The Economics of Enough_ How to Run the Economy as if the Future Matters - Diane Coyle [22]
Flow forms one part of a wider formula:
Happiness = Biological set point + Conditions of your life + Voluntary Activities
We all arrive with a given genetic predisposition to happiness, or a “set point.” Neither this nor some of the conditions of life (sex, age, race) can be changed. Other conditions of life may be amenable to change (marital status, location) and some will have a large effect on happiness: the results suggest that noise is one of these, for example, commuting another. Voluntary activities are those where we can make a big difference to our happiness by finding greater “flows” which suggests people should pay careful attention to their work and leisure choices, as well as lifestyle choices such as getting married and finding a home.46
Flow is an inner phenomenon. It can be learned or cultivated. According to Jonathan Haidt, mediation and cognitive therapy are the two effective methods, in addition to certain drugs, for improving an individual’s happiness.47 Some of the conditions of life are also perhaps amenable to personal action, such as choosing a home that is not too noisy or too far from work.
Other life conditions might be affected by public policy action so it is worth setting out the external conditions that can affect happiness in a lasting way.48 They are:
Noise. People never fully adapt to a high level of chronic noise, especially if it is variable or intermittent. This is relevant to noise abatement policies and also policy questions such as new roads and airport expansion.
Commuting. People don’t fully adapt to a long commute, especially if driving in heavy traffic. This puts a premium on measures to reduce congestion and to deliver good public transport.
Lack of control. Giving people more control results in large and lasting improvements in their happiness. The lesson here is for the manner of making public policy—I return to this in later chapters.
Shame. Feeling ashamed has a powerful influence on people’s happiness, which explains why apparently frivolous changes such as cosmetic surgery have a lasting impact on happiness.
Conflict in relationships. Personal conflicts make people very unhappy and they never adapt to it.
This is quite a long list of nontrivial issues, but far from the public policy agenda usually considered in the economics of happiness literature. However, there is one further issue arising from the psychological research, which speaks more directly to the way society is organized, and that is the role of what could be described as cultural anxiety. Here’s how Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi describes the issue:
One of the major functions of every culture has been to shield its members from chaos. . . . This is as it should be but there are times when the feeling that one has found safety in the bosom of a friendly cosmos becomes dangerous. An unrealistic trust in the shields, in the cultural myths, can lead to equally extreme disillusion when they fail. This tends to happen whenever a culture has had a run of good luck and for a while seems indeed to have found a way of controlling the forces of nature.49
When this rude awakening occurs, he writes, making it plain that progress is not inevitable, people feel anxious and apathetic. There is a sense of a general malaise, with no single obvious external cause. He believes we are at such a point now in Western societies. Jonathan Haidt expresses it in different terms, with reference to the concept of anomie proposed by the sociologist Émile Durkheim:
Anomie is the condition of society in which there are no clear rules, norms or standards of value. In an anomic society, people can do as they please;