Happiness is an elephant

Penelope Trunk has a procrastination-friendly survey that seeks to determine whether readers value happiness or or having an interesting life more highly.  While this distinction seems a bit arbitrary, the test links to multiple worthy pieces of happiness research.

What I find most interesting is that the happiest life, statistically, is a kind of red-state ideal.  According to the research, happiness is positively correlated to:

  • Willingness to pray
  • Geographic proximity to family
  • Whether your children go to the best schools (you are more likely to be happy if you do not care)
  • Believing that Christmas is a national holiday
  • Most obviously, whether you are a Republican

-John

Related posts:

  1. States’ rights and “geographic minorities”
  2. Survey data permanently settles philosophical question
  3. Is frugality a virtue?
  4. Is having a child a right?
  5. Stoicism and the housing crisis

February 16, 2010 · Filed Under John, Politics

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