Social Norms and Institutionsshowed more neural activity in the reward centers of the
brain.^17
Social Capital
Different from ethical norms are the social structures that
give people a sense of belonging, and of having others
they can rely on for support. Time use studies show that,
apart from sex, what people most enjoy is socializing with
friends^18 — there is little worse than being friendless.
Figure 8.1 illustrates the huge importance of this di-
mension of life— of having people to rely on. Many great
books have been written on such “social capital,”^19 and the
importance of participation in civil society organizations. It
may be enough here to make the key distinction between
“bonding capital” and “bridging capital.” Bonding capital
is what unites like- minded people having similar cultures,
experience, and interests, so that they know what to expect
from each other. This is reflected, partly at least, in the so-
cial support variable in Table 8.1, which suggests that when
everyone has someone to rely on (compared with no one),
life- satisfaction rises by 2 whole points.
But in any multicultural or multiclass society there is
something else that is also critical. That is bridging capi-
tal. In most societies, people who belong to minorities, in-
cluding ethnic minorities and migrants, are on average less
happy than the rest of the community.^20 One reason why
migrants are unhappy is of course that they are separated
from many of their family and friends— they lack bonding
capital. But too often they are also second- class citizens in
the place they have moved to— they lack bridges.