Social wellbeing: the global happiness epidemic

‘Issues that impact human wellbeing’

… but also wellbeing itself?

‘Global challenges facing society’ … but also about global social opportunities?

Two long-term concerns:• How can we foster more appreciative social

science, and more aspirational social planning?

• What are social goods, and what do they have to do with happiness?

Why do we need happiness reminders?

shouldn’t need stating,

should it?

‘Happiness’ frequency in books 1800-2008 (Google Ngram)

1900

2000

1800

‘Happiness’ and ‘wellbeing’ in books 1900-2008 (Google Ngram)

1800

Ethical transparency

Empathy

Positivity

Integration

The happiness lens

Assumption: OCW is on issues that matter

Two main ways things matter:1. Importance for wellbeing2. We can/should do something about them

Note also: things can ‘matter’ negatively or positively – we can be motivated by avoidance goals or by approach goals

16

9

37

‘Our Changing World’ lecture themes 1-53

wellbeingneutraluseful goodsthreats to wellbeing

16

9

37

‘Our Changing World’ lecture themes 1-53

wellbeingneutraluseful goodsthreats to wellbeing

37 lectures mainly about threats and harms – 15 en-vironmental (mainly cli-mate); 16 Medical; 6 Social/demographic

9 lectures mainly about producing useful goods/ser-vices

6 neutral/agnostic1 lecture on

health & wellbeing

Is there an elephant in the room?

Are you progressive?1. Appreciation: have you cultivated the habit

of appreciating progress?

2. Aspiration: what good will you do?

Global goals – remedial, instrumental, and aspirational

Prevent, remove, or

mitigate harms

Produce useful

goods and services

Facilitate wonderful

lives

From

bad

to g

ood

From usefulness to happiness

The OK line

Varieties of progress

Facilitate wonderful

lives

Moral (eudaimonic)

progress

The OK line

Remedial progress

Ergonomic progress

The OK line

Maslow’s hierarchy, positivity, and progress

Self-transcendence

Self-actualization

Mental wellbeing

Social wellbeing

Resources and conditions

preventing,remedying,

coping

Personal and societal

aspirations

…but there is understandable resistance to appreciative learning and aspirational planning

aspi

ratio

n

The OK line

appr

ecia

tion

‘negative utilitarianism’

Fix if broken

Otherwise provide OK conditions

Millennium Development Goals 1990-2015Ba

d to

goo

d

Means……ends

The OK line

Halve poverty

and hunger

Reduce child

mortality

Halt spread of HIV/AIDS & malaria

Universal primary

schooling

End gender disparity in schooling

Reduce maternalmortality

Environmental sustainability

Global partnership

Positive social qualities (4,5,7, 8,10,16,17): lifelong learning, peace, social inclusion, justice, co-operation, and decent work and sustainable production and consumption

Resources (6,7,9,11): clean and safe infrastructure and resource flows

Minimising human suffering (1,2,3,5,8,11): end poverty, hunger, avoidable illness

Minimising planetary harms (12,13,14,15): stable climate, oceans, terrestrial ecosystems, biodiversity

UN Sustainable Development Goals

UN SDG ‘Health and wellbeing’ indicators 2016-2030

The OK line

NCD premature mortality

Maternal mortality

Well-being???

Health services

Traffic accidents

tobacco

vaccines

AIDS, TB etc

Substance abuse

Hazardous chemicals

Infant mortality

UN SDG ‘Peace, justice & strong institutions’ indicators 2016-2030

The OK lineOrganised crime and

illegal arms flows

violence

Social well-being???

Rule of law

Participatory decision making

Transparent institutions

corruption

Non-discriminatory

laws

Global governance

Trafficking & torture of

children

Sociopathology and

remedial, preventive, or

mitigatory planning

Aspirational social planning

Psycho-pathology

Positive psychology

Societal level

Individual level

Pathologies and

avoidance goals

Positive qualities and aspirational

goals

The challenge

‘really social goods’

To an economist, the fish are a ‘social’ i.e.

nonprivate, noncommodified good

Sociologically, the conviviality of the anglers is a really

social good

Psychologically, ‘social wellbeing’ means having

good relationships

…so, aspirational social planners envisage more than: • Tackling social pathologies• Facilitating growth• Providing ‘social’ services• Facilitating individuals’ social

capabilities

Aspirational social planning

Approach goalsAvoidance goals

Exist

entia

l ben

efits

Prac

tical

ben

efits

ConvivialityJustice

EngagementSecurity

Conviviality

Security

Justice

Engagement

Social (inter-

subjective) wellbeing

Common features of epidemics

• Mass population infected• Social and cultural transmission (through actual

or metaphorical contagion)• They’re scary

Good epidemics are possible – we need appreciative epidemiology too

‘that action is best which produces the greatest

happiness for the greatest number’

Francis Hutcheson (Inquiry into the Original of our

Ideas of Beauty and Virtue, 1725)

Prioritise!

Quantify!

How could we evaluate the comparative importance of “greatest happiness” versus

“greatest number?”

The OK line

10 billion fairly happy people?

5 billion very happy

people?

1725 2016Population 0.65 bn 7.5 bnLife expectancy 29 72Happiness 5/10? 5.4/10?

In 67 nations 1950-2010, time series show average national happiness increase +0.012 annually, on a 0–10 scale [effectively 2.5-8.4]

‘happiness must have improved by more than two points over the past two centuries’

(Ruut Veenhoven, 2016, ‘Did the promise of Enlightenment come true?’ Social Indicators Research

Four queries about prioritising and counting• Is it useful to measure happiness?• Can ‘happiness’ and ‘GDP’ scores be compared?• Does quantitative happiness research offer clear

policy guidance?• Is the idea of maximising ‘Gross National

Happiness’ valid?

Ethical quantification debates

Francis Hutcheson: happiness is what counts

Adam Smith: let’s count ‘the economy’ - i.e. material production of useful goods

John Sinclair: let’s do ‘statistics’ to count ‘the quantum of happiness’

Statistics – info for statecraft, to assess the ‘quantum of happiness’

Statistics then became synonymous with observable facts.

By mid-20th Century, ‘statistics’ and ‘data’ both meant ‘numbers’

John Sinclair of Thurso, inventor of ‘statistics’

Quantification debates [cont’d]

Alfred Marshall (Principles of Economics, 1890): ‘the economy’ includes services

Simon Kuznets (1934): quality matters - GNP is a policy tool, not a measure of welfare

Diane Coyle (2014): GDP is still useful, it’s ‘the economy’ we must re-think

Happiness vs ‘economy’ comparisons

Happiness in national rhetoric, statistics, and policy discourse

• High-profile politicians: Bhutan King; David Cameron; Thai King;

• National strategies and constitutions: Bhutan; Bolivia; Ecuador; Dubai; UAE

• National surveys – most countries worldwide, incl nearly all European countries

• Sub-national/local strategies: Goa; Jalisco (Mex); Santa Monica (CA)

UK Office of National StatisticsSatisfaction: how satisfied are you with your life?

Self-esteem: are the things you do worthwhile?

Good feelings: how happy did you feel yesterday?

Bad feelings: how anxious did you feel yesterday?

ONS Sept 2016

World Happiness Report 2015

World Happiness Report 2016

• 0-10 scale, world average life evaluation is 5.4• 4 points higher in the top 10 vs bottom 10• Strong correlations with: GDP; life expectancy;

social support; trust; freedom; generosity • Good/bad feelings correlate more weakly with

these factors

‘The happiest places on earth are not internal ones. They are not geographical ones. They are the places between us.’

(Christopher Peterson, 2013, Pursuing the Good Life, p. 226