Wondering how happy you’ll be if you take a new job, move to a new city, start dating someone new? Well, wonder no more. Researchers at University College London have formulated what they call the “equation to predict happiness.” Without further ado, here it is:
Phew! Seeing all those weird variables makes me decidedly unhappy—I was never good at math. But I was curious to discover what, exactly, the equation means.
Two years ago, the team at UCL embarked on a quest to measure happiness in individuals. They created a smartphone gambling game where players would either gain or lose points based on their wagers. At regular intervals, they asked players to rate their happiness.
Obviously, those who won were happy. But the study revealed happiness levels were affected by how the result measured up to expectations. If a player expected to win big, but only won a little, they’d be unhappy. If they expected to lose and lost, there would be little change in their overall happiness.
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UCL’s latest study added another wrinkle—it put people together to determine how much one person’s happiness or sadness rubbed off on another. Study participants split into groups to play a game and either won or lost money. In a press release, the equation’s creators offered their insights:
“The study… found that inequality reduced happiness on average… We are less happy if others get more or less than us… interestingly, the equation allows us to predict how generous an individual will be.”
“People whose happiness was more affected by getting more than others, something that might relate to guilt, gave away 30% of the money. Those who were more affected by getting less than others, something that might relate to envy, gave only 10%.”
“Our results suggest that generosity towards strangers relates to how our happiness is affected by the inequalities we experience in our daily life.”
I don’t have the faintest idea of how to plug numbers into the equation above to make it useful. But I do think the study’s findings can help us make choices at critical junctures in our lives.
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What are your expectations for that new job? Are they realistic, or are you spinning fantasies? How will your move to a new place help, or hurt, those around you? Are you taking your new relationship one step at a time, or are you already picturing the babies and the house with the white picket fence? Does he or she make you feel inferior, or are you two equal partners?
No one can predict the future—if the stories in Mysterious Ways teach us anything, it’s that life is full of surprises. But perhaps we can produce happy outcomes by keeping our expectations in line with reality and helping those less fortunate. God can work miracles, but divine aid is only part of the equation… we need to plug in the variables ourselves.
What makes you happy? What surprises have made you smile? Share your stories with us.
