The Origins of Happiness

Social Norms and Institutions

already have. This is an old conjecture (which used to be

called the declining marginal utility of income). But well-

being science has shown it to be true.^29 The best relation-

ship between life- satisfaction (0– 10) and income is of the

form: Life- satisfaction = α Log Income. This means that

an extra dollar is x times more valuable (in terms of life-

satisfaction) for a poorer person than for a rich person who

is x times richer. Thus for a given average income, a more

equal society should on average be happier.

But there could also be other reasons why this should

be the case. For equality directly influences the quality of

interpersonal relations in a society. Wilkinson and Pickett

have shown that more equal societies tend to have more

trust, better health, and so on— at all levels of society.^30 This

implies some kind of atmospheric effect.

But empirical work on the effects of inequality on life-

satisfaction has yielded very mixed results. Many studies

have failed to find any effect.^31 The most positive results are

in an interesting time- series study using both the US Gen-

eral Social Survey and Eurobarometer.^32

The conclusion should probably be this: an ethos of mu-

tual respect and care is crucial for a happy society. Such an

ethos will be highly correlated with trust, low corruption,

good social support, effective government— and greater

equality of income. The priority is therefore to improve the

whole ethos of a society and not simply to equalize income.

Religion

This brings us to the issue of religion, which can play at least

three major roles: to instill values, to offer comfort, and to