The Origins of Happiness

Crime

the experience of others. This is a major shortcoming of

much of the empirical literature on well- being, because in

the end the well- being of the population depends hugely

on how people behave toward each other in their day-

to- day behavior— and not just on what they do for others

in providing them with income, education, jobs, or health

care.

Are other people kind and considerate? Are they en-

couraging, supportive, and loving? Or are they, in contrast,

rough, bullying, oppressive— and in the extreme case crimi-

nal in the way they behave? Do we feel that in general other

people are on our side or against us?

These things matter to every human being. So we can

vary our original diagram of well- being over the life course

to show another key set of influences. This is illustrated in

Figure 7.1. The person concerned is hugely influenced by

how others behave (channel A). By the same token, things

that improve an individual’s adult behavior derive much

of their overall social value from the benefits they confer

Family Child outcomes Own behavioras adult

A

Own life-

satisfaction

Others’ behavior

as adults

Others’ life-

satisfaction

C

B

Figure 7.1. How individual experience affects self and others