Harvard psychologist and bestselling author Daniel Gilbert has teamed up with Vulcan Productions and the NOVA/WGBH Science Unit to create a multimedia project called This Emotional Life .
This 3-part documentary ends tonight on PBS. Featured in the third episode is Dr. Edward Diener, who has studied happiness across cultures and has pinpointed some universal reasons that people are happier. One is religion. I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Diener.
Question: Why does religion seem to make people happier?
Dr. Diener: Many studies find that religious people on average are happier. But since not all religious people are happier, and not all religious beliefs seem to lead to happiness, we have to search for the “active ingredient” in what aspect of religion might increase feelings of well-being. In our book on happiness, my son and I argue that one key ingredient is positive spirituality, feeling emotions such as love, awe, wonder, respect, and gratitude that connect us to others and to things larger than ourselves. That is, spirituality can focus us on larger causes than our own personal welfare, and this can give us purpose and meaning. Also, this broader focus on others and purpose can help us quit worrying so much about ourselves. And it can help us connect to others.
Religion has been associated with happiness for other reasons. For instance, religion often gives people social support and contact. People meet other like-minded people at church, and in many instances can count on those folks when they need help. Another reason that some religions might increase subjective well-being is that they provide optimism for an afterlife. These religions solve the “terror” associated with death by promising a better life after death. Another reason that religion can help happiness is that it provides a moral compass, rules to live by. We need something more than our own hedonism to guide our behavior, and religion can help to provide guidelines to follow in order to have an orderly and moral life, that helps us get along well with others. Finally, religion can provide answers to large questions, such as where did the universe come from, why is there evil, etc.
In our research, we are surprised to find that the happiest nations are often relatively nonreligious, such as Scandinavian societies. This is surprising, because we also find that religious people have more positive feelings in most nations. So it is a puzzle as to why people in wealthier societies are so frequently turning away from religion. It seems from our analyses that people most turn to religion when conditions in their society are tough – poverty, conflict, and so forth. When conditions are good, fewer people in a nation continue to be religious. Even then, the religious individuals report more positive emotions.
Question: What are some other key principles to happiness?
Dr. Diener: There are many, many causes of happiness and happiness, and so we do not subscribe to any single “key” to it. Rather, in our book my son and I write that happiness requires a recipe of ingredients mixed in the right amounts. When a person is depressed, it can be for a number of reasons, and the same is true of happiness. For some, happiness comes primarily from their relationships, and for others they obtain a lot of well-being from the contributions of their work. In other words, there are individual differences in the causes of a person’s happiness and unhappiness, and we must look at the facts in each individual case. At the same time, we can say some things about statistical averages, and the common causes of happiness:
- Having supportive relationships is very important. We found that all happy people have them.
- Being a supportive person to others is also important. People who help others seem to be better off. Some data show that people who help others a lot are healthier.
- Having purpose and meaning in life is important, a devotion to people or goals that are larger than ourselves.
- Finding activities in which one can use one’s talents and strengths, including one’s work
We outline more of these in our book: However, please note: We are talking here about what makes people happy, not necessarily the causes of unhappiness. Some things might contribute to both, but there can be separate causes of unhappiness and depression. So it really requires something more than getting rid of unhappiness to be happy.
However, Martin Seligman, the founder of positive psychology, has argued that perhaps depression can be best alleviated not by getting rid of problems, but instead by focusing on positive goals, optimism, and positive thinking.
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January 7, 2010 - Science and Religion Today (1/7/2010)
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9 Comments to
“This Emotional Life: Why Does Religion Make People Happier?”
Kenneth Lynch at 12:46 pm on
January 6th, 2010Oh wow they have read way too much into things. It very simple…religion is referred to as the opiate of the masses for a very good reason. Happiness is the ability to “forget” pains and struggles that happened throughout ones life. Religion allows people ignore the very real pain and struggles in their life.
If there is a key ingredient it would have to be faith…it doesn’t matter what you have faith in just that you have faith. Faith is the illogical belief that something will happen and in the case of religion it can mean many things. But that fact that we have faith allows to ignore so many truths.
Kenneth,
With all due respect, I believe you are giving both happiness and religion very narrow definitions. I do not consider happiness as forgetting. That is called denial. I do not put true science and faith at odds. As a matter of fact, there is a religion of the worship of the intellect/reason. Despite the great limitations of the intellect and the tricks and games it can play on us, some put it on the pedestal of God. That is going to be a disappointment ultimately. In my personal opinion, it has the tendency to lead the believer of such into extreme narcissism, i.e, the worship of self/ego. People have a name for such. They call that person an A??h?le. There are many things scientists take on faith, but let us not fall into the lie that there is no religion in science (scientism).
Samuel Lopez De Victoria, Ph.D.
http://www.DrSam.tv
Kenneth Lynch at 1:55 pm on
January 6th, 2010Samuel,
A truly fulfilling life requires faith. Whether it is the educated guess of the scientist or the blind faith of the religious. This faith is what allows us to continue and lead a “happy” life. Narcissism is just as likely to occur in either situation as the person starts to feel superior to the other people because of their faith/logic/reason.
Having said that I don’t see narcissism as necessarily a bad thing. It is what drives us to strive for a better life or promotion. Narcissism is simply faith in oneself whether it be in ability or adherence to faith. Without the narcissist we would not have art or music or even religious leaders. I know that many people like to pretend that preachers are not narcissistic but to be able to stand deliver their sermons requires a certain degree enjoying the sound of your own voice.
Next their is no need to to post your credentials because I don’t care and it won’t any sway the argument because I am classic narcissistic who believes that education means nothing by itself and that my experience plus my research makes me more qualified that many licenses professionals.
Kenneth Lynch at 2:08 pm on
January 6th, 2010I apologize for the writing errors. My brain sometimes moves faster than my hands.
I cannot speak with authority about whether or not studies that show religious people have more happiness are reputable, but based on my own experience and that of my clients, that has been the case more often than not.
Given that there are many non-religious people who are happy and also that many religious people are unhappy and/or make other people unhappy, the statement that religions make people happy needs to be qualified by what kind of or what aspects of religion one is talking about.
Certain every religion has the potential for making its adherents, happy, contended, caring, and compassionate. But religions also have the capacity to make people miserable and cruel and fanatical and bigoted.
Like Science, Religion has both positive and ominous potential.
V. V. Raman
Author of:
Truth and Tension in Science and Religion
January 7, 2010
My issue with the program, “This Emotional Life,” which in my view is well done is that it’s presented through the lens of science and psychology. Just because something can’t be measured doesn’t mean that it isn’t valid.
A spiritual lens would be another way of looking at happiness. There’s a difference between religion, which is authority based and spirituality, which isn’t. As far as I can tell, all wisdom traditions say that the ultimate source of happiness is coming to the realization that the “I” (identity, ego) that human beings refer to is a myth. There is no separation between “I,you, them and it.”
For different perspectives on happiness as it relates to aging you may want to visit happiness-after-midlife.com
kay at 3:37 am on
January 8th, 2010Kenneth, You say, “‘Religion is referred to as the opiate of the masses’ for a very good reason. Happiness is the ability to “forget” pains and struggles…”
Do you know who said “religion is the opiate of the masses” (or more commonly translated, “Religion is the opium of the people”)? Karl Marx.
It is odd that you pick a cliche and base your philosophy of religion on it. It is no more authoritative than my saying, “it is said ‘the end justifies the means’ for a good reason…” and then expounding on situational ethics with my cliche as my source of truth.
Like others, I too differ with your explanation of religion’s role, and your definitions of happiness and faith. In my experience, religion or spirituality (in my case Christianity) is quite the opposite of ignoring pains and struggles. And faith doesn’t allow us to ignore truths, it always operates within truth, as we best know it. “Blind faith” is another cliche or idiom that doesn’t have anything to do with real faith.
Quantum Chaos at 12:54 pm on
July 28th, 2010I believe that religion provides answers to unexplained events. These events that occur in our lives for no apparent reason, to some, are “acts of God.” I believe that people placed God in heaven instead of God placing us on earth. God was created to explain these unexplainable events and when you have a collaboration of people with the same belief in “God” then you have a religion. There is an answer to every question, we as humans just haven’t found them yet.
Spirituality is one thing, religion is another. We can have “faith” in ourselves without being narcissists. Narcissism is having more faith in yourself than you should.
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