wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Straits Times 25 Aug 07
More research = greater happiness?
New institutes set up and more scientific methods being used to study happiness

AMSTERDAM - THE tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan long ago dispensed with the notion of gross national product (GDP) as a gauge of well-being.

The king decreed that his people would aspire to Gross National Happiness (GNH) instead. That kernel of Buddhist wisdom is increasingly finding an echo in international policy and development models, which seek to establish scientific methods to find out what makes us happy, and why.

New research institutes are being created to establish methods of judging individual and national well-being.

Governments are putting greater emphasis on promoting mental well- being - not just treating mental illness.

'Happiness research can help you make the best choices,' said Mr Ruut Veenhoven, who created the World Database of Happiness in 1999. He had asked people to rate their happiness level on a scale of zero to 10.

But new studies add objective questions into a mix of feel-good factors: education, nutrition, freedom from fear and violence, gender equality and having choices.

'People's ability to be an agent, to act on behalf of what matters to them, is fundamental,' said Ms Sabina Alkire of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Institute.

Mr Veenhoven's database listing 95 countries is headed by Denmark with a rating of 8.2, followed by Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and Finland - all countries with high per capita income.

At the other end of the scale are poorer countries: Tanzania, rated 3.2, is behind Zimbabwe, Ukraine and Armenia.

Singapore's level of life satisfaction ranges from 6-8 on a scale of 10, which means it is in the top group.

Bhutan, where less than half the people can read or write and 90 per cent are subsistence farmers, ranks No. 8 in his list of happy nations.

Its notion of GNH is based on equitable development, eco-conservation, cultural heritage and good governance. The United States just makes it into the top 15 with a 7.4 index rating, which has been dragged down due to nutrition and violence issues.

Wealth counts, but most studies of individuals show income disparities count more.

In emphasising personal freedom as a root of happiness, Ms Alkire cited her study of women in the southern Indian state of Kerala, which showed that poor women who make their own choices score higher than women with strict fathers or husbands.

US researchers have found other factors: married people are more content than singles, but having children does not raise happiness levels; education and IQ have little impact; attractive people are only slightly happier than the unattractive; the elderly - over 65 - are more satisfied with their lives than the young; and friendships are crucial.

Mr Veenhoven says with the right mix of individual choices and government policy, nations can raise their happiness quotient by as much as 5 per cent.

United Kingdom's opposition leader David Cameron recently established a Quality of Life Policy Group to examine ways governments can legislate to boost national contentment levels.

'It's time we admitted that there's more to life than money, and it's time we focused not just on GDP but on GWB - general well-being,' he said last year.

Even experts acknowledge the difficulty of assigning numerical scales to feelings, and they are still grappling with how best to refine definitions. 'Happiness is more complicated than we originally thought,' said Ms Alkire.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
links
Related articles on Singapore: general environmental issues
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com