Daily choices can affect long-term happiness

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19545-daily-choices-can-affect-longterm-happiness.html

16:53 05 October 2010 by Jessica Hamzelou
Magazine issue 2781

The widely accepted "set-point" theory of happiness says that an individual's long-term happiness tends to be stable because it depends mainly on genetic factors. The idea is based in part on studies that show identical twins to have more similar levels of life satisfaction than non-identical twins, and suggests that although your level of happiness may occasionally be thrown off by major life events, it will always return to a set level within two years.

To find out whether people really are destined for a certain level of happiness, Bruce Headey at the University of Melbourne in Australia and his team questioned people in Germany about their jobs, lifestyles and social and religious activities. The survey was initially completed by 3000 people annually, but that rose to 60,000 per year by the end of the 25-year study period.

They found that certain changes in lifestyle led to significant long-term changes in reported life satisfaction, rather than causing the temporary deflections in happiness that set-point theory would suggest.

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Altruism and family values also influenced long-term happiness. People whose annual survey responses changed to place a higher priority on altruistic behaviours and family goals were rewarded with a long-term increase in life satisfaction. Those who prioritised career and material success, however, experienced a corresponding lasting decline.

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