Natalie Jones

Professor Morean

English 1201.504

12 July 2021

Literature Review

As someone who wants to be successful and happy, I find myself wondering if there is a

correlation between the two. In this case, I am defining successful people the way they are generally

perceived by society, relatively wealthy and relatively intelligent. This is not my complete idea of

success, however for research purposes it will be. In this research, I am trying to find out if successful

people are truly happier.

For a long time, money and happiness were associated directly. It is and was generally believed

that if you have the money to buy what you want, live where you want, and do what you want that you

will be the happiest version of yourself. However, with recent research, this common belief may really

be a misconception and insight to what happiness really is.

A common theme throughout the research and articles was to assess the relationship between

intelligence (in this case success) and happiness on two levels. The first was an individual’s measured

intelligence and reported happiness; and the second was a nation’s intelligence and overall happiness.

Little correlation was found on the individual level, however more intelligent, richer nations always

reported to have happier citizens. Another thing commonly discussed was the relationship between

expectations and happiness. Those who expected less were more grateful when they received the same

or lesser amount than those with higher expectations. Out of all the life circumstances, gratitude

actually had the strongest correlation to the happiness of an individual. Wealth was also found to have a
strong impact on happiness, even more than intelligence, but past the line of enough wealth to afford

basic needs, the correlation grew weaker. Finally, success, the way I am defining it, tends to relate to

social class. Those in higher social classes are generally perceived to be more successful, and vice versa.

The theory is both high and low social classes experience happiness just in different ways and emotions.

The research about intelligence vs happiness in individuals and nations was analyzed by Ruut

Veenhoven, a Dutch Sociologist, and Yowon Choi, a teacher and researcher with a PhD in psychology in

Does Intelligence Boost Happiness? Smartness of All Pays More than Being Smarter than Others. They

used measured IQ scores and reported happiness to compare on the individual level and average IQ to

compare on a national level. It was very impactful and comes up in most of the other articles about this

topic. It is also very useful because it contains virtually no bias, thanks to the large number of facts and

research contained in the article.

In How Do One’s Circumstances Affect Happiness, Philip C. Watkins discusses how the

relationship between national wealth and happiness may have more to do with the way the country is

governed. Using GDP, gross domestic product, per capita, countries which have had a stable democracy

for longer have higher GDP per capita. It is also known that people are much happier in stable

democracy than in any other type of government. So, this shows that the relationship between

IQ/wealth and happiness on the national wealth may be correlation instead of causation, and there

could be other factors that affect it as well (Watkins 2015). This relationship was also assessed in

Personal Wealth and Happiness, an excerpt out of The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and

Economic Behavior, by Alan Lewis. The two works have very similar results and audiences; however,

Lewis did mention something Watkins did not—the correlation between wealth and happiness before

the point of basic needs being met. As expected, this relationship is much higher compared to after

(Lewis 2014).
 Happiness seems to be a difficult concept to research about because it is so subjective.

Additionally, the analysis of different circumstances impacts on happiness, like wealth, location,

intelligence, age, gender, etc. shows that very few outside things truly impact our happiness, and no

matter our circumstances our mindset seems to be the only thing that truly controls happiness. Studies

show that no matter how much or how little a person has, their happiness depends directly on how

grateful they are for what they do have. Additionally, it was found in a study that gratitude is reduced by

materialism and that the more you buy the less happy you are likely to be (Watkins 2015). This is an

interesting perspective because so many people blame their circumstances or lack of something for

their unhappiness when really it is all about your mindset. The affect mindset has on your happiness is

largely discussed in an interview-style article in The Atlantic, Why So Many Smart People Aren’t Happy.

In this article, writer Joe Pinsker interviews Dr. Raj Raghunathan about why most people aren’t happy,

what they blame it on, and where we can find real happiness. While this article offers very useful,

information, it has a very different purpose than How Do One’s Circumstances Affect Happiness because

Dr. Raghunathan is trying to sell his book about this topic, while Watkins’s article was a research study

and analysis.

The final comparison is of the types of happiness lower class people tend to feel versus the

types of happiness higher class people tend to feel. In a study consisting of 1,1519 nationally

representative people, income’s effect on happiness was compared. This study however, seemed to be

aimed less at scientists and professionals and more at everyday people struggling with happiness. This is

obvious because the article is posted on a blog targeted at these kinds of people, whereas studies like

the by Veenhoven and Choi seem to be targeted more at those involved with science and research.

When asked about their lives, out of seven emotions, higher income/class people said they felt more

contentment, pride, and amusement, which are self-oriented feelings. In the same study, the lower

income/class members reported more feelings of love, compassion, and awe, which are related to other
people. The differences in feelings come from the environment they are surrounded by. Higher income

people have more possessions, which induces endogenous feelings like pride. Whereas lower income

people tend to be in more dangerous environments causing them to orient more with their community

(Villines 2018).

Overall, this information has led me to believe that while wealth and success slightly impact

happiness, I may have the wrong idea of how happiness is obtained. It is not a point you reach, where

you’ve achieved enough or earned enough that you can finally be happy. Happiness is found in the

present, not necessarily settling for your current circumstances and never looking for more but being

content with your situation and grateful for everything you do have.
 Works Cited

Argyle, Michael. The Psychology of Social Class. Routledge, 1995.

Batool, Syeda Shahida, and Ruhi Khalid. “Low Emotional Intelligence: A Risk Factor for Depression.”
Journal of Pakistan Psychiatric Society, vol. 6, Mar. 2021, pp. 65–65.

Gilbert, Dan. “The surprising science of happiness.” TED, February 2004,

https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_the_surprising_science_of_happiness

"How Do One's Circumstances Impact Happiness?" The Psych 101 Series: Positive Psychology 101, Philip C.
Watkins, Springer Publishing Company, 1st edition, 2015. Credo Reference,
http://sinclair.ohionet.org/loginurl=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sppositive/how
_do_one_s_circumstances_impact_happiness/0?institutionId=6043. Accessed 10 Jul. 2021.

Lee, Jae-Wan, and Dae Hyun Baek. “Social Class and Happiness: Focusing on the Moderating Effects of
Prospect of Upward Mobility.” International Journal of Management and Applied Science, vol. 2, no. 2,
Feb. 2019.

Pinsker, Joe. “We're Learning the Wrong Lessons From the World's Happiest Countries.” The Atlantic, Atlantic
Media Company, 27 June 2021, www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/06/worlds-happiest-
countries-denmark-finland-norway/619299/.

Pinsker, Joe. “Why So Many Smart People Aren't Happy.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 24 May
2021, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/why-so-many-smart-people-arent-
happy/479832/.

Veenhoven, Ruut, and Yowon Choi. “Does Intelligence Boost Happiness? Smartness of All Pays More
than Being Smarter than Others.” International Journal of Happiness and Development, vol. 1, no.
1, 4 Feb. 2012, p. 5., doi:10.1504/ijhd.2012.050808.

Villines, Contributed by Zawn. “Social Class May Affect Types of Happiness People Experience.”
GoodTherapy.org Therapy Blog, GoodTherapy.org, 9 Jan. 2018,
www.goodtherapy.org/blog/social-class-may-affect-types-of-happiness-people-experience-
0110181.
"9.1 Personal wealth and individual happiness." The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Economic
Behaviour, Alan Lewis, Cambridge University Press, 1st edition, 2008. Credo Reference,
http://sinclair.ohionet.org/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/cuppeb/9_1_p
ersonal_wealth_and_individual_happiness/0?institutionId=6043. Accessed 11 Jul. 2021.