June 4, 2010--Happiness

For years, for many years, I have claimed there are good things about getting older. But try as I might, I haven't yet come up with one example to support this view. There is the wisdom thing, but it for most of us a dubious hope and hardly compensates for my aching right shoulder, swelling waistline, and rising cholesterol numbers.

Now, thanks to a report in the New York Times (linked below) there is something to hope for. And it's an important one: according to a study of people of all ages, it appears that as one grows older one gets happier.

As evidence they cite a recent Gallup poll. All along I thought the Gallup folks were just about political polling. And from that miserable work what if anything qualifies them to tell us anything about happiness? But desperate as I am for any rationalization to make me feel better about my own aging, I plunged right into the story.

Gallup didn't just call a few folks to ask them about their state of being. They phoned 340,000--many more than they do when trying to figure out how Obama is doing. About that they don't need to call anyone. They spoke with people from 18 to 85 years of age and, true, they asked them about things only marginally associated with happiness--current events, personal finance, health, and age and sex. This was a one-size-fits-all kind of survey.

If you are thinking what I think you are thinking, no, it's not that sex gets better as old age approaches. First of all, in addition to the unmentionable things, at some point there are only women around. Have you ever visited a senior citizens residence? There are two men there for every 50 women. They of course are very popular, but maybe women without men are the source of the happiness gap Gallup is reporting.

Actually, not. It seems that other forces are at work

They asked those polled a series of specific questions about what might be thought of the happiness quotient: "Did you experience the following feelings during a large part of yesterday--enjoyment, happiness, stress, worry, anger, sadness?" Yes or no is all they wanted to know. They didn't want their phoners on the line for hours with each person telling them about the details of their stress or sadness much less their aches and pains. That would be too stressful and sad for those asking the questions and would cost Gallup a fortune in overtime.

But they also asked a "global well-being" question--"On a scale of 1-to-10, rank your overall satisfaction with life."

Here's where things get interesting.

It seems getting to 50 is a big problem. In the trajectory of a life there is a kind of upside-down bell curve phenomenon to look forward to.

People start out at 18 feeling pretty good about themselves and their lives. No surprise. But they subsequently appear to feel worse and worse until they hit 50. Also not much of a surprise. Then, big surprise, after 50 the curve reverses with people getting happier and happier. Incredibly, by the time they reach 85 they feel even better about themselves than when they were 18!

It must be a flaw in the methodology. Or all the meds.