Review: The Happiness Hypothesis

Why do some people find meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in life while others do not? Jonathan Haidt’s book offers a detailed answer to this question. His “happiness hypothesis” aligns philosophical, religious, and theoretical texts with recent scientific insights. And he casts a wide net, drawing from psychology’s “attachment theory,” sociological research, and recent developments in the neuroscience of emotion. Haidt uses this research to illuminate modern truths in ancient and classic thinking—from Buddhism to Benjamin Franklin , the New Testament to Nietszche , Plato to Freud —showing how the field of positive psychology is tapping into something universal and timeless. 

This may sound like a self-help book, but Haidt makes a point of distinguishing his theory from the standard self-help perspective. The problem with much pop psychology, he argues, is that it places too much importance on conscious thought and the analytical mind. Self-help books often imply that if we’re just self-aware enough in our daily lives, we can use our intellect to override our emotional instincts, willing ourselves to be happy. Instead, Haidt argues that we can best promote happiness and well-being through the emotional and unconscious parts of our brains. This could mean cultivating habits such as daily meditation—or using anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac. Meditation and medication are more powerful than the momentary insights that may come from, say, a particularly inspiring episode of Dr. Phil because they are emotionally rather than intellectually driven. (This is why New Year’s resolutions don’t often stick.)

This book is about the “origins of positive psychology in ancient wisdom,” and it’s also a guide to how we can apply what scientists know about the mind to find ever greater happiness. Along the way Haidt offers an interpretation of the culture wars in the United States, some keys to understanding romantic relationships, and insights into how Western concepts of virtue and morality have narrowed to the point that they may well be costing us happiness and well-being. The Happiness Hypothesis is a rare achievement: a book that is both scientifically sound and well-written. This academic masterpiece reads like a novel and is at the same time a genuine moral achievement.

About the Author

Christine Carter

Christine Carter, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science Center. She is the author of The New Adolescence: Raising Happy and Successful Teens in an Age of Anxiety and Distraction (BenBella, 2020), The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less (Ballantine Books, 2015), and Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents (Random House, 2010). A former director of the GGSC, she served for many years as author of its parenting blog, Raising Happiness . Find out more about Christine here .

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The Happiness Hypothesis: Summary & Review

The Happiness Hypothesis mixes solid psychology research with philosophy and religious wisdom to provide a beautiful overview on what’s the meaning of life, what is happiness and how to better achieve it.

Wisdom Nuggets

About the Author : Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and professor at NYU . He first started out studying philosophy but didn’t find the answers he looked for because, he says, modern philosophy lacks a good understanding of psychology and human nature. After he moved into psychology 

#1. Our Brain Is Not United and Coherent

Jonathan Haidt says that the mind is divided into several different compartments.

We often make decisions unconsciously and in a split of a second . Then only later we pick a rationally-sounding explanation for our unconscious decisions.

Patients with split-brain show that different parts of our brain can also go against each other as they try to and overpower each other (also read Incognito for more information).

#2. Our Brain Has Two Systems: Fast & Slow

The author divides the brain into two main parts:

• The limbic system in charge of basic instincts
• The neocortex for rational thinking

It’s a bit reminiscent of Kahneman’s two systems but the author calls the limbic brain “elephant” and the neocortex “driver”.

#3. Nature Plays a Bigger Role Than Most People Realize

Jonathan Haidt seems to be more on the “nature” spectrum of the “nature VS nurture” continuum. 

I’m more in the middle but like Steven Pinker brilliantly noted in “The Blank Slate” we do need to regain some terrain within our cultural glorification of nurture.

Haidt takes the example of two identical twins who had never met until they were 40. They both had the same nervous tics and they were both afraid of blood and heights.

My Note: Albeit of course I agree that genes play a huge role, the author seems to take it too far with this example, also listing the same year they met their husband and the miscarriage they both had.

When it comes to happiness, between 50% and 80% of happiness levels are genetic.

#4. Attachment Styles Determine Our Relationships

The author says that much of our happiness is determined by our social ties, our friendships and our relationships.

And our relationships in turns are heavily influenced by our attachment styles , which the author believes to be mostly hereditary (take here an attachment style quiz ).

#5. How to Change Yourself

There are three ways to change yourself:

• Cognitive Therapy
• Prozac (ie.: medication)

The author actually tried Prozac, and contrary to a few other authors who recommend being careful with it, he makes the point that it works very well.

The goal of meditation, he says is to control and tame the affective styles of your elephant.

#6. Reciprocity, Fairness & Greed

The author discusses ultimatum games , fairness, and reciprocity.

People seek fairness and reject offers they feel are unfair even when that means they will lose out themselves. Haidt also explains that these experiments proved to psychologists that economic theories of rational players were all wrong (read “ Misbehaving ” to learn more about behavioral economics). 

Reciprocal Manipulation 

The author takes a leaf out of Wright’s “ The Moral Animal ” and says we evolved a huge brain to help us play the social game which includes manipulation , dirty negotiation tactics, and gossip.

Our reciprocal system also allows for manipulation though when people give us something to get something back. The author mentions Cialdini and recommends you see it for what it is: manipulation and drop any feelings of obligation.

Gossiping also allowed for cooperation because it helps spread the word about Machiavellian and selfish players who game the system.

However, Machiallive might still have a point and it might be the case that people favor the appearance of morality over actual morality. Daniel Batson’s experimen t showed that behind closed doors even people who rated themselves as highly moral “found a way” to award themselves the best result even after the coin flip turned out negative for them.

The only intervention that enforced moral standards was reminding people of the importance of morals and then placing a big mirror in front of them.

Manipulation: Techniques, Strategies, & Ethics

We Believe Our Own Manipulation

On average, people really believe in their own mental manipulations. We really believe we’re better, more ethical and “fair”.

Indeed we are fairly accurate in our perceptions of others. It’s the perception of our selves that is inaccurate.

The “Family Manipulation”

Haidt introduces the topic of reciprocity with The Godfather .

He says that mafia calls itself “the family” to strengthen the bond among the affiliates. And “the godfather” itself is an attempt at forging a kinship that doesn’t really exist. This is a technique also used in business by companies and CEOs, read more in “ corporate manipulations “.

Read more on dark psychology here:

Dark Psychology: 7 Ways to Manipulate People

#7. The Adaptation Principle

The adaptation principle says that human adapt to almost anything which happens to them. Both in the positive ( hedonic treadmill ) and in the negative. 

An incredible study took people who won the lottery and people who became paralyzed. And as time went by (one year) they both returned around their baseline level of happiness.

But it’s important to notice that no all activities and circumstances obey the adaptation principle and you might want to focus on them to maximize your happiness (more below). 

#8. The Happiness Formula

This is the actual happiness formula:

Happiness = S + C + V

• Set points (basically your biology)
• Conditions of your life
• Voluntary activities

Some conditions in your life do not obey the adaptation principle and tey will make you perennially sadder or happier.

Avoid the following:

• Chronic noise in your environment
• Long commute (you adapt to the bigger place out of town but not to the commute)
• Situations where you lack control (ie.: stuck in traffic)
• Shame: if you feel ashamed for something, fix it or find a way to get over it

Get more of the following:

• Good relationships
• Social circle (even introverts will be happier, os if you’re one strive to become ambivert )
• Flow (read more here on how to reach flow )
• Become a satisficer (research products less and be more content with 1st option, also read “ The Paradox of Choice “)
• Constraints (social constraints can help provide structure and meaning)
• Work on your strengths, not weaknesses (also read “ Strengthfinder 2.0 “)
• Do engage in volunteer work (even more helpful for socially isolated people)

Some traumas or hardships can also make us happier in the long run. Just make sure you talk about it.

Here are more wisdom of nuggets:

• We’re all natural hypocrites

We are programmed to see the slightest speck in our neighbor’s eyes and not to see the log in our own.

• Plastic surgery can improve happiness

Albeit many scoff at plastic surgery as an uneeded and superficial remedy, the author says that people who go through with it often end up being happier in the long run.

He says it’s because of shame and people who fix some major flaw they were ashamed of feel like a burden has been lifted (read “ Daring Greatly ” for more on shame).

• Religious people are happier

Before you run in the arms of Richard Dawkins after “ The God Delusion ” or into the skeptics Bible “ The Believing Brain “, do keep in mind that religious people tend to be happier.

• People are more like plants than computers

We often compare people to computers and we think of psychotherapy as a repair shop. The author instead prefers a plant metaphor, also because most of the times people will get better by themselves. Just like when you give water to a withering plant.

I loved “The Happiness Hypothesis”, and these are some minor flaws I found:

• Some debunked psychology

Haidt wrote in 2015, so he must have known about the replication crisis in psychology . Yet, he presents several studies which have been debunked or harshly criticized without giving a single mention of the criticism (ie.: The Marshmallow Test , priming).

You can read more in this article on pop-psychology myths .

• Elephant and rider terminology

maybe Haidt wanted to address “normal” laypeople who don’t research or study their stuff, but even if that were the case… I still don’t like the terminology.

It’s condescending to think your readers are so stupid that they don’t deserve more precise  

• Jumps to conclusions on psychopathy

Haidt shares the story of a friend of his whose wife had run away with another man and brought her two children along.

He tells his friend he’s a psychopath and he’ll soon get tired of her.  But of course, any serious psychiatrist knows you can’t make diagnoses from far away.

• Lacks a coherent narrative?

Albeit at all time interesting, it felt that at times it went too off a tangent and it seemed to lack a strong, coherent narrative.  For example, group selection and attachment styles felt too out of place for a  book which is supposedly about happiness and positive psychology.

I would give “The Happiness Hypothesis” 5 stars for much of the content.

It’s just the incoherent nature of the whole book and some pop-psychology myths which took out some sparkle from an otherwise excellent book.

• Best positive psychology books

or  get the book on Amazon

About The Author

Lucio Buffalmano

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The Happiness Hypothesis: Summary Review & Takeaways

This is a summary review of The Happiness Hypothesis containing key details about the book.

What is The Happiness Hypothesis About?

The Happiness Hypothesis poses several ideas on happiness espoused by thinkers of the past—Plato, Buddha, Jesus, and others—and examines them in the light of contemporary psychological research, extracting from them any lessons that still apply to our modern lives.

Central to the book are the concepts of virtue, happiness, fulfillment, and meaning.

Who is the Author of The Happiness Hypothesis?

Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and then did post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago and in Orissa, India.

What are key takeaways from The Happiness Hypothesis?

Takeaway #1 our inner elephant.

Have you ever stopped to ponder what happiness actually is and how it can be achieved? We know that our mind can control how happy we are but without being part medical student part psychologist it can be difficult to understand how happiness works. That's where the fun metaphor of you being a wild elephant ridden by a human comes in!

Takeaway #2 Controlling The Elephant

Our conscious thoughts cannot fully control our body. If we look at our heart as an example, our heart is not controlled by our thoughts but by an autonomously acting second brain, therefore, our heart rate is controlled by how fast our inner elephant is running, not by the thoughts the rider sends to the elephant.

Usually, the rider plans ahead to direct and control the wild elephant's instincts so as to control basic drives such as hunger but when it comes to emotions, we usually let the elephant take charge and unfortunately, the elephant evaluates most things negatively. This is due to early humans relying on their ability to recognize danger to stay alive – fear would cause them to flee from the wild animal whilst joy was a rather redundant feeling. Right to this day, our inner elephant is wired to respond more strongly to negative things than positive things causing us to overreact with worry and fear to the modern world.

Genetics also come into play, determining how pessimistic or optimistic you are meaning that some elephant riders will need to work harder at controlling their elephant, training it to be happier through methods such as CBT and meditation.

Takeaway #3 Lifting The Blinkers on Both Elephant & Rider

We are hard-wired to not see our own faults since the realization that we're fallible isn't pleasant. However, living life with blinkers on can cause huge conflicts with those around us – just think how many times you've become angry or frustrated wondering why your partner or colleague couldn't see their own errors... it's likely that they will have also thought the same thing about you.

Our inability to recognize our shortcomings is so strong that when we're accused of doing something wrong, our inner elephant's automatic reaction is to deny it, with the rider rushing in to defend the elephant. It is possible to lift the blinkers when you make a conscious effort to find your flaws and mistakes you have made, this weakens our cognitive bias. Thanks to another human nature; reciprocity, when we admit our mistakes the other person will likely admit their own errors too resulting in a sincere apology and the conflict resolved.

Takeaway #4 All You Need Is Love

The Beatles were right, this basic yet vital feeling is a must in our lives. As adults, we often substitute our need for romantic love (this type of love including the positive feelings we received from our parents) with passionate love - the feeling of being in love that fades fast. When passionate love is over it doesn't mean the relationship is over, it just means you need to move on to the third type of love – compassionate love. This type of love grows over time and resembles the love we felt for and from our parents.

There are other ways to feel love that lead us to happiness – Doing a job because you love it rather than because it pays the bills, surrounding yourself with people that make you feel loved and part of a team, and practicing altruistic – showing unselfish concern for the well-being of others which gives meaning to our life.

Our desire to help others can sometimes come into conflict with helping ourselves, that's because we're social creatures programmed yet we're also highly individual creatures – Aligning the two states can feel like a balancing act but getting the balance right ensures happiness.

Book details

• Print length: 297 Pages
• Audiobook: 10 hrs and 18 mins
• Genre: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Self Help, Science, Mental Health

What are the chapters in The Happiness Hypothesis?

Chapter One - Introduction: Too Much Wisdom Chapter Two - The Divided Self Chapter Three - Changing Your Mind Chapter Four - Reciprocity With a Vengeance Chapter Five - The Faults of Others Chapter Six - The Pursuit of Happiness Chapter Seven - Love and Attachments Chapter Eight - The Uses of Adversity Chapter Nine - The Felicity of Virtue Chapter Ten - Divinity With or Without God Chapter Eleven - Happiness Comes from Between Chapter Twelve - On Balance

What are some of the main summary points from the book?

Here are some key summary points from the book:

What is a good quote from The Happiness Hypothesis?

― Jonathan Haidt - The Happiness Hypothesis Quotes

What do critics say?

Here's what one of the prominent reviewers had to say about the book: "This unusual book sets itself apart from the self-help category with its extensive scientific references, and intelligent, neutral prose, while the author's illuminating illustration of how the human mind works is both educational and refreshing." — Sunday Times (London)

* The summary points above have been concluded from the book and other public sources. The editor of this summary review made every effort to maintain information accuracy, including any published quotes, chapters, or takeaways

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PDF Summary: The Happiness Hypothesis , by Jonathan Haidt

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1-Page PDF Summary of The Happiness Hypothesis

The Happiness Hypothesis explores the nature of human happiness, blending the philosophical and theological wisdom of ancient thinkers with insights from the field of positive psychology. Our satisfaction is driven by how our mental filters interpret the events in our lives, with the human brain perpetually divided against itself in the struggle between the desires created by our emotions and the attempts of reason to control them. The key to happiness is to use reason to focus the mind away from desires that will only bring fleeting happiness, while giving in to those desires that will bring lasting fulfillment.

(continued)... This will make people value their interactions with you more because you’ll be acting as a genuinely open and empathetic person. And, because of the reciprocity reflex, they’ll start doing the same for you—which will make for better and happier relationships, for you and them.

The Fleeting Joy of Achievement

Many religious traditions teach that self-denial is the route to happiness. Buddhism famously encourages its adherents to break all emotional attachments to things and refrain from all attempts to attain what they don’t have. Striving, according to this view, is the source of human unhappiness. But some things are worth striving for. The key is not to eliminate desire; it’s to start desiring the right things.

Our brains evolved to respond to immediate pleasures like food or sex (which both advance species success) with jolts of dopamine, which serve as a reinforcement mechanism. But the effects of any reinforcement mechanism are immediate and short-lived. The pleasure, instead, comes from the baby steps you take along the way. This is known as the progress principle. As a corollary, no single event is likely to permanently alter your affective style, because you’ll just reach a new plateau. This idea is known as the adaptation principle.

Striving for the Right Things

The progress and adaptation principles have important things to teach us about how we can increase our happiness. They tell us to focus more on the road to achieving a goal, not on the goal itself. Although some conditions of life are beyond the ability of an individual to alter, there are changes you can make to your life circumstances to bring lasting happiness.

Simple things like reducing exposure to unwanted noise, cutting down on commuting time, improving one’s perceived body deficiencies (like being overweight or being too skinny), and introducing more autonomy in one’s life have been shown to make people happier in the long term. Most of all, meaningful and joyful connections to other people are central to happiness. These are the things we should all strive for.

People are happiest when doing a task that is difficult, but closely aligned to their strengths . For a bodybuilder, this might be lifting a heavy weight; for a violinist, it might be practicing a particularly complex piece of music. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this state “flow,” or what we might call “being in the zone.”

The key to flow is that you are receiving constant positive feedback; the progress toward the goal sustains you. In flow, the elephant and rider are perfectly synchronized, with the elephant chasing what it wants and the rider guiding it along and spurring it to action.

Another effective way you can boost your happiness through striving for the right things is by shifting from conspicuous consumption to inconspicuous consumption. Conspicuous consumption is when we buy visible, materialistic things for the purpose of demonstrating our wealth, prestige, or status to others. Inconspicuous consumption, by contrast, refers to the kind of spending we do for our benefit, on things that make us intrinsically happy. These are things, such as vacations, that we value for their own sake, not for what they convey about us relative to other people.

Embracing, in moderation, the pleasures of life and forging meaningful attachments is a key part of what it is to be human. Happiness can come from within; but it also comes from without.

Attachment Theory

People with lots of meaningful relationships and connections to other people have been shown to have better health outcomes and report being happier. But how do we form those connections? It turns out that a great deal of our relationship success later in life hinges on the quality of our connections as children.

Attachment theory states that children have two primary needs—safety and exploration . From an evolutionary perspective, both are necessary. Safety guarantees survival, while exploration enables children to develop the skills they need to succeed as adults and have children of their own.

This knowledge that the parent will always be there to act as a guardrail gives the child the sense of security she needs to develop independence. Accordingly, when children are deprived of their attachment figures, they become insecure and unable to develop the emotional security and independence needed to thrive in adulthood. Unconditional love does not inhibit the development of independence; it’s what makes it possible in the first place.

Thus, providing unconditional love to children will enable them to form healthy, stable connections as adults. Indeed, the research shows that our childhood attachment styles carry forward into our adult romantic relationships , setting the pattern for how we form bonds with other people for the rest of our lives.

The Case For Adversity

In thinking about how to maximize our happiness, we have to consider what makes us unhappy .

Research suggests that human beings need some amount of struggle in their lives in order to reach their full potential. People who suffer setbacks, even tragedies like the loss of a loved one, often find new strengths as a result of their experience.

Trauma survivors discover that they have a much stronger network of people who love and care for them than they previously thought . This discovery activates the reciprocity reflex—we feel a deeper love for and connection to people in our social network and want to foster even closer ties with them. And because we come to value these relationships more, we devote more of our energies to cultivating them, instead of seeking money or possessions.

Setbacks can alter one’s life story or self-narrative. This is the rider’s domain, the conscious reality we construct for ourselves about who we are and how we got to be that way. The experience of triumph over loss enables us to replace a story about our frustrated hopes or positive experiences turned sour with a more compelling story about overcoming adversity and using that experience to learn compassion and empathy for others. And in the end, this is a more fulfilling story to have about ourselves.

Our teenage years in particular are the period in our lives when our self-narratives begin to truly coalesce and some of our most important life experiences take place. Events that happen during this time are those we revisit the most throughout the rest of our lives, serving as a constant point of self-reference. Accordingly, some adversity in one’s teenage and early adulthood years, if properly overcome, can provide a real character-building boost to people later in life.

Cultivating Virtue

So far, we’ve talked mostly about how our interpretations of events or our relationships with other people influence our happiness. But we should also look inward. What are the innate qualities we should possess if we wish to be happy?

Virtue is defined as the cultivation of the best version of oneself . It is about fulfilling your potential, engaging in constant self-improvement, and striving toward the acquisition of a set of positive attributes or qualities. The specific virtues you aim for depend on your particular strengths and interests. The key to cultivating virtue—and, thus, cultivating happiness—is improvement, be it moral, intellectual, or even physical. And it’s intimately linked to human happiness.

Western moral philosophy, unfortunately, gives pride of place to rationalism and science. This has inculcated in the Western mind an aversion toward ideas of virtue based in feeling and habit. For the celebrants of reason, feeling was something to be conquered and overcome; the rider had to master the elephant, not merely coordinate with it. But you don’t reason your way toward good morals; instead, cultivating virtues leads you to use the powers of reason in a way that will lead to moral actions .

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology links ancient virtue theories with our modern understanding of how the human mind works. Positive psychology attempts to elevate the human experience and cultivate excellence, instead of merely treating disorder . The field identifies six core virtues that are celebrated across all civilizations:

• Wisdom: being intellectually curious and emotionally intelligent
• Justice: being fair
• Temperance: exercising self-control
• Courage: showing perseverance and commitment to principles
• Humanity: displaying kindness and love
• Transcendence: appreciating beauty

The cultivation of these virtues should be a joyful, enlightening experience. You are focusing on things you enjoy, which is intrinsically rewarding. The cultivation of virtue is its own reward.

Elevation and Religion

Some of our most powerful moments of joy come from our experiences with the divine or spiritual. We experience a sense of uplifting when we witness someone doing a good deed; we are often driven by a desire to follow suit and do good deeds of our own. It is often closely linked to religious or spiritual experiences that bring us closer to the realm of the divine. This is elevation, the feeling you get when you are:

• Experiencing awe and wonder by sharing moments of transcendence with others
• Becoming attuned with the most noble parts of yourself; and
• Witnessing phenomena that are larger than yourself and beyond the capacity of your limited mental structures to fully process

The feeling of experiencing God’s love as part of a congregation is a common manifestation of elevation . It’s why religion is found in every culture at every time across the world; it fulfills a basic human need to connect with something greater.

We’ve seen how important attachments and connections are to any individual’s enjoyment of life. By binding the individual to a community, connecting that individual to a higher purpose, and facilitating intrinsically rewarding altruistic behavior toward members of the group, religion has served as a great facilitator of human happiness.

Occupational Self-Direction

One of the essential conditions for a satisfied life is meaningful work. The most meaningful and satisfying work is that which people find intrinsically rewarding. Humans desire occupational self-direction—work that is complex and challenging, engages their interests or talents, and allows for a high degree of independence and autonomy. This kind of work harnesses the progress principle to maximize our happiness, rewarding us for each baby step we take toward the goal.

The Key to Happiness

We are responsible for creating the conditions for our own happiness . It is about finding the right balance between connecting to your community and connecting to yourself. Happiness comes from your attachments to the world around you, but it also comes from the cultivation of inner virtues—training the elephant to explore its full potential, while respecting its power over the rider.

But by aligning the rider with the elephant, you will discover your own path to purpose, meaning, and, ultimately, happiness.

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Here's a preview of the rest of Shortform's The Happiness Hypothesis PDF summary:

PDF Summary Introduction

• Overcoming negativity by moving to the upper range of your affective style
• Practicing reciprocity and tearing down self-delusions
• Desiring the right things
• Improving your relationships
• Learning to overcome adversity
• Cultivating your virtues
• Discovering the divine or sacred in your life
• Living a purposeful life

Our analysis of all these strategies will blend insights from positive psychology, ancient and modern philosophy and religion, and evolutionary anthropology.

PDF Summary Chapter 1: The Split Mind

This is because our autonomic nervous system, or “gut brain,” controls many bodily functions separately from the “head brain,” where conscious thought lives. The two simultaneously influence one another, but can also operate independently of one another.

Division 2: Left and Right Hemispheres

Our brains are divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere controls language and analytical tasks. The right side, meanwhile, recognizes patterns, and is most notably responsible for facial recognition. The two hemispheres are connected by a mass of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum.

We can see the split in action in patients who have had the corpus callosum severed or damaged in some way. This causes a literal “split-brain” syndrome in which the two hemispheres begin to function independently of one another. Thus, the left hand (which is controlled by the right hemisphere) might pick up objects that the patient has consciously put down with the right hand, and even attempt to physically restrain actions that the patient is consciously attempting to do with the right hand.

Neurologists have discovered that people with more brainwave activity in their left hemispheres...

PDF Summary Chapter 2: Overcome Negativity

The first type of error could lead to instant death; in the second scenario, there was likely another source of water that could be found. Therefore, those individuals who had strong fear and aversion instincts had an inherent advantage that enabled them to pass this quality along to their offspring. It’s why we evolved to startle at sudden noises that frighten us but have no equivalent emotional or physical reaction to positive stimuli. It also informs our strong biases toward loss aversion, whereby we value the avoidance of losses more than we value equivalent gains.

These emotional cues color our thinking, causing the elephant to dominate the rider. A perceived threat will make us consciously evaluate all stimuli as possible threats; a rush of sadness will cause us to adopt a more bleak way of looking at the world as a whole.

(Shortform note: For a more detailed discussion of loss aversion, read our summary of Thinking, Fast and Slow .)

Affective Style

The elephant determines our likes and dislikes, often in ways that we’re not consciously aware of . These emotional cues color our thinking,...

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PDF Summary Chapter 3: Do Unto Others

This reflex is supported by two emotional sub-reflexes—gratitude and vengeance. Gratitude causes us to aid those who’ve aided us in the past; vengeance causes us to withhold aid from those who’ve been stingy or selfish, making it less likely that free riders will exploit the community’s altruism. This opens up the possibility of mutually beneficial cooperation, which makes the group as a whole stronger and strengthens social ties between members of a community.

(Shortform note: For a fuller discussion of reciprocity, read our summary of Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion .)

Altruism and Happiness

Will self-sacrifice for others (which has become synonymous with morality in much of western thought) also be self-rewarding?

To answer that, we should briefly look at the two main explanations for why humans engage in altruistic behavior.

• The first has its roots in evolution—your genes are more likely to survive if you’re altruistic toward people in your kin group. Reciprocity is also important, as others will respond to your...

PDF Summary Chapter 4: Adjusting Your Happiness

Accepting a new normal.

There is a fundamental truth of human psychology that follows from the progress principle— no single event is likely to permanently alter your affective style, because you’ll just reach a new plateau. This idea is known as the adaptation principle.

In the long run, we are much more sensitive to positive or negative changes relative to our baseline than we are to absolute changes. We can see this in happiness studies comparing lottery winners with people who’ve become paraplegic due to injury or illness.

One might think that the lottery winners exist in a state of constant elation, while the paraplegics are trapped in a state of endless despair. And this is true—for the short period after winning the lottery or losing the use of one’s legs. But, after time, studies show that both groups adapt and settle into a new normal. Lottery winners become used to their new riches and find themselves no longer thrilled by their change in status (and often come to resent it because they are hounded by friends and relatives asking them for money). Meanwhile, paraplegics come to accept their condition and discover that life can have its joys even in their...

PDF Summary Chapter 5: Attachment

In his research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harlow observed that monkeys engaged in many problem-solving tasks for which there was no conditioned reinforcement—they simply enjoyed solving problems for the intrinsic joy they derived from them.

Harlow’s most famous experiment, however, was with baby rhesus monkeys who had been separated from their biological mothers. Harlow and his team of researchers wanted to test the behaviorists’ idea that the mothers’ sole purpose was to provide milk for their young. His team managed to create a milk formula that substituted for mothers’ milk, enabling a group of baby monkeys to be separated from their mothers. But Harlow found that these monkeys, raised without their mothers, were completely unable to socialize or form attachments once they were placed within a group.

This raised the idea that perhaps there was something about mother or mother-like figures that was crucial for development, beyond their ability to give milk. Accordingly, the team created two types of artificial mothers for the caged monkeys—one made of wire, one made of cloth. The monkeys would be raised alone in a cage with one of each type of artificial...

PDF Summary Chapter 6: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

The idea of inner change coming from tragedy and even near-death experiences is, of course, well-explored in the world of literature. In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the miserly and misanthropic Scrooge transforms into a benevolent, kind-hearted humanitarian once he is shown a vision of his own death by the Ghost of Christmas-Yet-to-Come—and how little he will be missed by those who knew him unless he changes his ways. Dickens was demonstrating knowledge of a great psychological truth.

Changing Your Personality and Self-Narrative

We’ve seen that some elements of our overall level of happiness are tied to built-in pieces of our personality, like our affective style. But can adversity play a role in altering one’s personality? To answer that, we need to examine exactly what an individual’s personality is made of. Personality appears to consist of three levels:

• Basic traits
• Characteristic adaptations
• Self-narratives

The basic traits of one’s personality consist of what psychologists call the “big five”—neuroticism, extroversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. These basic traits are squarely within the elephant’s...

PDF Summary Chapter 7: Cultivate Your Virtues

From a psychological perspective, this was rather insightful. Moral instruction that guided an individual to develop an intuitive understanding of how to properly conduct oneself in all situations—and to want to do the right thing—demonstrated a sophisticated understanding by the ancient thinkers of the need for the rider to tame the elephant and guide it toward the pursuit of the right things.

Where the West Went Wrong

Intellectual developments like the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, however, set western civilization on a different course. These movements, building on the foundation laid by the ancient Greeks, placed rationalism and science at the center of the western intellectual tradition.

As a result, western ideas of virtue shifted away from feeling and habit. For the celebrants of reason, feeling was something to be conquered and overcome; the rider had to master the elephant, not merely coordinate with him. But we know that this is not possible and reflects a misunderstanding of how the human mind works. The elephant leads the rider, not the other way around. While we may think that our beliefs and opinions derive from a rational study of the...

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Cuts Out the Fluff

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We cut out the fluff, keeping only the most useful examples and ideas. We also re-organize books for clarity, putting the most important principles first, so you can learn faster.

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At Shortform, we want to cover every point worth knowing in the book . Learn nuances, key examples, and critical details on how to apply the ideas.

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You want different levels of detail at different times. That's why every book is summarized in three lengths:

1) Paragraph to get the gist

PDF Summary Chapter 8: Divinity

Separating the disgusting from the divine.

This notion of cleanliness connects us to the divine, elevating us above the animals (who, after all, perform the same crude biological functions we do) . Our disgust at impurity and our desire to conceal or sanitize many aspects of our animal behavior, whether it is the elimination of waste or the act of mating, is one way that we travel along the divine Z-axis.

Hindu teaching even mandates that recitation or study of the holy scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita should never be done during eating or elimination, ensuring that the spark of divinity within each individual is always separate from the baser functions of our biology.

These notions go far beyond mere tools of hygiene or social control (as a non-believer might be tempted to think). They speak to something much more profound and universal. To fail to treat one’s body as a temple is to degrade and diminish the godliness within oneself. This leads to bad karma and reincarnation as a baser animal in the next life.

Even in the west, where (as we explored in Chapter 7) our ethics are more based on individual autonomy—do what you want as long as you don’t harm others—this...

PDF Summary Chapter 9: The Purpose of Life

One need not be engaged in white-collar or highly paid work to enjoy occupational self-direction. Blue-collar and manual workers can enjoy this same feeling of self-worth if they believe what they do is critical to the achievement of a larger mission. In one NYU study, the janitors who cleaned the bed pans reported some of the highest levels of satisfaction of anyone working in the hospital surveyed by the research team. These janitors believed they were making a visible and meaningful contribution to the creation of a safe and healthy environment for patients.

The key is to find work that engages your strengths, which will initiate a cycle of more positive thinking . You’ll start to connect the dots between your work and the achievement of larger goals. Without these intrinsic rewards, you’ll just be doing a job on a purely translational basis, seeing your work only in isolation and connecting it to no larger purpose.

Religion and the Birth of Altruism

Our happiness is intimately connected to our experiences with others. We do not operate in isolation. We all have physical brains; that physical brain creates the mind, the set of mental patterns and structures that...

From economic wealth to well-being: exploring the importance of happiness economy for sustainable development through systematic literature review

• Open access
• Published: 23 May 2024

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• Shruti Agrawal   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1620-9429 1 , 5 ,
• Nidhi Sharma 1 , 5 ,
• Karambir Singh Dhayal   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0000-4330 2 &
• Luca Esposito   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5983-6898 3 , 4  

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The pursuit of happiness has been an essential goal of individuals and countries throughout history. In the past few years, researchers and academicians have developed a huge interest in the notion of a ‘happiness economy’ that aims to prioritize subjective well-being and life satisfaction over traditional economic indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Over the past few years, many countries have adopted a happiness and well-being-oriented framework to re-design the welfare policies and assess environmental, social, economic, and sustainable progress. Such a policy framework focuses on human and planetary well-being instead of material growth and income. The present study offers a comprehensive summary of the existing studies on the subject, exploring how a happiness economy framework can help achieve sustainable development. For this purpose, a systematic literature review (SLR) summarised 257 research publications from 1995 to 2023. The review yielded five major thematic clusters, namely- (i) Going beyond GDP: Transition towards happiness economy, (ii) Rethinking growth for sustainability and ecological regeneration, (iii) Beyond money and happiness policy, (iv) Health, human capital and wellbeing and (v) Policy push for happiness economy. Furthermore, the study proposes future research directions to help researchers and policymakers build a happiness economy framework.

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1 Introduction

Happiness is considered the ultimate goal of human beings (Ikeda, 2010 ; Lama, 2012 ). All economic, social, environmental and political human activities are aligned towards achieving this goal. This fundamental pursuit of human life introduces a new scope of research, namely the ‘happiness economy’ (Agrawal and Sharma 2023 ). The happiness economy is an emerging economic domain wherein many countries are working to envision and implement a happiness-oriented framework by expanding how they measure economic success, which includes wellbeing and sustainability (Cook and Davíðsdóttir 2021 ; Forgeard et al., 2011 ). The investigation of happiness, life-satisfaction and subjective well-being has witnessed increasing research interest across the disciplines- from psychology, philosophy, psychiatry, and cognitive neuroscience to sociology, economics and management (Diener 1984 ; Hallberg and Kullenberg, 2019 ).

In the post-Covid era, the world seeks an enormous transformation shift in the public system (Costanza 2020 ). However, public authorities need more time to realize such needs. To experience the ‘policy transformation’ within the coming few years, we require a paradigm shift that helps warm peoples’ hearts and minds. The new economic paradigm can penetrate the policy processes in advanced economies and every part of the world affected by the epidemic with the support of intellectuals, researchers, entrepreneurs and professionals.

OECD ( 2016 ) proposed a well-being economy framework to measure living conditions and people’s well-being. In 2020, developed countries like Finland, New Zealand, Iceland, Scotland and Wales have become members of the Wellbeing Economy Government (WEGo) (Abrar 2021 ). Since then, the network of government and international authorities across the globe has gained a quick momentum concerning an increasing tendency about a growing tendency to concentrate governmental decisions around human well-being rather than wealth and economic growth (Coscieme et al. 2019 ; Costanza et al. 2020 ).

In light of these circumstances, the purpose of this article is to describe the concept of a “happiness economy” or one that seeks to give everyone fair possibilities for growth, a sense of social inclusion, and stability that can support human resilience (Coyne and Boettke 2006 ). It provides a promising route towards improved social well-being and environmental health and is oriented towards serving individuals and communities (Skul’skaya & Shirokova, 2010 ). Moreover, the happiness economy paradigm is a transition from material production and consumption of commodities and services as the only means to economic development towards embracing a considerable variety of economic, social, environmental and subjective well-being dynamics that are considered fundamental contributors to human happiness (Atkinson et al., 2012 ; King et al., 2014 ; Agrawal and Sharma 2023 ). In following so, it reflects the ‘beyond growth’ approach that empathizes with the revised concept of growth, which is not centred around an increase in income or material production; instead it is grounded in the philosophy of achieving greater happiness for more people (Fioramonti et al. 2019a ).

Whereas the other critiques of economic growth emphasize contraction, frugality and deprivation, the happiness economy relies on a cumulative approach of humanity, hope and well-being, with a perceptive to build a ‘forward-looking’ narrative of ways for humans to live a happy and motivated life by inspiring the cumulative actions and encouraging policy-reforms in the measuring growth of an economy (Stucke 2013 ). Agrawal et al. ( 2023a , b ) explore the domain of happiness economics through a review of the various trends coupled with the future directions and highlight why it needs to be supported for a well-managed economic system and a happy society.

In this paper, we define a “happiness economy as an economy that aims to achieve the well-being of individuals in a nation, promoting human happiness, environmental up-gradation, and sustainability. Alternatively, as an economy where the wellbeing of people counts more than the goals of production and income”. Moreover, we have examined the existing body of research on the happiness economy and analyzed the emerging research themes related to rethinking the conventional approach to economic growth. We conclude by discussing how the happiness economy concept has been accepted so far and realizing its importance by triggering policy reforms at the societal level, by outlining potential future directions that might be included into the current national post-growth policies.

Various researchers and experts in the field of happiness economy support the idea that there is a lack of thorough studies related to the concept, definitions, and themes of the happiness economy model in the nations. This gap has motivated us to conduct a SLR in order to identify the evolution in the domain of happiness economy and to identify the emerging themes in this context. Therefore, this present study seeks to offer a holistic outline of the emerging research area of the happiness economy and helps to understand how the happiness economy can accelerate sustainable development. With the following research questions, this study seeks to give an all-encompassing review of this subject.

What is the annual publication trend in this domain and the most contributing authors, journals, countries etc?

Which themes and upcoming research areas are present in this field?

What directions will the happiness economics study field go in the future?

The SCOPUS database was used to achieve the above research objectives. We have selected 257 articles for examination by hand-selecting the pertinent keywords and going over each one. In the methods section, a thorough explanation of the procedures for gathering, reviewing, and selecting documents is provided.

The remainder of this paper is structured as follows; A thorough survey of the literature on the happiness economy is provided in Sect.  2 . The research approach employed in the study is presented in Sect.  3 . A thorough data analysis of the research findings is given in Sect.  4 . After discussing the results in Sect.  5 , Sect.  6 suggests areas for further research in this field. The study is summarised with a conclusion in Sect.  7 . Section  8 outlines the study’s limitation.

2 Literature review

The supporters of conventional economic growth proclaim that the material production of goods and services and consumption is vital to enhancing one’s living standards. The statement is true to some degree, mainly in countries of enormous deprivation. Some studies have found significantly less correlation between growth and happiness after fulfilling minimum threshold needs (Easterlin 1995 ; Kahneman and Krueger, 2006 ; Inglehart et al., 2008 ). These studies recommend that rather than concentrating solely on economic growth, governmental policy should give priority to non-economic aspects of human existence above a particular income level. According to some researchers, it is challenging to distinguish between the use and emissions of natural resources and economic growth (absolute decoupling) because of the interdependence between socioeconomic conditions and their biophysical basis (Wiedenhofer et al. 2020 ; Wang and Su, 2019 ; Wu et al., 2018 ). However, a shred of increasing evidence shows that it could be possible for humans to maintain a quality of life and a decent standard of living inside the ecological frontier of the environment, given that a contemporary perspective on the production and use of materials are adopted in conjunction with more fair wealth distribution (Millward-Hopkins et al. 2020 ; Bengtsson et al., 2018 ; Ni et al., 2022 ).

The scholarly discourse and institutional framework on the relationship between happiness and economic progress are synthesised in the happiness economy (Frey and Gallus 2012 ; Sohn, 2010 ; Clark et al., 2016 ; Easterlin, 2015 ; Su et al., 2022 ). From a happiness economy perspective, extreme materialism is unsustainable as it significantly impacts natural resources and hinders social coherence and individuals psychological and physical well-being (Fioramonti et al. 2022a ). Additionally, inequalities within countries have grown, while psychological suffering has increased, especially during accelerated growth (Vicente 2020 ; Galbraith, 2009 ). The modern world is witnessing anxiety, depression, wars, reduction of empathy, climate change, pandemics, loss of social bonds and other psychological disorders (Brahmi et al., 2022 ; Santini et al., 2015 ).

It has been scientifically proven that cordial human relations, care-based activity, voluntary activities and the living environment immensely impact a person’s health and societal well-being (Bowler et al. 2010 ; Keniger et al., 2013 ). Ecological economists demonstrated that free ecosystem services have enhanced human well-being (Fang et al. 2022 ). Social epidemiologists have long argued that an increase in inequalities has a negative influence on society while providing equality tends to improve significant objective ways of well-being, from healthier communities to happier communities, declining hate and crime and enhancing social cohesion, productivity, unity and mutual trust (Aiyar and Ebeke 2020 ; Ferriss, 2010 ).

From moving beyond materialistic growth, the happiness economy promotes, appreciates, and protects the environmental, societal, and human capital contributions that lead to cummalative well-being. In a happiness economy framework, a multidimensional approach is needed to evaluate the level of development based on the environmental parameters, health outcomes, as well as public trust, hope, value-creating education and social bonds (Agrawal and Sharma 2023 ; Bayani et al. 2023 ; Lavrov, 2010 ). Such factors have consistently been excluded from any traditional concept or assessment of economic growth. As a result, countries have promoted more industrial activities that deteriorate the authentic ways of human well-being and, hence, the foundations of economic progress.

An excess of production can create a detrimental effect on climate and people’s health, thereby creating a negative externality for society (Fioramonti et al. 2022b ). Moderation of output may be more efficient and desirable than hyper/over-production, as the former can reduce negative environmental externalities (e.g. waste, climate change) and create positive externalities (e.g. employment of the local resources and community) (Kim et al. 2019 ; Kinman and Jones, 2008 ). Moreover, people can also be productive in other contexts outside of the workplace, such as as volunteers, business owners, artists, friends, or members of the community (Fioramonti et al. 2022a ).

Various scholars and scientific research have established that the essential contributions to happiness in one’s life are made by natural surroundings, green and blue spaces, eco-friendly environment, healthy social relations, spirituality, good health, responsible consumption and value-creating education (Helliwell et al. 2021 ; Francart et al., 2018 ; Armstrong et al., 2016 ; Gilead, 2016 ; Giannetti et al., 2015 ). Unfortunately, existing conventional growth theories have ignored all these significant contributions. For example, GDP considers natural ecosystems as economically helpful only up until they are mined and their products are traded (Carrero et al. 2020 ). The non-market benefits they generate, such as natural fertilization, soil regeneration, climate regulation, clean air and maintenance of biodiversity, are entirely ignored (Boyd 2007 ; Hirschauer et al., 2014). The quality time people spend with their families and communities for leisure, educating future generations and making a healthy communal harmony is regarded meaningless, even in the event that they are important to enhance people’s well-being and, hence, to assist any dimension of economic engagement (Griep et al. 2015 ; Agrawal et al., 2020 ). Similarly, if an economy is focusing on people’s healthy lifestyle (for example, by providing comfortable working hours, improving work-life balance, emphasizing mental health, focusing on healthy food, reducing pollution, and promoting sustainable consumption), it is not considered in sync with the growth paradigm (Roy 2021 ; Scrieciu et al., 2013; Shrivastava and Zsolnai 2022 ; Lauzon et al., 2023 ).

Among the latest reviews, Bayani et al. ( 2023 ) highlight that the economics of happiness helps reduce the country’s financial crime by providing a livelihood that reduces financial delinquency. Chen ( 2023 ) highlights that smart city performance enhances urban happiness by adopting green spaces, reusing and recycling products, and controlling pollution. The study by (Agrawal and Sharma 2023 ) proposed a conceptual framework for a happiness economy to achieve sustainability by going beyond GDP. Similarly, Fioramonti et al. ( 2019b ) explored going beyond GDP for a transition towards a happy and well-being economy. The article by Laurent et al. ( 2022 ) has intensively reviewed the well-being indicators in Rome and proposed a conceptual framework for it.

Table  1 provides a thorough summary of the prior review studies about the happiness economy and its contribution to public policy and sustainable development.

3 Research methodology

In the current study, we have adopted an integrative review approach of SLR and bibliometric analysis of the academic literature to get a detailed knowledge of the study, which could also help propose future research avenues. The existing scientific production’s qualitative and quantitative context must be incorporated for a conclusive decision. The study by Meredith ( 1993 ) defines that SLR enables an “integrating several different works on the same topic, summarising the common elements, contrasting the differences, and extending the work in some fashion”. In the present study, the “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses” (PRISMA) is applied to perform the SLR to follow systematic and transparent steps for the research methodology, as shown in Fig.  1 . The PRISMA technique includes the identification, screening, eligibility, and exclusion criteria parts of the review process.

Additionally, examples of the data abstraction and analysis processes are provided (Mengist et al. 2020 ; Moher et al., 2015 ). The four main phases of the PRISMA process are eligibility, identification, screening, and data abstraction and analysis. Because the PRISMA technique employs sequential steps to accomplish the study’s purpose, it benefits SLR research. Moreover, the bibliometric analysis helps summarise the existing literature’s bibliographic data and determine the emerging condition of the intellectual structure and developing tendencies in the specified research domain (Dervis 2019 ).

3.1 Identification

The step to conduct the PRISMA is the identification of the relevant keywords to initiate the search for material. Next, search strings for the digital library’s search services are created using the selected keywords. The basic search query is for digital library article titles, keywords, and abstracts. Next, a Boolean AND or OR operator is used to generate the search string (Boolean combinations of the operators may also be used).

There are different search databases to conduct the review studies, such as Scopus, Sage, Web of Science, IEEE, and Google Scholar. Among all the available search databases, we have used the Scopus database to identify the articles; since 84% of the material on Web of Science (WoS) overlaps with Scopus, very few authors have addressed the benefits of adopting Scopus over WoS (Mongeon and Paul-Hus 2016 ). Scopus is widely used by academicians and researchers for quantitative analysis (Donthu et al. 2021 ). It is the biggest database of scientific research and contains citations and abstracts from peer-reviewed publications consisting of journal research articles, books and conference articles (Farooque et al., 2019 ; Dhayal et al., 2022 ; Brahmi et al., 2022 ). The following search term was used: (TITLE-ABS-KEY (“happiness economy” OR “economics of happiness” OR “happiness in economy” OR “economy of happiness” OR “economy of wellbeing” OR “wellbeing economy” OR “wellbeing in economy” OR “beyond growth”). This process yields 380 artciles in the initial phase.

3.2 Screening

The second phase is completed by all identified articles from the Scopus database obtained from the search string in the identification phase. The publications are either included or excluded throughout the screening process based on the standards established by the authors and with the aid of particular databases. Exclusion and inclusion criteria are shown during the screening phase to identify pertinent articles for the systematic review procedure. The timeline of this study’s selected articles is from 1995 to 2023. The first article related to the research domain was published in 1995. The second criterion for the inclusion includes the types of documents. In the present research, the authors have regarded only peer-reviewed journals and review articles. Other types of articles, such as books, book chapters, conference articles, notes, and editorials, are excluded to maintain the quality of the review. The third inclusion and exclusion criterion is based on language. All the non-English language documents are excluded to avoid translation confusion; hence, only the English language articles are considered for the final review. After the screening process, 297 articles are obtained.

3.3 Eligibility

Articles are manually selected or excluded depending on specific criteria specified by the authors during the eligibility process. During the elimination process, the authors excluded the articles that did not fit into the scope of review after manual screening of the articles. Two hundred fifty-seven articles were selected after the eligibility procedure. These selected articles are carefully reviewed for the study by reviewing the titles, abstracts, and standards from earlier screening processes.

3.4 Data abstraction and analysis

Analysis and abstraction of data are part of the fourth step. Finally, 257 papers were taken into account for final review. After that, the studies are culled to identify pertinent themes and subthemes for the current investigation by thoroughly reviewing each article’s text. An integrative review is a form of study that combines mixed, qualitative, and quantitative research procedures. It is carried out as shown in Fig.  1 . R-studio Bibliometrix and VOSviewer version 1.6.18 were used to evaluate the final study dataset corpus of 257 articles. Since the Bibliometrix software package is a free-source tool programmed in the R language. It is proficient of conducting comprehensive scientific mapping. It also contains several graphical and statistical features with flexible and frequent updates (Agrawal et al. 2023a , b ).

Extraction of articles and selection process

This section provides an answer to the first research question, RQ1, by indicating the main information of corpus data, research publication trends, influential prolific authors, journals, countries and most used keywords, etc. (Refer to Tables  2 , 3 and 4 ) and (Refer to Figs.  2 , 3 , 4 , 5 and 6 ).

4.1 Bibliometric analysis

Table  2 shows the relevant information gathered from the publication-related details. It presents the cognitive knowledge of the research area, for instance, details about authors, annual average publication, average citations and collaboration index. By observing the rate of document publishing, the study illustrates how much has already been done and how much remains to be investigated.

The annual publication trend is shown in Fig.  2 . It is reflected that the first article related to happiness in an economy was released in the year 1995 when (Bowling 1995 ) published the article “What things are important in people’s lives? A survey of the public’s judgements to inform scales of health related quality of life” where the article discussed “quality of life” and “happiness” as an essential component of a healthy life. Oswald ( 1997 ) brought the concept of happiness and economics together and raised questions such as “Does money buy happiness?” or “Do you think your children’s lives will be better than your own?”. Eventually, the gross national product of the past year and the coming year’s exchange rate was no longer the concern; instead, happiness as the sublime moment became more accurate (Schyns 1998 ; Easterlin, 2001; Frey and Stutzer, 2005 ). Post-2013, we can see exponential growth in the publication trend, and the reason behind the growth is the report published by the “ Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi” Commission, which has identified limitations of GDP and questioned the metric of wealth, economic and societal progress. The affirmed questions have gained the attention of researchers and organizations, and thus, they have explored the alternatives to GDP. As a result, the “Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development” (OECD) have proposed a wellbeing framework. Some research work has significantly impacted that time, contributing to the immense growth in this research area (Sangha et al. 2015 ; Spruk and Kešeljević, 2015 ; Nunes et al., 2016 ).

Publication trend

Table  3 shows the top prolific journals concerning the topmost publications in the domain of happiness economy for the corpus of 257 articles, namely “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health”, “Ecological Economics”, “Ecological Indicators”, “Sustainability” and “Journal of Cleaner Production” with 5, 4, 4,4 and 4 articles respectively (Refer to Table  4 ). Moreover, the most influential journals with maximum citations are “Nature Human Behavior”, “Quality of Life Research”, “Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis”, “Journal of Cleaner Production” and “Ecological Economics”, with 219, 205, 186, 154 and 142 citations, respectively. “Journal of Cleaner Production” and “Ecological Economics” are highly prolific and the most influential journals in the happiness economy research domain.

Table  4 shows the most influential authors. Baños, R.M. and Botella, C. are the two most contributing authors with maximum publications. For the maximum number of citations, Zheng G. and Coscieme L. are the topmost authors for their research work. The nations were sorted according to the quantity of publications, and Fig.  3 showed where the top ten countries with the highest number of publications are listed originated. It can be seen from the figure that the United Stated has contributed the maximum publications, 66, followed by the United Kingdom with 41 articles, followed by Germany with 32 articles. It is worth noting that emerging nation such as India and China have also made significant contributions.

Top ten contributing countries

Figure  4 shows semantic network analysis in which the relationships between words in individual texts are performed. In the present study, we have identified word frequency distributions and the co-occurrences of the authors’ keywords in this study. We employed co-word analysis to find repeated keywords or terms in the title, abstract, or body of a text. In Fig.  5 , the circle’s colour represents a particular cluster, and the circle’s radius indicates how frequently the words occur. The size of a keyword’s node indicates how frequently that keyword appears. The arcs connecting the nodes represent their co-occurrence in the same publication. The greater the distance between two nodes, the more often the two terms co-occur. It can be seen that “happiness” is linked with “growth” and “life satisfaction”. The nodes of “green economy”, “ecological economics”, and “climate change” are in a separate cluster that shows they are emerging areas, and future studies can explore the relationship between happiness economy with these keywords.

Co-ocurrance of author’s keyword (Author’s compilation)

4.2 Thematic map analysis through R studio

The thematic analysis map, as shown in Fig.  5 , displays, beneath the author’s keywords, the visualisation of four distinct topic typologies produced via a biblioshiny interface. The thematic map shows nine themes/clusters under four quadrants segregated in “Callon’s centrality” and “density value”. The degree of interconnectedness between networks is determined by Callon’s centrality, while Callon’s density determines the internal strength of networks. (Chen et al. 2019 ). The rectangular boxes in Fig.  5 represent the subthemes under each topic or cluster that are either directly or indirectly connected to the major themes, based on the available research. In the upper-right quadrant, four themes have appeared, namely “circular economy”, “well-being economy”, “depression”, and “sustainable development”, they fall under the category of motor themes since they are extremely pertinent to the research field, highly repetitious, and well-developed. When compared to other issues with internal linkages but few exterior relations, “urban population” in the upper-left quadrant is seen as a niche concern since it is not as significant. This cluster may have affected the urban population’s happiness (Knickel et al. 2021 ). “Social innovation” is categorised as an emerging or declining subject with low centrality and density, meaning it is peripheral and undeveloped. It is positioned in the lower-left quadrant. Last but not least, the transversal and fundamental themes “happiness economy”, “subjective well-being”, and “climate change” in the lower-right quadrant are seen to be crucial to the happiness economy study field but are still in the early stages of development. As a result, future research must place greater emphasis on the quantitative and qualitative growth of the study area in light of the key themes that have been identified.

Thematic map analysis

4.3 Science mapping through cluster analysis

In the study, science mapping was conducted to examine the interrelationship between the research domains that could be intellectual (Aria and Cuccurullo 2017 ; Donthu et al. 2021 ). It includes various techniques, such as co-authorship analysis, co-occurrence analysis, bibliographic coupling, etc. We have used R-Studio for the study’s temporal analysis by cluster analysis. To answer RQ2, the authors have performed a qualitative examination of the emerging cluster themes through the science mapping of the existing research corpus of 257 articles by performing bibliographic coupling of documents. Bibliographic coupling analysis helps identify clusters reflecting the most recent research themes in the happiness economy field to illuminate the field’s current areas of interest.

The visual presentation of science mapping relied on VoSviewer version 1.6.18 (refer to Fig.  6 ). Five significant clusters emerged in this research domain (refer to Table  5 ). Going beyond GDP: Transition towards happiness economy, rethinking growth for sustainability and ecological regeneration, beyond money and happiness policy, health, human capital and wellbeing and Policy-Push for happiness economy. A thorough examination identified cluster analyzes has also assists us in identifying potential future research proposals. (Franceschet 2009 )

4.4 Cluster 1: Going beyond GDP: transition towards happiness economy

It depicts from the green colour circles and nodes, where seven research articles were identified with a common theme of beyond GDP that can be seen in Fig.  6 . Cook and Davíðsdóttir ( 2021 ) investigated the linkages between the alternative measure of the beyond growth approach such as a well-being economy prespective and the SDGs. They proposed a conceptual model of a well-being economy consisting of four capital assets interrelated with SDGs that promote well-being goals and domains. To extend the concept of going beyond GDP, various economic well-being indicators are being aligned with the different economic, environmental, and social dimensions to target the set goals of SDG. It is found that the “Genuine Progress Indicator” (GPI) is consider as the most extensive method that covers the fourteen targets among the seventeen’s SDG’s. Cook et al. ( 2022 ) consider SDGs to represent the classical, neoclassical and growth-based economy model and as an emerging paradigm for a well-being economy. The significance of GDP is more recognized within the goals of sustainable development.

GPI is considered an alternative indicator of economic well-being. On this basis, excess consumption of high-quality energy will expand macro-economic activity, which GDP measures. For such, a conceptual exploration of the study is conducted on how pursuing “Sustainable Energy Development” (SED) that can increase the GPI results. As the study’s outcome, according to the GPI, SED will have a significant advantage in implementing energy and environment policy and will also contribute to the advancement of social and economic well-being. Coscieme et al. ( 2020a ) explored the connection between the unconditional growth of GDP and SDG. The author considered that policy coherence for sustainable development should lessen the damaging effects of cyclic manufacturing on the ecosystem. Thus, the services considered free of charge in the GDP model should be valued as a component of society. Generally, such services include ecosystem services and a myriad of “economic” functions like rainfall and carbon sequestration. To work for SDG 8, defined by the “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” (UNSDGs), a higher GDP growth rate would eventually make it more difficult to achieve environmental targets and lessen inequality. Various guidelines were proposed to select alternative variables for SDG-8 to enhance coherence among all the SDG and other policies for sustainability.

Fioramonti et al. ( 2019a ) state their focus is to go beyond GDP toward a well-being economy rather than material output with the help of convergence reforms in policies and economic shifts. To achieve the SDG through protecting the environment, promoting equality, equitable development and sharing economy. The authors have developed the Sustainable Well-Being Index (SWBI) to consolidate the “Beyond GDP” streams as a metric of well-being matched with the objectives to achieve SDG. The indicators of well-being for an economy have enough possibility to connect current transformations in the economic policies and the economy that, generally, GDP is unable to capture.

Fioramonti et al. ( 2022a ) investigate the critical features of the Wellbeing Economy (WE), including its various parameters like work, technology, and productivity. Posting a WE framework that works for mainstream post-growth policy at the national and international levels was the study’s primary goal. The authors have focused on building a society that promotes well-being that should be empowering, adaptable, and integrative. A well-being economic model should develop new tools and indicators to monitor all ecological and human well-being contributors. A multidimensional approach including critical components for a well-being economy was proposed that creates value to re-focus on economic, societal, personal, and natural aspects. Rubio-Mozos et al. ( 2019 ) conducted in-depth interviews with Fourth Sector business leaders, entrepreneurs, and academicians to investigate the function of small and medium-sized businesses and the pressing need to update the economic model using a new measure in line with UN2030. They have proposed a network from “limits to growth” to a “sustainable well-being economy”.

4.5 Cluster 2: Rethinking growth for sustainability and ecological regeneration

Figure  6 depicts it from blue circles and nodes, wherein four papers were identified. Knickel et al. ( 2021 ) proposed an analytical approach by collecting the data from 11 European areas to examine the existing conditions, difficulties, and anticipated routes forward. The goal of the study is to define the many ideas of a sustainable well-being economy and territorial development plans that adhere to the fundamental characteristics of a well-being economy. A transition from a conventional economic viewpoint to a broader view of sustainable well-being is centred on regional development plans and shifting rural-urban interactions.

Pillay ( 2020 ) investigates the new theories of de-growth, ecosocialism, well-being and happiness economy to break the barriers of traditional economic debates by investigating ways to commercialise and subjugate the state to a society in line with non-human nature. The significant indicator of Gross National Happiness (GNH) is an alternative working indicator of development; thus, the Chinese wall between Buddha and Marx has been built. They questioned the perspective of Buddha and Marx, whether they were harmonized or became a counter-hegemonic movement. In order to determine if the happiness principle is grounded in spiritual values and aligns with the counter-hegemonic ecosocialist movement, the author examined the ecosocialist perspective. Shrivastava and Zsolnai ( 2022 ) have investigated the theoretical and practical ramifications of creative organisations for well-being rooted in the drive for a well-being economy. Wellbeing and happiness-focused economic frameworks are emerging primarily in developed countries. This new policy framework also abolishes GDP-based economic growth and prioritizes individual well-being and ecological regeneration. To understand its application and interpretation, Van Niekerk ( 2019 ) develops a conceptual framework and theoretical analysis of inclusive economics. It contributes to developing a new paradigm for economic growth, both theoretically and practically.

4.6 Cluster 3: ‘Beyond money’ and happiness policy

It depicts pink circles and nodes, wherein five articles were identified, as shown in Fig.  6 . According to Diener and Seligman ( 2004a ) economic indicators are critical in the early phases of economic growth when meeting basic requirements is the primary focus. However, as society becomes wealthier, an individual’s well-being becomes less dependent on money and more on social interactions and job satisfaction. Individuals reporting high well-being outperform those reporting low well-being in terms of income and performance. A national well-being index is required to evaluate well-being variables and shape policies systematically. Diener and Seligman ( 2018 ) propounded the ‘Beyond Money’ concept in 2004. In response to the shortcomings of GDP and economic measures, other quality-of-life indicators, such as health and education, have been created. The national account of well-being has been proposed as a common path to provide societies with an overall quality of life metric. While measuring the subjective well-being of people, the authors reasoned a societal indicator of the quality of life. In this article, the authors have proposed an economy of well-being model by combining subjective and objective measures to convince policymakers and academicians to enact policies that enhance human welfare. The well-being economy includes quality of life indicators and life satisfaction, subjective well-being and happiness.

Frey and Stutzer ( 2000 ) perceived the microeconomic well-being variables in countries. In the study, survey data was used from 6000 individuals in Switzerland and showed that the individuals are happier in developed democracies and institutions (government federalization). They analyzed the reported subjective well-being data to determine the function of federal and democratic institutions on an individual’s satisfaction with life. The study found a negative relationship between income and unemployment. Three criteria have been employed in the study to determine happiness: demographic and psychological traits, macro- and microeconomic factors, and constitutional circumstances. Thus, a new pair of determinants reflects happiness’s effect on individuals’ income, unemployment, inflation and income growth.

Happiness policy, according to Frey and Gallus ( 2013b ), is an intrinsic aspect of the democratic process in which various opinions are collected and examined. “Happiness policy” is far more critical than continuing a goal such as increasing national income and instead considered an official policy goal. The article focuses on how politicians behave differently when they believe that achieving happiness is the primary objective of policy. Frey et al. ( 2014 ) explored the three critical areas of happiness, which are positive and negative shocks on happiness, choice of comparison and its extent to derive the theoretical propositions that can be investigated in future research. It discussed the areas where a more novel and comprehensive theoretical framework is needed: comparison, adaptation, and happiness policy. Wolfgramm et al. ( 2020 ) derived a value-driven transformation framework in Māori economics of wellbeing. It contributes to a multilevel and comprehensive review of Māori economics and well-being. The framework is adopted to advance the policies and implement economies of well-being.

4.7 Cluster 4: Health, human capital and wellbeing

It is depicted as a red colour circle and nodes in Fig.  6 , and only three papers on empirical investigations were found. Laurent et al. ( 2022 ) investigated the Health-Environment Nexus report published by the “Wellbeing Economy Alliance”. In place of increased production and consumption, they suggested a comprehensive framework for human health and the environment that includes six essential paths. The six key pathways are well-being energy, sustainable food, health care, education, social cooperation and health-environment nexus. The proposed variables yield the co-benefits for the climate, health and sustainable economy. Steer clear of the false perception of trade-offs, such as balancing the economy against the environment or the need to save lives. McKinnon and Kennedy ( 2021 ) focuses on community economics of well-being that benefits entrepreneurs and employees. They investigated the interactions of four social enterprises that work for their employees inside and within the broader community. Cylus et al. ( 2020 ) proposed the opportunities and challenges in adopting the model of happiness or well-being in an economy as an alternative measure of GDP. Orekhov et al. ( 2020 ) proposed the derivation of happiness from the World Happiness Index (WHI) data to estimate the regression model for developed countries.

4.8 Cluster 5: Policy-push for happiness economy

It is depicted as an orange circle and nodes in Fig.  6 , and only five papers on empirical and review investigations were found. Oehler-Șincai et al. ( 2023 ) proposed the conceptual and practical perspective of household-income-labour dynamics for policy formulation. It discusses the measurement of well-being as a representation of various policies focusing on health, productivity, and longevity. It focuses on the role of policy in building the subjective and objective dimensions of well-being, defines the correlation between well-being, employment policies, and governance, is inclined to the well-being performance of various countries, and underscores present risks that jeopardize well-being. Musa et al. ( 2018 ) have developed a “community happiness index” by incorporating the four aspects of sustainability—economic, social, environmental, and urban governance—as well as the other sustainability domains, such as human well-being and eco-environmental well-being. From then onwards, community happiness and sustainable urban development emerged. Chernyahivska et al. ( 2020 ) developed strategies to raise the standard of living for people in countries undergoing economic transition by using the quality of life index. The methods uncovered are enhancing employment opportunities and uplifting the international labour market in urban and rural areas, prioritizing human capital, eliminating gender inequality, focusing on improving the individual’s health, and enhancing social protection. Zheng et al. ( 2019 ) investigated the livelihood and well-being index of the population that makes liveable conditions and city construction in society based on people’s happiness index. The structure of a liveable city should be emphasised on sustainable development. The growth strategy in urban areas is an essential aspect of building a liveable city. Frey and Gallus ( 2013a ) criticised the National Happiness Index as a policy goal in a country because it cannot be measured and thus fails to measure the true happiness of people. To measure real happiness, the government should establish living conditions that enable individuals to become happy. The rule of law and human rights must support the process.

The structure of a liveable city should be emphasized in sustainable development. The growth strategy in urban areas is an essential aspect of building a liveable city. Frey and Gallus ( 2013a ) criticized the National Happiness Index as a policy goal in a country because it cannot be measured and thus fails to identify the true individuals happiness. To measure real happiness, the government should establish living conditions that enable individuals to be happy. The process needs to be supported by human rights and the rule of law.

Visualization of cluster analysis

5 Discussion of findings

Concerns like the improved quality-of-life and a decent standard of living within the ecological frontier of the environment have various effects on individuals overall well-being and life satisfaction. The ‘beyond growth’ approach empathized with the revised concept of growth, which is based on the idea of maximising happiness for a larger number of people rather than being driven by a desire for financial wealth or production. In that aspect, the notion of happiness economy is designed that prioritizes serving both people and the environment over the other. This present article has focused on the beyond growth approach and towards a new economic paradigm by doing bibliometric and visual analysis on the dataset that was obtained from Scopus, helping to determine which nations, publications, and authors were most significant in this field of study.

In this field of study, developed nations have made significant contributions as compared to the developing nations. In total, 59 countries have made the substantial contribution to the beyond growth approach literature an some of them have proposed their respective national well-being economy framwework. Among 59 countries the United States and the United Kingdom have been crucial to the publishing. With the exception of five of the top 10 nations, Europe contributes the most to scientific research. The existing research shows the inclination of developed and developing countries to build a new economic paradigm that goes beyond growth by prioritizing the happiness level at individual as well as at collective level.

The most prolific journals in this research domain are the “International Journal of Environmental Research” and “Public Health” with the total publication of 5 and 4. The top two cited journals were the “ Nature Human Behavior” with 219 citations and the “Quality of Life Research” with 205 citations. Due to various economic and non-economic factors, these journals struggled to strike a balance between scientific accuracy and timeliness, and it became vital to spread accurate and logical knowledge. For, example, discussing the relationship between inequality and well-being, exploring the challenges and opportunites of happiness economy in different countries, assessing the role of health in all policies to support the transition to the well-being economy. Visualization of semantic network analysis of co-ocurrance of authors keywords from the VOSviewer showed the future research scope to explore the association between happiness economy along with green economy, climate change, spirituality and sustainability. However, in the thematic mapping, the motor themes denotes the themes that are well-developed and repetative in research, such as, well-being economy, depression, sustainable development and circular economy. The basic themes depicts the developing and transveral themes such as happiness economy, subjective well-being and climate condition. As a result, future research must place greater emphasis on the theoretical and practical expansion of the research field in view of the determined major subjects.

The present study have performed the cluster analysis to identify the emerging research themes in this domain through VOSviewer that helps to analyze the network of published documents. Based on published papers, the author can analyse the interconnected network structure with the use of cluster analysis. We have identified the top five clusters from the study. Each cluster denote the specific and defined theme of the research in this domain. In cluster 1, the majorly of the authors are working in the area of going beyond GDP and transition towards happiness economy, which consists of empirical and review studies. Cluster 2 represents that authors are exploring the relationship between rethinking growth for sustainability and ecological regeneration to evaluate the transition from a conventional economic thought to a broader view of sustainable well-being which is centred on regional development plans and shifting rural-urban interactions. In cluster 3, the authors are exploring the beyond money and happiness policy themes and identified the shortcomings of GDP and economic measures, other quality-of-life indicators, such as health and education. They have proposed the well-being index to evaluate the well-being variables and shape socio-economic policies systematically. The authors have proposed an economy of well-being model by combining subjective and objective measures to convince policymakers and academicians to enact policies that enhance human welfare. The well-being economy includes quality of life indicators and life satisfaction, subjective well-being and happiness. In cluster 4, the authors are working of related theme of Health, human capital and wellbeing, whereby they have put up a comprehensive framework for health and the environment that includes several important avenues for prioritising human and ecological well-being over increased production and consumption. In cluster 5, the authors have suggested the policy-push for happiness economy in which they have identified the conceptual and practical perspective of household-income-labour dynamics for policy formulation. Majorly of the authors in this clutster have focused on the role of policy in building the subjective and objective dimensions of well-being, defines the correlation between well-being, employment policies, and governance, is inclined to the well-being performance of various countries, and underscores present risks that jeopardize well-being. Hence, the present study will give academics, researchers, and policymakers a thorough understanding of the productivity, features, key factors, and research outcomes in this field of study.

6 Scope for future research avenues

The emergence of a happiness economy will transform society’s traditional welfare measure. Such changes will generate more reliable and practical means to measure the well-being or welfare of an economy. After a rigorous analysis of the existing literature, we have proposed the scope for future research in Table  6 .

7 Conclusion

In 2015, the United Nations proposed the pathbreaking and ambitious seventeen “Sustainable Development Goals” (SDGs) for countries to steer their policies toward achieving them by 2030. In reality, economic growth remains central to the agenda for SDGs, demonstrating the absence of a ground-breaking and inspirational vision that might genuinely place people and their happiness at the core of a new paradigm for development. As this research has reflect, there are various evidence that the happiness economy strategy is well-suited to permeate policies geared towards sustainable development. In this context, ‘happiness’ may be a strong concept that ensures the post-2030 growth will resonate with the socioeconomic and environmental traits of everyone around the world while motivating public policies for happiness.

The current research has emphasized the many dynamics of the happiness economy by using a bibliometric analytic study of 257 articles. We have concluded that the happiness economy is an emerging area that includes different dimensions of happiness, such as ecological regeneration, circular economy, sustainability, sustainable well-being, economic well-being, subjective well-being, and well-being economy. In addition to taking into consideration the advantages and disadvantages of human participation in the market, a happiness-based economic system would offer new metrics to assess all contributions to human and planetary well-being. In terms of theoretical ramifications, we suggest that future scholars concentrate on fusing the welfare and happiness theory with economic policy. As countries are predisposed to generate disharmony and imbalance, maximizing societal well-being now entails expanding sustainable development. Since the happiness economy is still a relatively novel field, it offers numerous potential research opportunities.

8 Limitations

Similar to every other research, this one has significant restrictions as well. We are primarily concerned that all our data were extracted from the Scopus database. Furthermore, future research can utilize other software like BibExcel and Gephi to expound novel variables and linkages. Given the research limitations, this article still provides insightful and relevant direction to policymakers, scholars, and those intrigued by the idea of happiness and well-being in mainstream economics.

The study offers scope for future research in connecting the happiness economy framework with different SDGs. Future studies can also carry empirical research towards creating a universally acceptable ‘happiness economy index’ with human and planetary well-being at its core.

Data availability

Data not used in this article.

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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Shruti Agrawal: Conceptualization, Material preparation, Data Collection, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - Original Draft, Review and Editing. Nidhi Sharma: Validation, Project Administration, Supervision, and Writing - Review & Editing. Karambir Singh Dhayal: Validation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing - Review and Editing. Luca Esposito: Validation, Writing - Review and Editing. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Shruti Agrawal and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript

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Agrawal, S., Sharma, N., Dhayal, K.S. et al. From economic wealth to well-being: exploring the importance of happiness economy for sustainable development through systematic literature review. Qual Quant (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-024-01892-z

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