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What do we need to make us happy?
A win in Memphis on Jan. 2 would sure go a long way, but we digress. Mick and Keith needed a love to keep them happy. (And in Keith’s case, perhaps a needle.)
Live Science has taken up this rhetorical question, and ranked the “happiest” states, 1-51, (list includes D.C.) based on research from the journal Science.
As it should come August and the preseason college football polls, Arkansas cracks the top 20….at No. 17 in the ranking of the happiest states.
Can happiness be scientifically measured? To what degree do factors such as opportunity, wealth and even weather play? Is it a coincidence that six states generally considered to be located in the Bible belt place in the top 10, while “enlightened” Northeast heavyweights Connecticut and New York come in at 50 and 51, respectively?
(Clever Yankees might argue that ignorance is bliss. Interestingly, the lowest-ranking truly Southern state is Georgia at 19.)
What do you think? Unemployment, the housing market bust…..none of these or other recession staples had as great an impact here. The state is doing its part to foster an environment conducive to tech-based innovation, and GE notwithstanding, Arkansas is poised to become the Silicon Valley of wind turbine manufacturing. That’s just one example of potentially life-changing components on the upswing in Arkansas.
Despite chronic problems including poverty and infrastructure needs, Arkansas seems to be well on its way to coming out from under the national radar. And all said, we seem to be a fairly happy lot.
In terms of the environment for young entrepreneurs here and the future of tech-based innovation and the high-paying jobs it can attract, do we have reason to be happy? Is there a connection between the amount of innovation a state produces and the happiness quotient (HQ?) of its people?
We think so. But for now, we’ll settle for a Hogs hoops turnaround and a Liberty Bowl win. Then, we’ll be Stones happy.
If you’re interested in a new approach to boost your happiness based on the latest positive psychology research, check out our iPhone app: Live Happy; it’s based on the work of Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of “The How of Happiness” and provides a unique method to create a personalized program to increase your happiness.
You can also learn more about the iPhone app on our Facebook page.
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by innovateAR: INOV8: Innovation and the Happiness Quotient http://blog.innovatearkansas.org/2009/12/18/innovation-and-the-happiness-quotient/...
I don’t like these studies at all. They’re dumb. People are happier at different times, and their motivations for happiness are different. It’s VERY dependent on individual characteristics: personalities, intelligence, self-confidence in your beliefs, etc.
It’s a complicated thing. I’ll give my perspective as someone who was raised in Arkansas and has family all around the country and the world–so I feel like I have insight into other places. As someone who has developed an inexplicable fondness with the state, I’ll give my semi-critical perspective–but realize I still love the state.
First, I invite you to take a look at this TED video http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html It defines happiness, and how happiness created. Interesting question: who is happier: A paraplegic or a lottery winner? You might say it’s the lottery winner. Well, one year after the event that either made them a paraplegic or a lottery winner, they are both equally happy. There are two points I want to emphasize from this video: 1) People can synthesize happiness. 2) People who have more choice are actually less happy.
So, looking at this list, it seems like the poorest states, on average, are the happiest. Honestly, this does not surprise me. As much as it doesn’t surround right, I would say in my personal experience that ignorance IS bliss. That is, people with lower education levels are more likely to be happy. (How many times have you across a homeless dude who was utterly convinced he had found nirvana?) Why? My opinion: it’s because you have less concerns, and you know less about what’s going on around the world. When you know more, you have more baggage (both on a personal level and on a larger level); you’re more trapped by your thoughts.
“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.” – Albert Schweitzer
A proxy to knowing less (less educated) is that you have less choice. The video I linked explores this idea. When students were not given a choice in the TED experiments, they were happier. They couldn’t look back and say, “Well, maybe I should have done this instead of this.” When you’re intelligent, you have more choice, which paradoxically invites more self-doubt.
“As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.” -Socrates
Life is just as much about what you choose NOT to do as much as it is what you choose to do. Steve Jobs had a quote saying that he is just as proud of what he chose NOT to as what he chose to do. Think about very smart people you know: how many of them wonder if they could have been a lawyer, or a doctor, or an entrepreneur…etc.
“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” –Ernest Hemingway
And on average, people in rural/isolated/poorer areas are exposed to less, which means they know less. When you know less, it’s also another way of saying you have less choice. You become convinced that your way of life is the best. The opportunity costs of doing something else are higher….so you have less choice, and you’re happier. I come from a religious family, so I am certain there is a religious factor. People who are more religious are convinced that they have the answer. This self-confidence in their beliefs generates happiness.
I am not going to make any more interpretations, but I will state the following facts. If you were to draw a regression between the happiest states (according to this list) and other variables, you would find:
1. On average, there is a negative relationship between happiness and educational levels.
2. On average, there is a positive relationship between happiness and religiosity.
This is ultimately, in my opinion, a story about selection. In other words, it’s a story about the individual characteristics of people who choose to live where they live. So, what types of people choose to live in a state like Louisiana #1 vs what types of people choose to live in a state like New York #50? What are their education levels? What are their religious levels? And given these individual characteristics, what do we generally know about them and happiness? (This is studied in political science, where people with similar types of characteristics want to live by each other.)
Based on this data, if were to break this down to the state level, I would hypothesize that Fayetteville and Little Rock would be the least happy, and places like Searcy would be the most happy.
I need to make an addendum to my last comment.
Based on my experience:
-The weather sucks in the North. It’s too cold. For me, cold is nice as a novelty that you ski in every now and then. It makes you miserable if you have to deal with it for several months. Weather can play a large role on the happiness of people, as evidenced by seasonal depression disorders.
The weather, and the types of people who can be happier through simpler means, might create an overall environment of happiness. This overall environment of happiness acts as an independent variable in itself.
In other words, the fact that people are happier probably creates a friendlier environment, which in turn makes more people happy. The dependent variable (overall level of happiness), in fact, acts as an independent variable as well.