What science says about Mom's happiness advice - Harvard Gazette

"According to Gilbert, his mother may have been partly right - at least when it comes to marriage. Studies have shown that married people are on average happier than those who are unmarried, and the effect holds across decades of data. But he added, "It isn't marriage, per se, that makes you happy. It's the good marriage you have. If a marriage is good enough to keep, you'll likely get a happiness boost from keeping it. If it isn't, you'll likely get one from leaving.""

""When people are hungry, cold, or sick, they are not happy," he said. "Money absolutely makes people happy - because it buys them out of almost every form of human misery." However, research shows that the relationship between money and happiness follows a flattening curve: People at lower levels of wealth became very happy the more money they made, but happiness tended to decrease once their finances reached a certain high point."

Marriage correlates with higher average happiness across decades of data, but marital quality determines whether staying or leaving increases well-being. People in good marriages tend to gain happiness from maintaining the relationship, while those in poor marriages often gain happiness from leaving. Income reduces misery by addressing basic needs such as hunger, cold, and illness, and therefore increases happiness. The income–happiness relationship shows diminishing returns: large financial gains produce smaller mood benefits at higher wealth levels. Strong social connections frequently outweigh massive income increases, with time spent with loved ones producing substantially larger mood boosts than dramatic income gains.

Read at Harvard Gazette