How Happy Is Happy Enough?

By Kate Stinchfield

If the self-help section of your local bookstore has anything to say about it, there's a lot you can do to be happier. There's the scientific approach, the Dalai Lama's guide, even a happiness hypothesis. But is there such a thing as too happy? A new study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science suggests that ultimate bliss may not be the ultimate good.

A team of researchers from three universities examined data from the World Values Survey along with the behaviors of 193 volunteers and found that the happiest people weren't necessarily the best off. The metric for this finding was a 10-point life-satisfaction scale. Most respondents ranked themselves as moderately happy. The higher they scored on the scale, the happier they were and the more successful they were likely to be. But that held true only until they hit the top. People who scored a perfect 10 tended to earn less money than slightly less happy folks, and among college students, the 10s had slightly lower grade-point averages and tended to miss more classes than 9s or 8s.

"For some reason, we think we should expect to be superhappy," says Ed Diener, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois and one of the study's authors. "But we need negative emotions."

The slight unease that comes with being moderately happy, Diener explains, means you're likelier to question the way things are--and to try to change it. That could mean finding a new career or doing better at school. "It's probably desirable to feel dissatisfaction appropriately," he says. A bit of fretting can pay health dividends too. If you worry just a little, you're likelier to be more vigilant about something as simple as sunscreen and protect yourself accordingly. As long as you're not too low on the satisfaction scale, it appears you should just be happy with how happy you are.