The Pew Research Center doesn't just track the approval ratings of President Bush—it also measures Americans' happiness "by demographic and behavioral traits." Despite the heinous state of the world, 50 percent of the respondents reported being "pretty happy"; 34 percent are "very happy." Not so surprising were the correlations found between happiness and factors like personal income, relationship status, ethnicity, and political affiliation. Basically, if you're loaded, married, white, and Republican, you're probably not feeling any pain (unless you're Dick Cheney). But plenty of us still are, or there wouldn't be such an influx of books on how to get happy. These titles were the subject of a blog last month ("New Year, New Books") when I wasn't able to characterize them sufficiently. Now that the reviews are in, I can tell you that Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis (Basic Books), for example, is not a quick-fix, how-to-earn-more-money text, but an accessible interdisciplinary study that points to "deep learning enriched with creative thinking, feeling, life experience, and a touch of self-disclosure;" in other words The Long Road. Whether the Long Faced will go for it and its ilk (e.g., Daniel Gilbert's Stumbling on Happiness from Knopf and Matthieu Ricard's Happiness from Little, Brown) seems less likely. "Serious" self-help deserves to be popular, but it takes time to digest its insights. Time is money, after all, and money just might be happiness.—Heather McCormack
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You might want to read a little closer:
“But even this explanation only goes so far. If one controls for household income, Republicans still hold a significant edge: that is, poor Republicans are happier than poor Democrats; middle-income Republicans are happier than middle-income Democrats, and rich Republicans are happier than rich Democrats.”
If there are signifcant happiness factors in the study it relates to faith and family, but that would be inconvenient to your own politics wouldn’t it?
As for the ‘heinous state of the world’ I bet you $5 I can name more times in history when its been worse then you can name when its been better.
Greg,
I’ll bet you $5 I wasn’t alive when the world was “worse.” Bad is bad, and happiness is, well, relative (I read the whole study). It was just one study, and I was just having fun with it.
Actually, Greg, could you lend me $5? You sound like you might be a rich Republican, and I am but a lowly book blogger.
Democrats, always asking for a handout. Sorry but I’m saving for New Orleans, I’m hoping I can still find a muffuletta there.
is a medicine to protect from bird (avian) flu
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