I read an interesting article today, from a surprising source. The Gallup organization (operators of the famous Gallup Poll) publish an online journal called the Gallup Management Journal. This months edition includes an article titled “The Economics of Happiness” which provides a brief overview of several different research projects which are examining life satisfaction around the globe.

This review provides a rather schismatic view. On the one hand, some research shows that income and assets appear to be intimately linked to happiness, reporting that wealthier countries have higher levels of life satisfaction. This is hardly surprising, given that the average population wealth of countries is also associated with longer lower rates of infant mortality, AIDS, starvation, and a longer and more pleasant lifespan in most ways you would care to measure it. On the other hand, some research shows that income is less important to life satisfaction than the quality of interpersonal relationships and emotional factors related to one’s work and home environment (i.e., trust). John Helliwell, co-director of the Program on Social Interactions, Identity, and Well-Being at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, is quoted as saying:

“People tend to overestimate the amount of satisfaction they will get from material things and underestimate the satisfaction they derive from human connections. That’s one reason so many people choose a work environment that ends up making them miserable.”

This struck me as a truly fascinating statement, with a wide variety of implications. Most notably, in light of the just concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and the media saturation with new gadgets that has attended it, might this statement explain why people, and especially young people, are so enamored (dare I say obsessed?) with having the newest in electronic gadgetry? Think about it. When you were young, did you have much, if any, choice about your “work” environment (i.e., school and/or your first jobs)? In general, isn’t age negatively related to empowerment in the work-place and institutions, and positively related to a desire to own every button laden digital device sporting an LCD screen available to sit in front of, stick in your pocket, or strap to your wrist? Older people generally have more money, yet advertisers bend over backwards to appeal to the youth demographic, and with good reason: they don’t just buy stuff, they need things in a way that older people generally don’t. Is this burning need for stuff basically making up for the lack of control over key aspects of their social environment?

I may be blowing this entirely out of proportion, of course, but if I could show that in a group of people, the more likely you are to be happily married the less likely you are to own an iPhone, I doubt anyone in Silicon Valley would be very surprised.

Further Reading:

The Economics of Happiness http://gmj.gallup.com/content/103549/Economics-Happiness.aspx#1