| > That being said, I think there is merit to your second point, although I don’t believe we have enough evidence to know. There was a nice research summary posted on LessWrong some long time ago: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ZbgCx2ntD5eu8Cno9/how-to-be-... It mentions various "factors that correlate with subjective well-being (individuals' own assessments of their happiness and life satisfaction)". Quoting from it: <<< Factors that don't correlate much with happiness include: age[7], gender[8], parenthood[9], intelligence[10], physical attractiveness[11], and money[12] (as long as you're above the poverty line). Factors that correlate moderately with happiness include: health[13], social activity[14], and religiosity[15]. Factors that correlate strongly with happiness include: genetics[16], love and relationship satisfaction[17], and work satisfaction[18]. (...) Genes account for about 50% of the variance in happiness[19]. Even lottery winners and newly-made quadriplegics do not see as much of a change in happiness as you would expect[20]. Presumably, genes shape your happiness by shaping your personality, which is known to be quite heritable[21]. So which personality traits tend to correlate most with happiness? Extroversion is among the best predictors of happiness[22], as are conscientiousness, agreeableness, self-esteem, and optimism[23]. >>> Numbers I put in square brackets in the quote above are all references to papers. The article goes on to discuss how those correlates suggest effective ways of improving your own happiness. I'm not in the field so I won't judge the quality of the referenced research, or how much results have changed since 2011, but still, it seems that we do know quite a lot about this. (Also note that, despite it being very unpopular fact, genes seem to pop up as strong - even leading - predictor in very many personal traits, including intelligence.) |