The Happiness Curve
Embrace the Upswing!
Old ideas die hard. It’s been 20 years since happiness economists (yes, they’re a thing!) began publishing papers indicating that conventional wisdom is wrong:
***The happiest times of our lives are not when we are young or even in our thirties.
***The “midlife crisis” is not an acute event but rather a transition period of several years.
***After 50, comes a time of rising satisfaction.
***Old age is generally not sad but happy.
The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After 50 codifies this new view of happiness. In his book (published in 2018), Brookings Institution scholar Jonathan Rauch discusses these findings at length. Based on much research and many interviews, the book presents a convincing case, although Rauch stresses that individuals vary and not every life bends to the curve.
The curve is a U-shape, with happiness greatest in youth and old age, and this applies both to men and to women. The curve bottoms out in the forties. There is no single midlife crisis, but people at that stage feel a general dissatisfaction. It’s not the time of mastery they had anticipated, but one of vulnerability. In their fifties, however, people feel they’re on an upswing.
There are some contradictory reports, such as a recent UK study in the Social Indicators Research journal, which indicates that we’re happiest between the ages of 30-34. But I’m sticking to The Happiness Curve because whenever possible, I choose the optimistic option! Optimism, other studies show, leads to better health.
What accounts for Rauch’s surprising findings of a downturn in happiness at 20, and a resurgence of it at 50? A lot has to do with the delicate dance between hope and reality.
Basically, when we’re in our twenties, we’re floundering around, uncertain of the direction of our lives. We have high hopes for ourselves but no certain path ahead. Our thirties bring us some achievement but also more responsibilities. By our forties, we may be feeling that we have not lived up to our highest potential, and this clash between our expectations and reality leads to malaise.
When we reach our fifties and sixties, we are no longer as hopeful, so our reality seems better and we become happier. Many of us become less ambitious, less absorbed by our careers. Instead of a midlife crisis, it’s a midlife pivot, and we get our satisfactions perhaps in volunteering, perhaps in new hobbies (bridge, ping-pong, the tango!), perhaps in our grandchildren. We become less harsh on ourselves and more forgiving of others. We become mellow, and with any luck, we become wise.
There is some evidence to indicate that the U-shaped happiness curve is universal, occurring all over the world—and in chimpanzees, too. We get happier as we get older, but society sends out a different message.
A few readers may remember that my very first post, in December 2022, showed a graph based on data from the US Census study of self-reported happiness. This confirms the main themes of Raush’s book, even while it diminishes them. In the Census Study, there is indeed a downward trend in the twenties with things generally not picking up until the late forties and fifties. What’s surprising is the flatness of the curve. People were asked to score their life satisfaction from 0 (awful) to 10 (best imaginable). Average score at low point: 6.7. Average score at high point: 7.8.
Clearly age is a factor in happiness, with well-being rising even as we become frail. But a rise from 6.7 to 7.8 over the decades isn’t all that significant.
What is significant, and worth trumpeting, is that as we grow old our happiness grows !
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Considering the alternative, we may as well believe it's true.