Sample synthesis summary

U-bend of life

The two articles deal with  happiness and try to provide answers to the old question of what happiness is correlated to. Both articles are based on happiness measurements conducted by economists or psychologists.

The first and main article examines four main factors, i.e.,  gender, personality, external circumstances and age:

• It seems that women are, by and large, slightly happier than men. However, they former are also more susceptible to depression.
• Concerning personality,  people who are prone to guilt, anger and anxiety tend to be unhappy, unlike extrovert people.
• Some correlations also seem to hold  between external circumstances –  such as relationships, education, income or health – and the way people feel.
• The article mainly focuses on the last factor, i.e., the clear link between age and "self-reported well-being".

The article then details the U-bend graph, which shows that people are least happy at a global average of 46, and it evaluates the possible reasons. This tendency appears all over the world even if the nadir average can vary across countries.

 

In the end, this is rather good news for a world which has to deal with an ageing workforce.

The second article analyses the more specific correlation between money and happiness at country level, and it tries to evaluate to what extent  money can buy happiness. Although richer countries are clearly happier, the correlation is not perfect, which suggests that other factors, presumably cultural ones, are at work.