Is there a way to check for the influence of social networks on happiness? People who attend church every week are likely to have a circle of friends and social activities connected to their church. I wonder if the same thing is true for people with more income? Or at least people with income may have more stable social networks that could contribute to happiness.
I am struck by how modern this utilitarian analysis of religious practice is. I can't imagine anyone in the 16th century wondering if religion makes them 'happy'.
That being said, my 21st-century self enjoyed the analysis.
There's a common pattern where correlations within the US go the opposite way to those in international comparisons, particularly where the US is an outlier. For example, it's very hard to find strong correlations between gun laws and gun deaths in the US, whereas in the international comparisons, US sticks out like a sore thumb,.
I wonder how much religious attending people are wealthier, not by dollar amount but by lifestyle. I was once shocked to learn an aquaintence made as much as me. They had no working vehicle (but three cars that were broken-down but they were still making payments on all of them) and he drank a lot. Anecdotally, people who attend my church who are "poor" tend to (but not always) spend their money more wisely and seem to be less poor... and are happier.
I think one of the really difficult things to measure about happiness is that it's almost always in relation to expectations. "I'm happy because I can buy a house, have a family, have a good paying stable job, be like my neighbours and understand the world is in a mostly good state." The latter two may are important. Pre social-media one's neighbours were physically the people across the street. Now it's every influencer on instagram making Gen Z folks ask "why can't I have what they have?" There's a similar effect on viewing the state of the world in general. News media, social media companies and politicians have learned the best way to be salient and make money is to flood every communication channel with bad news and a target group to blame.
With those two things being maximised by the algorithms all the time it's little wonder we are where we are and it'll continue to get worse for a while yet.
The ending hints at one factor that will influence relationships with happiness, namely culture. Religion may be associated with happiness in USA because it is a moderately religious country (highly so compared to other developed countries). In fact the association between religion and wellbeing and health has been found to positive for more overall religious countries and negative for less religious countries, and even regions within countries. See links below. Fit with your surrounding community matters. Let's take some evangelicals and insert them into an atheistic context and see how happy they are. Or atheists in a highly religious community.
Another caution is that "not too happy" does not necessarily mean unhappy, let alone "miserable." Everybody is more or less happy from day to day, so there are degrees of happiness even within the "happy" level. And there is always the danger of creating an effect ... tell young people how badly off they are compared to previous generations and they might indeed become less happy.
And controlling for other predictors with regression or like methods does not always give an adequate conceptualization of the factors. Consider the modest effect of a grad degree and the huge effect of income. But someone with a grad degree is much more likely to have a high income than someone without high school. So a likely model is education --> income --> happiness. The mediator income, which itself is probably mediated by other factors, "explains" much of the robust effect of education.
Indeed social science is hard ... perhaps doing it gives a sense of satisfaction rather than happiness? Deci and Ryan's eudaimonic well-being.
Is there a way to check for the influence of social networks on happiness? People who attend church every week are likely to have a circle of friends and social activities connected to their church. I wonder if the same thing is true for people with more income? Or at least people with income may have more stable social networks that could contribute to happiness.
Came here to say this. Non-religious people can struggle to find community, especially if they have been religious and left their faith tradition.
I am struck by how modern this utilitarian analysis of religious practice is. I can't imagine anyone in the 16th century wondering if religion makes them 'happy'.
That being said, my 21st-century self enjoyed the analysis.
There's a common pattern where correlations within the US go the opposite way to those in international comparisons, particularly where the US is an outlier. For example, it's very hard to find strong correlations between gun laws and gun deaths in the US, whereas in the international comparisons, US sticks out like a sore thumb,.
That ending though! 😂 Thanks for mixing in some humour, Ryan!
I wonder how much religious attending people are wealthier, not by dollar amount but by lifestyle. I was once shocked to learn an aquaintence made as much as me. They had no working vehicle (but three cars that were broken-down but they were still making payments on all of them) and he drank a lot. Anecdotally, people who attend my church who are "poor" tend to (but not always) spend their money more wisely and seem to be less poor... and are happier.
Nice sign off Ryan, made me smile too.
I think one of the really difficult things to measure about happiness is that it's almost always in relation to expectations. "I'm happy because I can buy a house, have a family, have a good paying stable job, be like my neighbours and understand the world is in a mostly good state." The latter two may are important. Pre social-media one's neighbours were physically the people across the street. Now it's every influencer on instagram making Gen Z folks ask "why can't I have what they have?" There's a similar effect on viewing the state of the world in general. News media, social media companies and politicians have learned the best way to be salient and make money is to flood every communication channel with bad news and a target group to blame.
With those two things being maximised by the algorithms all the time it's little wonder we are where we are and it'll continue to get worse for a while yet.
The ending hints at one factor that will influence relationships with happiness, namely culture. Religion may be associated with happiness in USA because it is a moderately religious country (highly so compared to other developed countries). In fact the association between religion and wellbeing and health has been found to positive for more overall religious countries and negative for less religious countries, and even regions within countries. See links below. Fit with your surrounding community matters. Let's take some evangelicals and insert them into an atheistic context and see how happy they are. Or atheists in a highly religious community.
Another caution is that "not too happy" does not necessarily mean unhappy, let alone "miserable." Everybody is more or less happy from day to day, so there are degrees of happiness even within the "happy" level. And there is always the danger of creating an effect ... tell young people how badly off they are compared to previous generations and they might indeed become less happy.
And controlling for other predictors with regression or like methods does not always give an adequate conceptualization of the factors. Consider the modest effect of a grad degree and the huge effect of income. But someone with a grad degree is much more likely to have a high income than someone without high school. So a likely model is education --> income --> happiness. The mediator income, which itself is probably mediated by other factors, "explains" much of the robust effect of education.
Indeed social science is hard ... perhaps doing it gives a sense of satisfaction rather than happiness? Deci and Ryan's eudaimonic well-being.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23686577_The_Role_of_Culture_in_the_Relationship_Between_Religiosity_and_Psychological_Well-being
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550615593149