Robert A. Cummins

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Happiness and Public Policy
Robert A. Cummins Australian Centre on Quality of
Life Deakin University
http//www.deakin.edu.au/research/acqol
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The traditional route to happiness is money So
the best public policy for increasing happiness,
according to Economists is to make populations
richer
So, around the world, prior to 1970s Quality of
Life GDP.
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Economic growth and Subjective Wellbeing in
Japan
Deflated GDP/capita
(Diener Biswas-Diener, 2002)
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Increasing GDP does NOT increasing happiness!
Deflated GDP/capita
Life satisfaction is the actual value for each
year
Life Satisfaction
(Diener Biswas-Diener, 2002)
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Quality of Life
?
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Subjective Wellbeing

• A positive state of mind that involves the whole
  life experience

How do we measure it?
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How satisfied are you with your life as a
whole? This can be broken down in a number
of Life Domains
How satisfied are you with your----- life
domain?
How can we recognize the MINIMUM number of life
domains?
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How satisfied are you with your life as a
whole?
Domains all must contribute unique variance
Standard of living Health Achieving in
life Relationships Safety Community
connectedness Future security Spirituality/Relig
ion
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How satisfied are you with your ----?
Jones and Thurstone ,1955 11-point, end-defined
scale
Completely Dissatisfied
Completely Satisfied
Mixed
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 8 9 10


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• We code all data to lie on a range from

Complete dissatisfaction
Complete satisfaction
0
100
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Why is subjective wellbeing important?Positive
emotions build a range of personal resources as

• Physical resources (health, longevity)
• Social resources (friendliness, social capital)
• Intellectual resources (intellectual curiosity,
  expert knowledge,)
• Psychological resources (resilience, optimism,
  creativity)

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In 2000 we linked with our industry partner,
Australian Unity
Purpose to create a quarterly index of
subjective wellbeing for the Australian
population. As an alternative to the
traditional economic indicators such as GDP
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This is a world first

• No other country has a quarterly wellbeing index
• (but others are going to follow)

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The International Wellbeing Group 48 Countries
and Provinces
Algeria Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Brazil Canada China (Hong Kong ) (Macau) from 2007-2/yr (Qinghai province, Yushu prefecture) (Shandong Province) Croatia England Finland France Germany Greenland Hungary Iran Ireland Israel Italy Japan Laos Latin America Lebanon Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Pakistan Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Rwanda Singapore Slovakia South Africa Spain Switzerland Taiwan Thailand USA West Indies
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The Australian Unity Wellbeing Index Surveys

• Geographically representative sample
• N 2,000
• Telephone interview
• 1 April 2001
• ------------
• 17 April 2007

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PWI 2001 - 2007
Key 1 September 11 2 Bali
Bombing 3 Pre-Iraq War
4 Hussein Deposed 5 Athens
Olympic 6 Asian Tsunami
7 Second Bali Bombing 8 New Industrial
Relations Laws
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Normative range using survey mean scores as data
(N17)
Very satisfied
Very dissatisfied
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Why is subjective wellbeing held so steady?

• Homeostasis
• Just like we hold body temperature steady
• Subjective wellbeing homeostasis

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Each person has a set-point for their subjective
wellbeing.
These set-points lie between 60 and 90
Range for individual set-points
Set-points are always POSITIVE ie above 50
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The average set-point is 75.
90
Range For individual set-points
75
The set-point for the average person
60
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Each person has a set-point for their subjective
wellbeing.
90
The average set-point
75
60
Time
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Homeostasis can fail
Overwhelming Negative Challenges
Subjective wellbeing

• The result of subjective wellbeing loss is
  depression

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Homeostasis can be defeated by

• Poverty
• Chronic pain (arthritis)
• Chronic stress (carers)
• Lack of intimacy
• Living conditions (street-kids)
• Incarceration (prisoners)

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But people are RESILIENT !
This is why there is normally such a poor
relationship between subjective Wellbeing and the
objective QOL indicators
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Persistent homeostatic failuredemands
chronically exceed resources
Subjective wellbeing
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Depression
Time
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How can these subjective social indicators be
used to enhance population happiness?

• They can tell us about when additional resources
  are, and are not, likely to benefit SWB

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Does greater wealth always benefit SWB? NO
The effect of both on SWB is not linear (ie more
is not necessarily better) BUT The
relationship of both with SWB can be understood
via homeostasis
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Income and subjective wellbeing
81
Total N 30,000
80
79.2

79
78.3
78.0

78
76.5
77

Subjective wellbeing
76.3
76

74.9
75
Normal Range
73.9
74
73.0
73
71.7
72
71
lt15
15-30
31-60
61-90
91-120
121-150
150
Median
Household Income ('000)
Beyond a certain income there is no further
benefit to subjective wellbeing
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B.Subjective Social Indicators be used--- to
identify geographic areas that require additional
resources
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Parliament House in Canberra
In 2005 we compared the Subjective Wellbeing of
the 150 Federal electorates
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New South Wales
Above average
Below average
Average
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Summary Both objective and subjective social
indicators provide important and different
information
Objective Social Indicators e.g. National wealth
Subjective Social Indicators e.g. Subjective
Wellbeing
Both sources of information used to make policy
decisions
Optimization of Social Development according
to the availability and distribution of resources