Conclusion: Actions for Happiness

One candle can light a hundred other candles and continue to burn just as brightly.

–– Buddha

For many people this is a good time to be alive: we are happier than people were in most previous centuries. But even in the richest countries there is still much misery. Mental illness remains common, family conflict is frequent, and work is increasingly stressful. The dominant competitive culture makes most of us unnecessarily anxious and isolated from our fellows: it is a zero-sum philosophy which cannot lead to a happier society. But a better culture is available, based on:

The key idea

The idea comes first, because without a clear and better goal for our lives, little will change. Tinkering is not enough to solve our problems. To defeat a bad idea requires another idea that is bigger and better.

The idea is simple: that we judge our society by the happiness of the citizens, especially the happiness levels of those who are the least happy. That is the most reasonable measure of success. The goal therefore is a happier society – one where most people are happier and, above all, where fewer people are really unhappy. Some people argue against this approach, saying that there are many goods and therefore many objectives. But we cannot decide what to do unless we can compare these objectives. And, once we do that, we will find ourselves comparing them in terms of their effects on happiness – which brings us back to where we started.

So the basic principle of our moral philosophy should be this: that each of us tries to create the most happiness in the world that we can, especially among those who are least happy.

Many young people lack a clear purpose, and suffer from increasing problems with their mental health.1 Here instead is an inspiring goal which puts the whole of life into perspective. It requires us to tame the egotistic side of our inherited nature and to cultivate the pro-social side. We need to develop the habit of unconditional benevolence and the capacity to feel what others feel.

The happiness goal also provides us with the basic principle of political philosophy: that policy-makers should try to create the most happiness they can, especially amongst those who are least happy. This, too, is an inspiring credo and can lead to much better policies, aimed especially at the relief of misery.

Science and mind-training

Ideas, however, are not enough. We also need to know how to implement them. In the last forty years there has been an explosion in the science of happiness. Research has confirmed that economic growth is no guarantee of increased happiness, especially in more advanced societies. The key factors affecting our happiness are mental health, physical health, and our human relationships – in the family, at work and in the community.

We now have new tools for improving all of these dimensions of our life. Physical health care is improving rapidly, but even more importantly we now have better ways to manage our mental life. The first breakthrough was in the treatment of mental illness. After the drug discoveries came psychological therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). These lead to recovery for over 50 per cent of people suffering from depression or from anxiety disorders like PTSD, OCD, panic attacks and social phobia. Next, the ideas behind CBT provided the basis for positive psychology, from which we can all benefit and enhance our wellbeing. At the same time, modern science has shown how different types of meditation can improve our inner calm and our capacity to empathize with others. So the greatest revolution of all can be in ourselves.

These are the tools for building a happier world.

The world happiness movement

This knowledge is already being applied by millions of people worldwide, both in their own lives and in schools, workplaces, clinics, community centres and policy-making worldwide. Figure 14.1 attempts to assemble some of the key features of the world happiness movement that we have been discussing in this book.

This movement involves millions of people who believe there is more to life than income and success, and that the ultimate reality for humans is how we feel. Most obviously, there are the users of Eastern practices (mindfulness, meditation and spiritual forms of yoga) and of Western practices (positive psychology and the different forms of self-help). Not all of them subscribe precisely to the Happiness Principle, but most of them come close to it. The same is true of most mental-health workers – one of the world’s most rapidly growing professions, especially if we include counsellors and life coaches.

Then we come to the huge number of enlightened teachers, managers, community workers and volunteers, consciously trying to enhance the happiness of those around them. All of them have a similar aim – to produce not GDP but lives that flourish. Finally, we have the smaller number of enlightened policy-makers in each country and the researchers who support their efforts. The star organization here is the OECD, the club of rich nations. But wellbeing is becoming, to some extent, an objective of many governments, with inter-governmental meetings organized both by the OECD and the World Government Summit, as well as by the World Happiness Summit. Two major annual international publications support this effort: the World Happiness Report and the Global Happiness and Wellbeing Policy Report.

Figure 14.1
The world happiness movement

Who can do what?

So how can different groups contribute to a happier world? We have a mass of evidence on this. It includes some of the experiments we have discussed earlier and which are summarized in Table 14.1. And from all of this evidence there emerges clear guidance for people in different walks of life.

TEACHERS

If you want to predict whether a child will have a satisfying adult life, the most important thing is whether the child is happy, not the grades they achieve. Schools have much more effect on their children’s happiness than most people think. So schools should have the happiness and values of their children as major goals. To achieve this rebalancing of priorities, schools should measure the wellbeing of the children (and its progress) on a regular basis, as they do throughout the Netherlands.

To improve wellbeing will often require a major change in the ethos of the school. In addition children can be taught to be happier and more compassionate by using evidence-based materials throughout their school life. This should become standard practice. It should not worsen exam performance, but rather improve it. And teachers should be offered courses on mental health and on classroom management, based on the evidence of what works.

MANAGERS

For most people, work is the least enjoyable experience of the day, worse even than housework. And the worst time of all is when people are with their line manager. So the philosophy of most line managers needs to change. If work is organized so that more value is placed on the happiness of the workers, this reduces the quit-rate of workers and increases both productivity and the bottom line. But, more importantly, it improves the workers’ quality of life.

In order for this to happen, workers need to have more control over how their work is organized. They need a less competitive working atmosphere, with an end to ‘forced ranking’ of team members. Managers need to be selected for their ability to inspire as well as to organize, and they need courses on how to do that. They also need to understand mental illness and to get help for their workers if they are struggling. And, of course, firms should measure worker wellbeing and print the results on the front page of their Annual Report.

HEALTH WORKERS

We need a revolution in health care. Someone who is suffering from mental-health problems should be as likely to get the best available treatment as someone with a physical illness. That is what parity of esteem for mental health means. The treatment should have good evidence of success, which means proper measurement of its outcome. Good treatments averaging under ten sessions now exist for depression and anxiety disorders, but even in the richest countries most people who need them do not get them. Such treatments pay for themselves through the amount they save on welfare benefits and extra physical health care.

Table 14.1
Some effective interventions

Intervention Impact
By schools
Good Behaviour Game (at age 6)
Anti-social behaviour halved (at age 20)
Healthy Minds (140 hours from age 11–15) Life-satisfaction increased by 7% points (at age 15)
Positive Education (100 hours, secondary school) Wellbeing and academic performance up by 8–19% points (one year later)
By managers
STAR participatory programme (8 hours for team, 12 hours for manager)
Job satisfaction up 11% points and quitting down by 1/3 (after 6 months)
Working from home (call centres) Life-satisfaction +18%; productivity +13%; quitting –50% (after 9 months)
Stopping forced ranking (of sales reps) Sales +11%
By health workers
CBT for anxiety/depression (average 7 sessions)
Recovery during treatment 50%, depression relapse halved
Anti-depressants (for severe depression) Recovery during treatment 50%, relapse unaffected unless drugs continue
Incredible Years (10 group sessions for parents of disturbed young children) Conduct disorder –80% (years later)
CBT for couples in conflict (10 sessions) 50% of couples now satisfied with the relationship (after 6 months)
By communities
Experience Corps (over 60s giving literacy support to children)
Growth of hippocampal and cortical brain areas (after 2 years)
Loneliness prevention (old people in day-care centres) Subjective health +25%
By individuals
Exploring What Matters
Life-satisfaction up 20% points

So in every country much more needs to be spent on mental health. Of course, physical health is also a major factor affecting happiness (and length of life). So, as countries get richer, the share of GDP going on health care, both physical and mental, has to rise. And the use of narcotic drugs should be treated as a health problem, not an issue of criminal justice.

FAMILIES

Family relationships are crucial to our happiness. If conflict occurs within the family, there are excellent treatments of around ten sessions, which can frequently restore lost love, even after domestic violence or infidelity. However, it would be better to prevent these conflicts from arising in the first place, often after the first child arrives. So all parents should be offered ante-natal classes which cover not only physical childbirth and childcare, but the relationship between the parents and their relationship with the child. And, if the child develops behavioural problems, there are excellent training courses for parents in how to help their child. Once the child is over one year old, there is no reason why both parents should not work. But at that point there has to be good childcare available, and at the time of childbirth there must be generous parental leave.

COMMUNITIES

Everybody needs to feel they belong. They need to belong to a family, to belong at work, and to belong to a local community. Some communities feel more friendly than others, with individuals genuinely engaging with each other. Happy communities are characterized by high levels of volunteering, a physical layout which encourages a sense of belonging, and typically an adequate amount of green space. But two factors can undermine the feeling of belonging: crime and ethnic differences. The solution to these is not to retreat into the bunker; it is to endeavour skilfully to reach out to the ex-prisoner and the migrant, and draw them into the community.

ECONOMISTS

Economists are different from any of the groups we have considered so far. They have two roles. One is to introduce a revolution in policy-making, where all policies get judged by how they contribute to the happiness of the people. The second role is to press for better management of the economy itself. In that sphere priority should go, not to long-term growth, but to economic stability. There should be a low level of unemployment, secured by an active labour market policy and a guarantee of work after one year of unemployment. Income inequality should be reduced by ensuring that everyone gets a decent level of skill. Wherever possible, we should help people to earn a decent life for themselves, rather than hand them cash. And poor countries should not go for helter-skelter growth, but for a pattern of development that maintains or creates meaningful communities. Uncontrolled international migration cannot be the answer to world poverty, since it would lead to unmanageable tensions.

SCIENTISTS AND TECHNOLOGISTS

Ultimately, the material basis of our society will be decided by the scientists and engineers. Pure science must be driven by pure curiosity. But for applied research priority should surely be given to those inventions which are most likely to increase human happiness.

First among these should be cheap, clean energy. The only sure way to protect our climate is to make clean energy cheaper to produce than dirty energy. Until recently only 4 per cent of publicly funded research in the world has been on the production of clean energy. Mission Innovation is doubling that, and hopefully clean energy research will attract the brightest and best of our young scientists.

Second come discoveries that will reduce pain, especially mental pain. At present under 5 per cent of medical research goes on mental health. Third, I would suggest, come robots. Billions of people do work which is either back-breaking or boring. Robots can replace these jobs, releasing those displaced to do more interesting work – provided they are given the necessary skills.

As a social scientist, I should end with social science. It is the job of social scientists to discover the causes of happiness and misery – direct and indirect. It is also their job to organize thousands of detailed experiments to find out how we can best promote the happiness of our people.

POLITICIANS

But in the end it is the politicians who will make the key decisions. Their goal should be the happiness of the people – the new ideology should be the Happiness Principle. This should be the goal of every government and it should be the guiding principle behind each party’s political manifesto. So what difference would it make if politics was about the happiness of the people? What would be the new priorities? Here is my first draft of an election manifesto for a party focused on people’s wellbeing (see Figure 14.2).

Figure 14.2
The election manifesto of a party focused on people’s wellbeing

Each of us

That is the view from the top down. But in the end what matters even more is what comes from the bottom up. I have left until last the role of each of us as individuals. In the end, it is our goals that will determine the happiness of our society. The goal of personal success is a dead end since it is zero-sum; it will not produce the greater happiness we desire. Instead, we need a positive-sum culture which focuses explicitly on creating a happier world.

We need individuals who consciously commit themselves to creating as much happiness as they can for others and for themselves. These aims are not generally in conflict. Helping others is the surest way to avoid self-absorption, but we do also need to care for our own happiness and to develop a technique for being happy whatever happens to us. Such techniques may not always work. But as Abraham Lincoln (who was a depressive) once said, ‘Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.’ We owe it to ourselves to manage our emotions and to find things to celebrate day by day.

To live well is not easy. It is much easier if you meet regularly with others of like mind, to be supported, comforted and inspired. This has been one role for the churches, mosques, synagogues and temples throughout the ages. But we live in an increasingly secular age and now we need a secular ethic. We also need secular organizations that embody that spirit. That is why Action for Happiness was founded, with the Dalai Lama as patron. It now has 130,000 members in 180 countries, and over a million followers online. It has groups that meet regularly after taking the eight-session course on Exploring What Matters, and it is growing rapidly.

So whether you belong to an organization like Action for Happiness or to none, I wonder whether you would like to consider what you will do differently in your life as a result of reading this book. It’s up to you, but if you would like to, feel free to record whatever new ideas you have about how you might make the world a better place.

MY PERSONAL MANIFESTO TO MYSELF

Conclusion

The world happiness movement is a house of many rooms. It is not a movement of drop-outs; it is a movement of people who want to engage passionately in the welfare of others, while taking care of their own inner space.

There is no objective reason why so many lives in the West should be so stressful. We ourselves have created the stress by our goals, and the way our institutions respond to them. If we change our goals, we really can produce a happier society.

Future generations will be shocked by many of the unthinking and unskilful features of life today. They will be shocked at the neglect of mental illness, at the stresses imposed on our children, and at the common assumption that everyone is an egotist.

But cultures can be changed and change is often rapid. Until recently, men dominated the world of work, gay couples had to hide in shame, and it was fashionable to smoke in public places. Even more recently, domestic violence, child abuse and sexual harassment were swept under the carpet. But no longer. In every case it is a powerful social movement that has brought about the change.

So the world happiness movement can indeed bring in a better, gentler culture and do it fast. But what happens will ultimately depend on each one of us. We can all be heroes in the happiness revolution.