Recession-Proof Happiness?

Is women's sense of wellbeing immune to fluctuations in the economy?

Research into the factors that make women and men happy implies that there exist systematic differences in the ways that men and women cope with plunging stocks. Last May, the Nielson Company ran a global survey, entitled, transparently, the Nielson Happiness Study. It was designed to gauge the relative happiness levels of men and women across 51 countries. The results, they claim, have implications for how men and women value different things.

The survey, polling just under 30,000 individuals, found that women are happier than men within countries nearly across the board. Women in the United States, for example, are happier than men in the United States. Men’s self-reports of wellbeing exceed those of women only in Brazil, South Africa and Vietnam.

Besides measuring relative happiness levels, the survey also delved into the factors that make individuals happy, revealing that men and women diverge on this issue. The study has been read through the lens of the recession in that it seems to indicate that women more readily list non-economic factors, such as their relationships, as the determining factors for their happiness, while men will more often list their financial security.

I wonder, however, if the fact that women are still less financially stable, or are earning, overall, less pay, that has caused them to rate other things as the sources of their happiness. If women in general are expecting to earn less money, then is it surprising that they list non-economic outlets as more significant sources for their happiness? I wonder if it is because women are less financially stable-- or generally earn less pay, causes, or is caused by, the importance of money to their happiness.

The Nielson Survey is an interesting extension on one of my earlier posts covering the happiness research of Easterlin, who found that men grow happier than women by late middle age. The results are not necessarily contradictory, but I’d say that the Easterlin study was more informative to me as an individual existing in only one culture, as it examines happiness over time as opposed to across nations.

Though I wouldn’t have necessarily have predicted such consistent differences between the responses of men and women, inherent differences in male and female communication style or differing response biases may be behind the results. As with any self-reported measures, it’s hard to pin down what we are really measuring. Nonetheless, the sheer size of this survey and its cross-cultural elements make it an important contribution to the field.

The 51-country Nielsen Happiness Study, which polled 28,153 respondents online in May 2008, found that globally, women are happier than men in 48 of the 51 countries surveyed, and only in Brazil, South Africa and Vietnam were men found to be happier than women. Women are also more optimistic about the future, scoring higher than men on predictions of their happiness in the next six months.