In a previous political and philosophical paper (Sugden and Teng, 2009), we argued that John Stuart Mill’s concepts of mutual advantage and human progress provide a strategy for pursuing happiness that is quite different from, and more sustainable than, the utilitarian approach proposed in the modern happiness literature by writers such as Layard (2005) and Thaler and Sunstein (2008).  In this paper we provide some empirical support for that argument.  Round 3 of the European Social Survey provides many related human value and attitude variables. These data allow us to make inferences about which social, economic and political attitudes are most conducive to happiness and then to ask which forms of social organisation are best able to sustain and reproduce those attitudes.

            We endorse Mill’s approach for two reasons.  First, as we argued in our previous paper, Millian mutual advantage ensures the psychological stability of a social system in which happiness can be promoted.  Mill argues that the Greatest Happiness Principle will be followed and a happy society will be realised when people not only care about themselves but also consult others’ interests. Given the innate human desire to live with others, a stable society in which people take account of one another’s interests is most reliably generated through repeated experience of mutual advantageous cooperation.  In contrast, Layard does not really consider the issue of psychological stability. For example, he advocates that schools should teach students not to compare themselves with others, while also proposing that the government should levy taxation on working overtime as it is human nature to envy others.

        Second, as Mill argues in his On Liberty, long-term happiness depends on human progress.  When people are given freedom to decide how to live their lives, they develop their human faculties through making decisions. Developed and mature human faculties constitute an acquired technology for the pursuit of long-term happiness. This conclusion is supported by some recent psychological laboratory findings. For example, Sheldon et al (2006) find that the change of one’s action and attitude has a more sustainable effect on happiness than the change of one’s environment. Lyubomirsky et al (1997) find that happy people tend not to compare themselves with others. On the contrary, Layard’s proposals treat individuals as the passive subjects of a paternalistic government, and confer legitimacy on envy.  Such proposals are likely to inhibit the development of suitable attitudes for leading a happier life.

        The empirical literature of happiness mainly concentrates on how economic or social variables, such as relative income, previous income, marital status, health, job security and immigration, affect happiness. The novelty of our paper is that we investigate the impact of psychological and institutional variables related to Millian thought on happiness.

        We analyse data from the European Social Survey using an ordered probit model.  Our results provide evidence that a complex of attitudes related to mutual advantage, such as not comparing one’s income or status with others’, showing loyalty to family and friends, and being helpful to and trusting of others, have positive effects on happiness. Freedom and opportunity, which on Mill’s account are fundamental for human progress, have similarly positive effects.  There is also evidence that institutions affect happiness: people who trust their parliaments and governments tend to be less envious and happier.  This supports Rawls’s (1971) argument that envy is typically the product of a sense of injustice, and hence that the appropriate political response to envy is to establish just and psychologically stable institutions.   

            We conclude that a society structured according to Millian principles, rather than one in which individuals are subject to the paternalistic regulations favoured by Layard, Sunstein and Thaler, is better able to sustain the attitudes that are conducive to long-term happiness.

References

Layard, Richard (2005).  Happiness: Lessons from a New Science.  London: Allen Lane.

Lyubomirsky, Sonya and Lee Ross (1997).  Hedonic consequences of social comparison: a contrast of happy and unhappy people.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73: 1141–1157.

Rawls, John (1971).  A Theory of Justice.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Sheldon, Kennon and Sonya Lyubomirsky (2006).  Achieving sustainable gains in happiness: change your actions, not your circumstances.  Journal of Happiness Studies 7: 55–86.

Sugden, Robert and Joshua Chen-Yuan Teng (2009).  Is happiness a matter for governments?  A Millian perspective on Layard’s ‘new science’.  Submitted to the conference volume for the ‘Policies for Happiness’ conference, held in Siena in June 2007.

Thaler, Richard and Cass Sunstein (2008).  Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.