Does happiness lead to success?

David Bolchover summarises recent research on happiness in today's Daily Telegraph, arguing Get happy - it could make you rich. He starts by summarising an article in the APA's latest Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 131(6), by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Laura King and Ed Diener, which reviewed 225 studies on the positive correlation between success and subjective well-being. Happy individuals tend also to be more successful - but which way does the causality go?

Their article, The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success? (PDF), concluded that the major driver is happiness ('positive affect') helping people to succeed, rather than success making people happier: "happiness causes many of the successful outcomes with which it correlates." Here is the author's abstract:

Numerous studies show that happy individuals are successful across multiple life domains, including marriage, friendship, income, work performance, and health. The authors suggest a conceptual model to account for these findings, arguing that the happiness-success link exists not only because success makes people happy, but also because positive affect engenders success.

Three classes of evidence - crosssectional, longitudinal, and experimental - are documented to test their model. Relevant studies are described and their effect sizes combined meta-analytically. The results reveal that happiness is associated with and precedes numerous successful outcomes, as well as behaviors paralleling success. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that positive affect - the hallmark of well-being - may be the cause of many of the desirable characteristics, resources, and successes correlated with happiness. Limitations, empirical issues, and important future research questions are discussed.

However the authors note that the flow is not all one way:

Part of the explanation for this phenomenon undoubtedly comes from the fact that success leads to happiness.

And they add some important caveats:

It would be absurd, however, to suggest that chronic happiness is necessary for all forms of success and thriving. Plenty of exceptions are in evidence. The conclusion we draw is much more modest—that positive affect is one strength among several that can help achieve approach-oriented success. Certainly other resources, such as intelligence, family connections, expert skill, and physical fitness, can also figure prominently in success.

An important and very interesting paper. It's a pity few economists bother to review the evidence in their field in such a painstaking and thoughtful way.

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