Great post! I thought this was a very clear and useful summary of the literature, and all the links and references are very helpful.
You mention the difficulties in comparing happiness between countries towards the end, do you have a view on how big of a problem these issues are for measuring happiness across the lifespan? Or views on the age-happiness curve more generally?
Also, in case you hadn’t seen it already, I found this post by Pew Research Centre a very useful summary of various problems in questionnaire design (some of which you mention, e.g. acquiscence bias), and how they try to get around them.
I haven’t looked into the age-happiness curve all that much, but from the studies I have read, I think it’s a bit suspicious that none of them seem to control for ERS. If ERS really is U-shaped (seems like a slight majority opinion), then a lot or even all of the age-happiness curve could be explained by that. Then again, surely someone in the field would have found that out by now if it were true, right? Might look into it further in a future post
Thanks for the link! I hadn’t seen it before, definitely useful information.
There seems to be some discussion as to whether the age-happiness U-shape is statistically significant. This study by Frijters and Beaton says that the U-shape becomes more pronounced when you allow for socio-economic variables. But this study by Bartram says that adjusting the data to compare people of similar wealth misses the point since people often become poorer during old age. He finds that if we omit that adjustment there is generally a decline in happiness during old age.
I still find it interesting that if we adjust for wealth and health people between the ages of 60 and 70 tend to report being the happiest. You mentioned in footnote 4 that it’s unclear whether ERS increases or decreases with age. My guess is that it’s mostly a cultural thing, which is why I find it so interesting that this study of 145 countries also found the U-shaped curve.
So I did a fair bit more research on this subject for a post I’m writing on it, and from what I can tell, that Blanchflower study you mentioned is making the exact mistake Bartram points out, and if you use controls correctly, the u-shape only shows up in a few countries.
This study by Kratz and Brüderl is very interesting—it points out four potential causes of bias in the age-happiness literature and make their own study without those biases, finding a constant downwards slope in happiness. I think they miss the second-biggest issue, though (after overcontrol bias): there is constant confusion between different happiness measures, as I described in my post above, and that really matters when studying a subject with effects this small.
If I ever have time, I’m planning on doing some kind of small meta-analysis, taking the five or so biggest unbiased studies in the field. I’d have to learn some more stats first, though :)
Great post! I thought this was a very clear and useful summary of the literature, and all the links and references are very helpful.
You mention the difficulties in comparing happiness between countries towards the end, do you have a view on how big of a problem these issues are for measuring happiness across the lifespan? Or views on the age-happiness curve more generally?
Also, in case you hadn’t seen it already, I found this post by Pew Research Centre a very useful summary of various problems in questionnaire design (some of which you mention, e.g. acquiscence bias), and how they try to get around them.
Thanks! Glad this works well as a summary.
I haven’t looked into the age-happiness curve all that much, but from the studies I have read, I think it’s a bit suspicious that none of them seem to control for ERS. If ERS really is U-shaped (seems like a slight majority opinion), then a lot or even all of the age-happiness curve could be explained by that. Then again, surely someone in the field would have found that out by now if it were true, right? Might look into it further in a future post
Thanks for the link! I hadn’t seen it before, definitely useful information.
There seems to be some discussion as to whether the age-happiness U-shape is statistically significant. This study by Frijters and Beaton says that the U-shape becomes more pronounced when you allow for socio-economic variables. But this study by Bartram says that adjusting the data to compare people of similar wealth misses the point since people often become poorer during old age. He finds that if we omit that adjustment there is generally a decline in happiness during old age.
I still find it interesting that if we adjust for wealth and health people between the ages of 60 and 70 tend to report being the happiest. You mentioned in footnote 4 that it’s unclear whether ERS increases or decreases with age. My guess is that it’s mostly a cultural thing, which is why I find it so interesting that this study of 145 countries also found the U-shaped curve.
So I did a fair bit more research on this subject for a post I’m writing on it, and from what I can tell, that Blanchflower study you mentioned is making the exact mistake Bartram points out, and if you use controls correctly, the u-shape only shows up in a few countries.
This study by Kratz and Brüderl is very interesting—it points out four potential causes of bias in the age-happiness literature and make their own study without those biases, finding a constant downwards slope in happiness. I think they miss the second-biggest issue, though (after overcontrol bias): there is constant confusion between different happiness measures, as I described in my post above, and that really matters when studying a subject with effects this small.
If I ever have time, I’m planning on doing some kind of small meta-analysis, taking the five or so biggest unbiased studies in the field. I’d have to learn some more stats first, though :)