Distribution of SWB

SOCI 2275: WEEK 2

Housekeeping

 Check iClicker scores

 Anyone can make up week 1
 Make sure you’re in a group
Just Society

 What makes for a just society?

 Common answer: Distribution of objective well-being.
 For example, income…
Just Society
Just Society
Just Society
Just Society

 Does subjective well-being fit into it?

 If so, how?
Just Society

 If SWB is a social good… variation matters

 Fairness
 Children and opportunity
 Harmful to society
Just Society

 What would be fair?

Just Society

 One answer
 Equal levels across time, type of person, and place
 Therefore, variance in SWB matters
Baseline Levels

 We’ll start with baseline averages

 Will show several charts
 What’s the pattern?
General Social Survey: Happiness

19%
28%

57%
Not Too Happy Pretty Happy Very Happy
Gallup: Satisfied with Personal Life

4%

10%

51%
34%

Very Dissatisfied Somewhat Dissatisfied Somewhat Satisfied Very Satisfied

CDC: Depression Symptoms Past 2 Weeks
4%
3%

12%

82%

Severe Moderate Mild Minimal

Global Trends

Source: Gallup. Blue lines are population weighted

Positivity Emphasis

 Why positive?
 Cultural expectations of what we’re supposed to feel
 Positivity bias: lean toward positive thinking and language
and recall (Pollyanna principle)
Positivity Emphasis

 Test positivity emphasis

 Take out phones
 Look at texting
 What last emoji used:
A) Positive
B) Negative
Positivity Emphasis

 Test positivity emphasis

 Identify positive/negative word pairs
 Use Google NGram to plot use since 1800
 What do we expect?
 Go to NGram
Positivity Emphasis
Positivity Emphasis

 Happiness expected
 “Cheer up” and “don’t be sad”
 Asked about if looking sad
 Happiness prescribed in some jobs
Positivity Emphasis

 Cultural differences in how to experience emotions.

 E.g., study by Sims et al. (2015) randomly pinged people’s
phones with survey. Asked to rate how what they were
feeling and how positive they wanted to feel
 Had both American and Chinese respondents
Positivity Emphasis

 E.g.,Chinese more likely to experience mixed emotions—

both positive and negative—during day than Americans
 Why? Individualistic vs. collectivist views of self
 Impacts understanding each other
When Well-Being?

 Study by Peter Dodds (UVermont) et al.

 Examined billions of words on Twitter
 Counted happiness expressions
 What time of day is happiest?
When Well-Being?
When Well-Being?

 Which day of the week is happiest? Which least happy?

When Well-Being?
Over Time
Over Time
Demographics of Well-Being

 Happiness inequality
 What type of person, in terms of demographics, do you
think is happiest?
Demographics of Well-Being

 Quiz. Which is most true for you?

A. Female, very happy
B. Female, pretty happy or not too happy
C. Male, very happy
D. Male, pretty happy or not too happy
Demographics of Well-Being
% Very Happy
Demographics of Well-Being

 But…
 Economists Blanchflower and Bryson find different
pattern with other negative measures
 Women have more “anxiety, depression, fearfulness,
sadness, loneliness, anger – and they have more days with
bad mental health and more restless sleep.”
Demographics of Well-Being
% Very Happy
Demographics of Well-Being
% Very Happy
Demographics of Well-Being
% Very Happy
Demographics of Well-Being
% Very Happy
Location of Well-Being
Location of Well-Being

 Study by Lawless and Lucas

 “We analyzed correlates of well-being at the county level
within the United States…. Variance was associated with a
number of objective factors, including income, population
density, health and education.
Location of Well-Being
Location of Well-Being

 Previous map for life satisfaction

 For experience of positive emotions
 Paraguay, Costa Rica, Mexico, Iceland and Laos
 Nordic countries between 15 and 36
Better or Worse?

 Subjective… we’ve looked at

 Objective?
Better or Worse?

 Groundhog Decade
 In small groups: Suppose that the Earth had to live one decade,
of the past three thousand years, over and over again. Which
decade would provide the best quality of life for the most
people?
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?

 Why?
 Why do so many people think things are bad?
 Two explanations
Better or Worse?

 Published in Science in 2018, the study found that “when

the ‘signal’ a person is searching for becomes rare, the
person naturally responds by broadening his or her
definition of the signal—and therefore continues to find it
even when it is not there.”
 “Social problems,” they suggested, “may seem intractable
in part because reductions in their prevalence lead people
to see more of them.”
 Video: Perceiving threats
Better or Worse?

 Culture of Fear
 Many agents in society have strong incentives to cause
fear
 Who?
Better or Worse?

 Fear agents:
 News producers
 Politicians
 Manufacturers
 Social media: anybody wanting others to notice them
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?

 Paul Ehrlich & The Population Bomb

 Malthusian ecology
 Shows expectations of many, and how wrong
 Gives mechanism of continued improvement
 (Video: NYTimes story)
Sources of Well-Being

 Rest of semester: What impacts well-being

 First, general analysis
 Conceptually and practically interesting
Sources of Well-Being

 Group exercise
 What are the top five sources of well-being in your life?
 Write out list on board
Sources of Well-Being

 In general terms, what causes changes in wb?

 Sustainable Happiness Model, Lyubromirsky et al. (2005)
identified 3 overlapping sources
Sources of Well-Being

 #1. Life circumstances

 Things go well
 Objective well-being -> subjective
 Includes demographic characteristics
 Also life experiences: getting married, winning lottery,
getting a raise, medical recovery
Sources of Well-Being

 But… hedonic adaptation hypothesis

 People get used to changes in their circumstances
 As result, changes have short-term impact
 Found with income growth, marriage, childbirth
 Famous study:
Sources of Well-Being

 Philip Brickman and Daniel Coates (1978)

 Compared 22 recent lottery winners, 22 neighbors, and
recent paraplegic
 Somewhat random events
 Finding:
 Lottery winners not happier
 Lottery winners had less pleasure in daily events
 Paraplegics similar happiness level
Sources of Well-Being

 #2: Set point

 Inherent and genetic predispositions
 Neurochemistry
 Any fluctuations get pulled back to our set point
 It sets level of hedonic adaptation
Sources of Well-Being

 #3: Intentional activities

 Things chosen by people that increase wb
 Behaviors, such as altruism
 Cognitions, practicing gratitude
 Motivational, pursuing goals
Sources of Well-Being

 Which disciplines study which of these factors?

Sources of Well-Being

 Which should have biggest impact?

A. Life circumstances
B. Set point (i.e., genetics)
C. Intentional activities
Sources of Well-Being

 What they found:

Sources of Well-Being

 Lots of critiques and revisions:

 Set point a possible range rather than one point
 Set point can change with time
 Circumstances change genetic expression
 Intentional activities might be weaker than believed
 Each of the three factors influence each other
Sources of Well-Being

 Though oversimplified…
 Useful categories
 Highlight importance of intentional activities
 Intentional activities will be primary focus of course
In-Class Exercise

 Theobservation that men and women have similar levels

of happiness does not mean that their happiness has
similar sources.
 Which factors might lead women to have higher subjective
well-being then men?
 Which factors might lead men to have higher subjective
well-being than women?
Group Project

 Watch Fogg’s video on Tiny Habits

1. Pick a behavior that you want to do more often
2. Create a Tiny Habit cycle that will make this behavior into
a habit
3. Create a graphic that illustrates this Tiny Habit
4. Explain how it’s now tiny and how it can be converted to a
full behavior.
Due: Saturday night 11:59 pm