The Pew researchers speculate that this is because more women than men are unemployed by choice, although the study didn’t attempt to tease apart that difference.
Chris Peterson, a happiness researcher at the University of Michigan, suspects there are other factors at play as well. “Other studies have found that if a man loses his job, it can have both short-term and long-term psychological effects, even if he finds another job with equal salary,” he says. “For women it’s not unemployment that leads to unhappiness, but divorce.”
In addition, Peterson stresses that money matters less than you’d think. “The engaged custodian is more likely to be happy than the independently wealthy, unengaged millionaire,” he says. “We didn’t evolve to be retired and sit on the couch.”
Time for Family，Friends，and Community
In the growing field of happiness research, one thing is overwhelmingly clear. People who are socially engaged are more likely to be happy—and less likely to be depressed—than those who aren’t.
In fact, Time Magazine poll found that the four most significant sources of happiness—children (77 percent), friendships (76 percent), contributing to the lives of others (75 percent), and spouse/partner (73 percent)—all involved spending meaningful time with other people.
The problem: “We’re so caught up with extraordinary work burdens, we don’t have time to enjoy the people we love or contribute to the lives of others,” says Post.
That time crunch is quite real, says John de Graff, president of the public policy organization Take Back Your Time. “Compared to 30 years ago, the average family now spends an extra 500 hours per year working outside the home.”
We’re also spending more time getting to work and back.
“Traffic is getting worse and we’re not investing in mass transit,” says de Graff. “Most of the data I’ve seen shows that we’ve doubled our average commute times in the past generation.”
Obviously, it depends on where you live—and where you work. Those most impacted: affluent families who chose even larger homes over living closer to work and younger families who are priced out of homes of any size closer to centers of employment.
How Happy Is Your City? Good Urban Design
What does urban design have to do with happiness? More than you might think.
“The data strongly suggests that real community and real friendships are important keys to happiness,” says Post. “Some cities make that possible in ways that others don’t.”
Post explains how urban design can facilitate social interaction—or work against it.
“Forty years ago, neighborhoods had sidewalks, front porches, and parks-geographical opportunities for people to be socially engaged,” he says. “In many communities today, we are lacking these things. We don’t know our neighbors anymore. We just get into our car pods and never see anyone. We no longer have the opportunity to stumble upon happiness by being good neighbors in our communities.”
Good urban design and effective mass transportation can also determine how much time we spend commuting to work, and how much time we spend behind the wheel of a car running errands—both of which ultimately impact the amount of time we have for joyfully engaging with friends, family, and community.
Giving for Your Own Good
This may come as a surprise to the “Me Generation,” but happiness doesn’t come from living in a big house, buying the latest techno-gadget, and getting stamps from exotic locales in your passport.
In fact, a 2005 poll by Time Magazine found that helping others was a major source of happiness for 75 percent of Americans.
“Volunteering is an opportunity to be socially engaged and contribute to the lives of others,” says Stephen Post, a professor at Case Western Reserve University who co-authored the book Why Good Things Happen to Good People with Jill Neimark. “It’s not material goods that make us happy—it’s having purpose and meaning in our lives.”
In fact, some recent research suggests that we’re actually hard-wired for helping. Even thinking about helping others is enough to stimulate the part of our brain associated with feel-good chemicals like oxytocin.
Helping others doesn’t just make us happier, there’s also evidence it makes us healthier too. “Recent research out of England shows that cities with higher rates of volunteerism had the lower rates of depression and heart disease,” says Post.
Don’t have a lot of free time? No worries. People who volunteer just two hours per week (100 hours per year) enjoy lower rates of depression and better physical health.
As Long As You Have Your Health
Perhaps it comes as no surprise to find that healthier people are happier than those who aren't as healthy. In fact, a 2006 report published by the Pew Research Center found that 48 percent of people who rated their health as “excellent” described themselves as “very happy”, while only 15 percent of those who rated their health as “poor” said the same.
After all, it’s harder to be happy when living with chronic pain or illness or when faced with a potentially life-threatening condition.
While health is strongly tied to happiness, lack of health is even more strongly correlated with lack of happiness. Of those who rated their health as “poor,” a whopping percent described them as “not too happy,” while only 6 percent of those in “excellent” health said the same.
According to the Pew Research Center, health—along with religion and marriage—were among the strongest predictors of happiness, even when adjusting for a variety of other variables.
Let the Sunshine In