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If We Are So Rich, Why Aren't We Happy?

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If We Are So Rich, Why Aren't We Happy? If We Are So Rich, Why Aren't We Happy? Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Claremont Graduate University Ever since systematic thought has been recorded, the ques- thought about such things assumed that increases in plea- tion of what makes men and women happy has been of sure and happiness would come from increased affluence, central concern. Answers to this question have ranged from from greater control over the material environment. The the materialist extreme of searching for happiness in ex- great self-confidence of the Western technological nations, ternal conditions to the spiritual extreme claiming that and especially of the United States, was in large part happiness is the result of a mental attitude. Psychologists because of the belief that materialism—the prolongation of have recently rediscovered this topic. Research supports a healthy life, the acquisition of wealth, the ownership of both the materialist and the mentalist positions, although consumer goods—would be the royal road to a happy life. the latter produces the stronger findings. The article fo- However, the virtual monopoly of materialism as the cuses in particular on one dimension of happiness: the flow dominant ideology has come at the price of a trivialization experience, or the state of total involvement in an activity that has robbed it of much of the truth it once contained. In that requires complete concentration. current use, it amounts to little more than a thoughtless hedonism, a call to do one's thing regardless of conse- quences, a belief that whatever feels good at the moment must be worth doing. sychology is the heir to those "sciences of man" envisioned by Enlightenment thinkers such as Gi- This is a far cry from the original view of materialists, anbattista Vico, David Hume, and the baron de such as John Locke, who were aware of the futility of P pursuing happiness without qualifications and who advo- Montesquieu. One of their fundamental conclusions was that the pursuit of happiness constituted the basis of both cated the pursuit of happiness through prudence—making individual motivation and social well-being. This insight sure that people do not mistake imaginary happiness for into the human condition was condensed by John Locke real happiness. (1690/1975) in his famous statement, "That we call Good What does it mean to pursue happiness through pru- which is apt to. cause or increase pleasure, or diminish dence? Locke must have derived his inspiration from the pain" (p. 2), whereas evil is the reverse—it is what causes Greek philosopher Epicurus, who 2,300 years ago already or increases pain and diminishes pleasure. saw clearly that to enjoy a happy life, one must develop The generation of utilitarian philosophers that fol- self-discipline. The materialism of Epicurus was solidly lowed Locke, including David Hartley, Joseph Priestley, based on the ability to defer gratification. He claimed that and Jeremy Bentham, construed a good society as that although all pain was evil, this did not mean one should which allows the greatest happiness for the greatest number always avoid pain—for instance, it made sense to put up (Bentham, 1789/1970, pp. 64-65). This focus on pleasure with pain now if one was sure to avoid thereby a greater or happiness as the touchstone of private and public life is pain later. He wrote to his friend Menoeceus by no means a brainchild of post-Reformation Europe. It was already present in the writings of the Greeks—for The beginning and the greatest good ... is prudence. For this instance, Aristotle noted that although humankind values a reason prudence is more valuable even than philosophy: from it derive all the other virtues. Prudence teaches us how impossible great many things, such as health, fame, and possessions, because we think that they will make us happy, we value happiness for itself. Thus, happiness is the only intrinsic Editor's note. The January 2000 issue of this journal is a special issue goal that people seek for its own sake, the bottom line of all devoted to articles on optimal human functioning, happiness, and positive desire. The idea that furthering the pursuit of happiness psychology. The issue was guest edited by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and should be one of the responsibilities of a just government Martin E. P. Seligman. was of course enshrined later in the Declaration of Inde- pendence of the United States. Author's note. This research was funded in part by the Spencer Foun- dation and by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, whose support is hereby Despite this recognition on the part of the human gratefully acknowledged. However, none of my conclusions are neces- sciences that happiness is the fundamental goal of life, sarily endorsed by these foundations. I also thank Jeremy P. Hunter and there has been slow progress in understanding what hap- Rustin Wolfe for help with some of the data analyses mentioned in this article. Finally, I thank Jonathan Baron, David Myers, Barry Schwartz, piness itself consists of. Perhaps because the heyday of and Martin E. P. Seligman for suggestions that have improved this article. utilitarian philosophy coincided with the start of the enor- Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Mi- mous forward strides in public health and in the manufac- haly Csikszentmihalyi, Department of Psychology, Claremont Graduate turing and distribution of goods, the majority of those who University, 1021 North Dartmouth Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711. October 1999 • American Psychologist 821 Copyright 1999 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0003-066X/99/S2.00 Vol. 54, No. 10, 821-827 addicted to drugs for falling asleep, for waking up, for staying slim, for escaping boredom and depression? Why are suicides and loneliness such a problem in Sweden, which has applied the best of socialist principles to provide material security to its people? Direct evidence about the ambiguous relationship of material and subjective well-being comes from studies of happiness that psychologists and other social scientists have finally started to pursue, after a long delay in which research on happiness was considered too soft for scientists to undertake. It is true that these surveys are based on self-reports and on verbal scales that might have different meanings depending on the culture and the language in which they are written. Thus, the results of culturally and methodologically circumscribed studies need to be taken with more than the usual grain of salt. Nevertheless, at this point they represent the state of the art—an art that will inevitably become more precise with time. Although cross-national comparisons show a reason- able correlation between the wealth of a country as mea- Mihaly sured by its gross national product and the self-reported Csikszentmihalyi happiness of its inhabitants (Inglehart, 1990), the relation- ship is far from perfect. The inhabitants of Germany and Japan, for instance, nations with more than twice the gross national product of Ireland, report much lower levels of it is to live pleasantly without living wisely, virtuously, and happiness. justly ... take thought, then, for these and kindred matters day and night.... You shall be disturbed neither waking nor sleep- Comparisons within countries show an even weaker ing, and you shall live as a god among men. (Epicurus of Samos, relationship between material and subjective well-being. trans. 1998, p. 48) Diener, Horwitz, and Emmons (1985), in a study of some of the wealthiest individuals in the United States, found This is not the image of epicureanism held by most their levels of happiness to be barely above that of indi- people. The popular view holds that pleasure and material viduals with average incomes. After following a group of comforts should be grasped wherever they can, and that lottery winners, Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman these alone will improve the quality of one's life. As the (1978) concluded that despite their sudden increase in fruits of technology have ripened and the life span has wealth, their happiness was no different from that of people lengthened, the hope that increased material rewards would struck by traumas, such as blindness or paraplegia. That bring about a better life seemed for a while justified. having more money to spend does not necessarily bring Now, at the end of the second millennium, it is be- about greater subjective well-being has also been docu- coming clear that the solution is not that simple. Inhabitants mented on a national scale by David G. Myers (1993). His of the wealthiest industrialized Western nations are living calculations show that although the adjusted value of after- in a period of unprecedented riches, in conditions that tax personal income in the United States has more than previous generations would have considered luxuriously doubled between 1960 and 1990, the percentage of people comfortable, in relative peace and security, and they are describing themselves as "very happy" has remained un- living on the average close to twice as long as their great- changed at 30% (Myers, 1993, pp. 41-42). grandparents did. Yet, despite all these improvements in In the American Psychologist'' s January 2000 special material conditions, it does not seem that people are so issue on positive psychology, David G. Myers (in press) much more satisfied with their lives than they were before. and Ed Diener (in press) discuss in great detail the lack of The Ambiguous Relationship Between relationship between material and subjective well-being, so I will not belabor the point here. Suffice it to say that in Material and Subjective Well-Being current longitudinal studies of a representative sample of The indirect evidence that those of us living in the United almost 1,000 American adolescents conducted with the States today are not happier than our ancestors were comes experience sampling method and supported by the Sloan from national statistics of social pathology—the figures Foundation, a consistently low negative relationship be- that show the doubling and tripling of violent crimes, tween material and subjective well-being has been found family breakdown, and psychosomatic complaints since at (Csikszentmihalyi & Schneider, in press).
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