This may sound like a faux-intellectual investigation of something that’s obvious. But when I tell people I’m a happiness researcher, sometimes people get this glint in their eyes, probably thinking they’re the first person to ask me: “What does ‘happiness’ even mean?”.
I think this is an important, if unoriginal, question. Because one of the ways we most misunderstand each other is by using words overloaded with meaning (“Capitalism” or “Communism” come to mind) and assuming that the specific meaning I have in mind is magically transmitted to my discussant. (In philosophy, the term for arguing over the meaning of words is called ‘meta-linguistic negotiation’).
How to define happiness
This question also has a fairly simple but surprisingly rich answer according to a recent series of experiments with people (which philosophers amusingly refer to as “folk”). People typically define happiness as one of two things:
- To most people (two thirds), happiness is about an emotional state. It is about psychological states or what’s going on in your mind. More specifically, it’s about being cheerful, relaxed, fulfilled, and emotionally positive—independent of life’s external conditions.
- In one third of the cases happiness is synonymous with wellbeing, where wellbeing is used to convey “what is ultimately good for a person”. In this case it may or may not involve only your mental states.
Meaning of wellbeing
‘Happiness’, used this way, is a placeholder term that needs further definition: what makes a life good for someone? Modern philosophers have evolved three standard theories to define wellbeing:
- Hedonism: Wellbeing consists in experiencing pleasure and avoiding pain—a life goes best when it feels best. In other words, wellbeing consists is happiness – using the sense of happiness that 2/3rd of people have.
- Desire Satisfaction Theories: Wellbeing consists in getting what one wants—life goes well to the extent that one’s desires are fulfilled, whether or not they are pleasurable.
- Objective List Theories: Wellbeing consists in achieving certain objectively valuable things, like friendship, knowledge, or virtue, regardless of one’s feelings or desires.
What does happiness mean?
So what do we mean when we say ‘happiness’? Cheekily, we try to have it both ways, but by happiness we refer to the wellbeing that’s subjective, call it ‘subjective wellbeing’ if you will. In our philosophy, we say:
“We are using the word ‘happiness’ in the same way people understand it in normal life. Happiness, simply, is feeling good overall: when you experience more joy than suffering.
We use ‘happiness’ and ‘wellbeing’ interchangeably here (for details on terminology, see footnote3).”
We don’t think we’re trying to pull a fast one here. In HLI, we are pretty sympathetic to hedonism, the view that wellbeing consists in happiness (the feeling). So we’re primarily interested in happiness (the feeling) and we’re also using the word ‘happiness’ in the way the person in the street does. Even if you don’t only care about good feelings, you probably do think they matter; it’s these good feelings we’re focused on.
Happiness vs life satisfaction
While we’re using ‘happiness’ the way (most) of the public do, this arguably can’t be said for our beloved World Happiness Report. The basis of the country ranking in the report is from a measure called the ‘Cantril Ladder’ which measures cognitive life satisfaction, not affective states like joy or sadness. So, it would be more accurate, if less exciting, to call it the World Life Satisfaction Report.
As Kneer & Haybron (2024) show, most laypeople distinguish “being happy” from “doing well”. The World Happiness Report conflates these by reporting cognitive evaluations as happiness.
Contribute to the Happier Lives Institute’s work
If you want to make the world happier, not just healthier or wealthier, we’d love for you to join us.
👉 Sign up for our newsletter
👉 Donate to our recommended charities
👉 Share this blog post
We’re taking happiness seriously.