The new science of happiness has its

roots in an ancient art

Anjana Ahuja
science writer
Contentment stems not from material wealth but from relationships, writes Anjana Ahuja
AP

B
razilian supermodel Gisele Bndchen revealed recently that before going to sleep she mentally ticks off
the things for which she is thankful. This must be a cumbersome exercise: the long-limbed beauty is the
worlds highest-paid clothes horse; is married to a rich, handsome American football star ; she has two
gorgeous children; features in Forbes annual power list; and, in her spare time, is a UN goodwill
ambassador for the environment.
She is obviously clued up about happiness research, too, which extols the benefits of counting ones
blessings usually in a gratitude journal. This kind of ledger is bound to figure in a series of evening
classes launched this week across the UK by a group called Action for Happiness. The six-week selfimprovement course, endorsed by the Dalai Lama, claims to harness the science of happiness, which has
charmed its way into policymaking.
Also this week, the Office for National Statistics published its geographical league table of
personal wellbeing in the UK, compiled by quizzing 165,000 people on how satisfied they are with

life. Fermanagh in Northern Ireland is the jolly table-topper; London is steeped in melancholy.
Since the ultimate goal in life for most people is to be happy, the logic goes, governments should
find ways of increasing civic contentment.
But the science of wellbeing has turned out, over the past 15 years, to be a keenly disputed field of
psychology whose practitioners have struggled to elucidate the nature of nirvana, let alone put numbers to
it. Meanwhile, happiness has become a central issue in public health. A 2014 study of 3,000 older people,
led by Professor Andrew Steptoe at University College London, found that participants who said they
enjoyed life saw a slower rate of physical decline than their curmudgeonly peers , even taking into account
other factors such as income, smoking and drinking.
Scientists have been hunting the precise mechanism through which a positive state of mind exerts a
beneficial effect on our biology. Barbara Fredrickson, a psychology professor at the University of North
Carolina, published a startling paper in 2013 suggesting that the genomic profile of deeply contented
people differed measurably from those of others, possibly influencing immune function. The finding
provoked publicity and then controversy; one reanalysis using Prof Fredricksons data failed to reach the
same conclusion.
True happiness is rarely a succession of immediate, individual pleasures, such as sex, drugs
and chocolate
None of which should stop us from trying to discern the elements of a happy life. This is the goal of the
Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, which combines research on
happiness with practical recommendations. It defines happiness as the experience of joy, contentment,
or positive wellbeing, combined with a sense that ones life is good, meaningful and worthwhile.
Contentment stems not from material wealth, as the rich keep reminding us, but from relationships and
personal development. Compassion and altruism seem central.
And this is, perhaps, the most helpful pointer furnished by science: true happiness is rarely a succession
of immediate, individual pleasures, such as sex, drugs and chocolate. Indeed, many experiences deemed
enriching raising children, mastering an instrument, donating a kidney require pain and sacrifice.
Happiness appears to be linked to living a life of purpose and meaning; the ONS survey now asks
residents whether their lives feel worthwhile.
It is not so different, in fact, from Aristotles concept of eudaimonia, a state of bliss redefined today as
human flourishing and representing a kind of contentment rooted in virtuous striving. Psychologists are
starting to distinguish eudaemonic wellbeing from its shallower cousin, hedonic wellbeing. It is a revealing
trend: the thoroughly modern science of happiness has finally caught up with what the Greeks were
thinking more than two millennia ago.
The writer is a science commentator