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February 2011
Article

It's the Recipient That Counts: Spending Money on Strong Social Ties Leads to Greater Happiness Than Spending on Weak Social Ties

By: Lara B. Aknin, Gillian M. Sandstrom, Elizabeth W. Dunn and Michael I. Norton

Previous research has shown that spending money on others (prosocial spending) increases happiness. But, do the happiness gains depend on who the money is spent on? Sociologists have distinguished between strong ties with close friends and family and weak... View Details

Keywords: Happiness; Relationships; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving

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November 19, 2020
Article

How to Build a Life: Sedentary Pandemic Life Is Bad for Our Happiness

The times when we most want comfort and rest may paradoxically be the times we most need to move, for the sake of our well-being. View Details

Keywords: Health Pandemics; Welfare

December 31, 2020
Article

How to Build a Life: New Year's Resolutions That Will Actually Lead to Happiness

August 12, 2021
Article

How to Build a Life: The Link Between Happiness and a Sense of Humor

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August 24, 2023
Article

How to Build a Life: How to Get the Most Happiness from Your Social Life

February 17, 2022
Article

How to Build a Life: The Seven Habits That Lead to Happiness in Old Age

April 2013 (Revised February 2018)
Case

Norway: The Embarrassment of Riches

By: Sophus A. Reinert, Forest Reinhardt and Senny Munthe-Kaas

In early 2013, Norway was by many accounts the world’s most developed country; it topped various indices for everything from democracy to happiness, had a comprehensive welfare state, and massive oil revenues endowed it with a substantial, and growing, Sovereign Wealth... View Details

Keywords: Sovereign Wealth Funds; Welfare State; Natural Resources; Internationalization; Dutch Disease; Happiness; Macroeconomics; Energy Sources; Values and Beliefs; Sovereign Finance; Immigration; Welfare; Energy Industry; Norway

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Article

Every Large Point Set Contains Many Collinear Points or an Empty Pentagon

By: Zachary Abel, Brad Ballinger, Prosenjit Bose, Sébastien Collette, Vida Dujmović, Ferran Hurtado, Scott Duke Kominers, Stefan Langerman, Attila Pór and David Wood

We prove the following generalised empty pentagon theorem for every integer ℓ ≥ 2, every sufficiently large set of points in the plane contains ℓ collinear points or an empty pentagon. As an application, we settle the next open case of the “big line or big clique”... View Details

Keywords: Erdős-Szekeres Theorem; Happy End Problem; Big Line Or Big Clique Conjecture; Empty Quadrilateral; Empty Pentagon; Empty Hexagon

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02 Jun 2022
Research & Ideas

Blissful Thinking: When It Comes to Finding Happiness, 'Your Dreams Are Liars'

graduated. “Here’s the good news: They got everything they wanted,” Brooks said. “Here’s the bad news: They wanted the wrong thing. The result is that they’re not as happy as they could be. We need to teach a class on happiness,” Brooks... View Details

Keywords: by Dan Morrell

02 Apr 2024
What Do You Think?

What's Enough to Make Us Happy?

That’s not a bad yardstick for decision-making in the happiness business. Most of us would probably agree that “what’s enough” should be a bit of a stretch but achievable. For example, for many years my spouse and I shared an objective of... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

21 Aug 2023
Book

You’re More Than Your Job: 3 Tips for a Healthier Work-Life Balance

The days of sticking with one job through retirement are long gone. Younger workers are prioritizing happiness over workplace loyalty, often out of necessity. Harvard Business School senior lecturer Christina Wallace offers a roadmap for... View Details

Keywords: by Kara Baskin

05 Aug 2013
Research & Ideas

To Buy Happiness, Purchase an Experience

Video directed and produced by Joanie Tobin Conventional wisdom says that money can't buy happiness. Behavioral science begs to differ. In fact, research shows that money can make us happier—but only if we spend it in particular ways. In their book View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

26 Feb 2015 - 28 Feb 2015
Conference Presentation

Is That All There Is to Happiness?

By: J. Phillips, C. Mott, Julian De Freitas, J. Gruber and J. Knobe

Happiness researchers have started to converge on a conception of happiness that involves some combination of high positive affect, low negative affect, and high life satisfaction. We present three studies which demonstrate that the ordinary understanding... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Happiness; Personal Characteristics