Sample synthesis report with lists

The U-bend of life

The article presents the perception of our own well-being level throughout our lives as a U-bend: people are least happy in their 40s and early 50s, reaching a nadir (commonly known as the mid-life crisis) at a global average of 46.

As it is postulated by certain economists, the idea that there is no direct relationship between money and well-being has penetrated the policy arena in Bhutan, where the concept of Gross National Happiness shapes the planning process. Along the same lines, N. Sarkozy asked two Nobel-prize-winning economists to come up with a broader measure of happiness than GDP. Even the British Government authorities are planning to collect figures on well-being.

In the surveys already being conducted, the following two questions typify the respective parameters in measuring global and hedonic/emotional well-being:

• How do you feel about your life as a whole?
• Did you feel happy/contented/angry/anxious yesterday?

At the basis of these surveys is the perennial question of what makes people happy.  In this regard, the four main factors considered in levels of well-being are gender, personality, external circumstances and age.

Gender

On the one hand, women are slightly happier than men; but on the other hand, they are also more susceptible to depression, i.e., a fifth to a quarter of the former compared to a tenth of the latter.

Personality

There are two personality types distinguished: neurotic and extrovert. People in the first category tend to be unhappier than the ones in the second. Cross-cultural studies confirm this claim.  For example, on average, the British are  more extrovert and thus happier than the Chinese and the Japanese.

External circumstances

External circumstances such as being married give people a considerable uplift. More education also seems to make people happier, because it makes them richer: richer people are happier than poorer ones. In some countries (such as, South Africa or Russia) the effect of income on well-being is closer than in others (such as, Britain or Japan). The variation in life satisfaction between countries is huge. The countries at the top are all developed ones. The countries at the bottom are mostly the African ones, together with Haiti and Iraq.

Richer countries are clearly happier, but cultural factors are at work, as well. In general Western Europeans and North Americans have a high life satisfaction – the Portuguese are an exception in this respect. Hong Kong and Denmark have similar incomes per person, but Hong Kong's average life satisfaction is much lower than Denmark's.

Age

Studies concerning the age factor have delivered the following surprising results:

• When a 30- and a 70-year-old have to rate their own well-being, the 70-year-old is happier than the younger one.
• The U-bend appears all over the world and varies among countries, e.g., the Ukrainians are at their most miserable at 62 and the Swiss at 35.
• The nadir shows up in both global and hedonic/emotional well-being levels.
• The accumulation of data undermines the idea of a cohort effect, e. g., it appears among Americans and Zimbabweans consistently.

External circumstances (the older being richer, employment status and living with teenage children) do not account for the U-bend.  The personal changes people undergo as they get older is the explanation of this effect. The following theories are offered  as the possible reasons for this phenomenon:

• As the old know they are closer to death, they come to focus more on things that matter now and less on long-term goals.
• As they get older, people accept their strengths and weaknesses.
• The old see value in old age itself.

Although old people tend to be less healthy than the young and the middle-aged, their cheerfulness may help counteract their crumbliness.  For, happier people are healthier.  Happier people are also more productive. The cheerfulness of the old should help offset their loss of productivity through declining cognitive skills. This point is worth stressing when it comes to the question of how to deal with an aging workforce. The aging of the rich world is generally seen as a burden on the economy and "a problem to be solved", whereas the U-bend shows us that the greyer the world gets, the brighter it becomes.