As the United Nations releases its 10th annual World Happiness Report—just days ahead of the annual International Day of Happiness , Dr David Tross, Associate Lecturer in the Department of Geography, considers how our age, actions and attitudes matter in times of adversity.
Given the bleak news cycle of the last few years, it might seem jarring to think about happiness. But conditions of adversity (not extreme adversities like death or war) can tell us a lot about happiness, not only about coping in difficult times but also about creatively responding, becoming more conscious of the lives of others, and re-evaluating our own lives.
Take one example. In the summer of 2020, the Office for National Statistic’s survey of the national mood reported that almost half of its respondents had identified some positive benefits of lockdown. One was work-related: not having to commute and spend long hours in the office. Other benefits were spending more time with family (particularly quality time with children), appreciating a slower pace of life and connecting with the natural environment. One of my research subjects (a cohort of older people writing for the Mass Observation Project) described lockdown as ‘the longest and best holiday I have ever had’.
We probably shouldn’t be surprised. Many activities that research studies have shown to be associated with happiness – loving relationships, achieving things, the arts, nature, doing things for others – were still possible during lockdown. Volunteering is another. “For me”, says Karl Wilding, then CEO of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), “COVID demonstrated that people want to be part of something bigger”. Not only did the 3 million plus people involved in COVID mutual aid groups constitute what the NCVO called ‘the largest peacetime mobilisation in British history’, there was a demonstrable uplift in what might be termed ‘community spirit’: more people felt that others were helping one another, they were more confident that others would help them if needed, and they were checking on neighbours far more than normal. Maybe Nietzsche was right when he suggested that human societies ‘build their cities on the slopes of Vesuvius’. This resilience may be testament to a key phenomenon identified decades ago by happiness researchers — the extraordinary ability of people to adapt to changes in circumstances and shift their expectations to whatever the ‘new normal’ might be. So it was with lockdown. People adapted, found alternative ways to pass the time and got on with things. Indeed, a more general point is that research into how ordinary people think about happiness reveals a fairly ‘stoic’ attitude with regards to personal expectations; the good and bad in life intermingle, and fantasies of everlasting happiness are just that. As another research subject wrote, ‘I think that the troubles of life have to be experienced in order to realise when you are happy’.
In happiness terms then, actions and attitudes matter in times of adversity. During COVID, age was another intriguing factor.
One seemingly paradoxical theme emerging about the impact of the pandemic: despite being more vulnerable to dying or being hospitalised by Covid-19, older people’s wellbeing seemed less affected than that of other age groups. The main losers? Young people, whose self-reported anxiety and depression tripled. To be sure, lifestyle didn’t change as much for most older people. Job security doesn’t concern most retirees. It also helped if you lived in comfortable housing and had your own garden. In this sense, the pandemic has only served to highlight pre-existing social inequalities.
But it’s all very well coping, what about the core theme in happiness research of the importance of a life imbued with meaning and purpose — what of the plans delayed, the adventures stalled? It was noticeable in my research how narratives of happiness lacked the ‘elevating’ characteristics of really joyful and fulfilling experiences you normally would find – the social celebrations, cultural excursions, the stimulus of the new, the communal rituals. However, for some at least, the dutiful social obligations of lockdown life, the small acts of protecting others as well as oneself, were ways of satisfying a sense of meaning through the idea that individual behaviours were ones directly connected to the public good, and that what any given person did, actually mattered. That’s not a bad happiness prescription.
Further information
