The Declaration of Independence states that our inalienable rights include “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Life and liberty are easy to understand, but that last phrase is less intuitive. How can people have a right to strive for happiness?
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Uniting to Fight Poverty: A TED Talk
How do we solve problems like poverty with so much political polarization?
Welcome to the Pursuit
To pursue our happiness, to achieve our liberty, and indeed to find fulfillment in our lives, we must start with a moral consensus, a fundamental truth around which we all revolve. Think of an atom. The outer field of electrons is full of chaotic activity. Electrons are rapidly orbiting and moving in a constant buzz. What contains that chaos and gives it structure? The fact that the whole chaotic cloud orbits one central nucleus.
Money buys happiness for some people some of the time
Forget the academic squabbles over income and happiness. Here’s what you need to know.
read moreLove people, not pleasure
What is unhappiness? You might think it is simply the opposite of happiness, but that’s wrong. Here’s why.
read moreMeet the economists who say that money really does buy happiness
Economists increasingly agree that money and happiness are linked. Why is that a surprise?
read morePlus-size model who received hate mail calling her a ‘fat cow’ defies the bullies to open her own restaurant
While some models have been known to eat nothing but cotton wool balls, America’s Next Top Model winner Whitney Thompson has always been vocal about her love of food. Now the 26-year-old is going to pass on her passion for delicious dishes by opening her own...
read moreThese economists say getting richer doesn’t make a nation happier
What does a technical debate among economists tell us about the pillars of human happiness?
read moreBritish Airways’ ‘happiness blanket’ displays your mood as you fly
If you are flying British Airways, the in-flight entertainment may soon be you. That’s because people will be able to read your mood just by looking at your blanket — a “Happiness Blanket” supplied by the airline. The airline began testing the blanket last week on...
read moreHappiness is a lot more than one simple spectrum
People tend to think of personal well-being as a spectrum score, but happiness and unhappiness aren’t actually opposites.
read moreIs happiness like a treadmill that gets faster and faster?
“Everything’s amazing, but nobody’s happy!” This declaration from funnyman Louis C.K. is one of the most famous sentences in the past ten years of stand-up comedy. The line kicks off this rant, which the comedian delivered on Conan:...
read moreEffects of College Education on Demonstrated Happiness in the United States
Among the many documented benefits of a college education is a higher level of self-reported happiness. The present work considers instead the level of demonstrated happiness and unhappiness within groups, the latter proxied by the conditional probability of suicide...
read moreJapan to send experts to Bhutan to bolster Gross National Happiness
Japan is sending a team of experts to Bhutan to assist the remote Himalayan kingdom in measuring its Gross National Happiness. Bhutan has long been famed for its unusual policies of focusing on the nation’s well-being via its happiness levels as opposed to more...
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