Halcyon Identifies

 

If governments embrace the "happiness agenda", might this inadvertently lead to sinister political implications for citizens?

 

The world database of happiness provides a continuous register of scientific research on people's subjective appreciation of life.

 

Measuring societal well-being is complicated by widely varying definitions of the good life across cultures.

Authentic experiences, remembered in context, are more powerful than "happiness in a can".

 

Both material wealth and wider quality of life - for countries and individuals - can be measured through the prosperity index.

A new index shows the relative efficiency with which nations convert resources into long and happy lives for their citizens.

A new remote-sensing mechanism examines blog content to measure emotional levels of millions of people.

 

Happiness is contagious - the recently released the results of a 20-year study showing the “dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network", suggest that happiness, like health, is a collective phenomenon.

Money can buy you happiness, after all, according to authoritative recent research - but only so long as you spend the money on someone else.

Ignoring outside pressures, an increasing number of people are simply "choosing" to be happy, to follow an "optimism manifesto".