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wHear a lot Recently, miserable young people about young people. In the recently released World Happiness Report, the U.S. ranking has dropped to its lowest ranking since the survey began, driven by the misfortune of people under the age of 30 in the country. What's going on?

I am skeptical of these international happiness levels. The organizations that produce them always attract a lot of attention by answering “Which country in the world is the happiest country?” They came up with this answer - usually, Finland, Denmark and other Nordic people are behind, by having people from multiple countries answer a self-assessment question about life satisfaction. I didn’t invest too much in this approach because we couldn’t accurately compare countries based on such a limited self-assessment: people in different cultures would answer differently.

But I'm very interested in the changes Within Country, such as the happiness of young Americans. Based on a survey conducted by my Harvard colleagues in the Human Prosperity Program (including my Harvard colleagues), the new study delves into this issue and many other studies: research that flourishes globally. The survey also uses self-reports, but it collects more comprehensive data on well-being, with about six different dimensions, in 22 countries and over 200,000 individuals from over five years. To me, most importantly, the survey shows that while the emotional and psychological distress of young people is more evident in wealthy, industrialized countries like the United States, it is happening around the world.

Scholars have long noted that happiness tends to follow a U-shape across the lifespan: Self-reported happiness tends gradually in young and middle adulthood, then turn upward later in life, starting around age 50. The Dartmouth University economicist David G. Blanchflower—who, together with his co-author, Andrew J. Oswald, pioneered the U-shape hypothesis in 2008—has reproduced the result in 145 countries.

The left side of the U-shaped suggests that teenagers and young people are on average Happier More than middle-aged people. However, given the well-documented increase in emotional disorders among adolescents and young people over the past few decades, we may wish to postpone the left side in newer estimates. Sure enough, this is exactly what the new GFS study has found in the United States and around the world: Prosperity scores won't start from adulthood, because they are now start Low; they remain low until they start to rise at the expected age.

That's bad news, it's terrible. But there is some good news. This thriving survey found a notable exception to this global model: a more traditional U-shaped curve among young people with more friends and intimate social relationships. This coincides with my own research on how today's technology-mediated social ages lack real-life human contact and love for young people who have no real-life human contact and love. This exception created by greater relationships is the starting point for how we address the unfortunate pandemic of young people.

Arthur C. Brooks: Eight Ways to Eliminate Pain

one A reasonable explanation Because the more obvious happiness problem in wealthy Western countries like the United States is growing secularization, which is measured in more and more people among the so-called nones, those without religious beliefs. In the United States, the percentage of the population without religious beliefs has almost doubled since 2007 to 29%. Scholars have long found that religious people are happier on average than non-religious people.

How to explain this paradox that brings tangible happiness to so many people, is it such a significant decline? The researchers hypothesized that this phenomenon dominates in wealthy countries essentially a function of wealth: as society grows, people become richer, and people become less and less because they no longer need religious comfort to deal with this pain as hunger and early death.

I am skeptical of this economic determinism narrative. As expected by past research institutes, new surveys show that those who participate in worship services score at least weekly, thrives at 8% more measures than non-participants worldwide. But this further reveals that this positive impact is Strongest In the richest and most secular country. This finding suggests that contrary to the materialist assumption, wealth is not an important source of metaphysical comfort, while the welfare effects of religious attendance are relatively independent of economic factors.

This leads to the question of what exactly many people in wealthy countries lack when religion declines. Community connection and social capital are two answers. But the deeper answer is significanceThis is one of the thriving categories of the study, which is measured by asking participants whether they consider their daily activities and whether they understand the purpose of their lives. The survey found that per capita GDP per capita is related to this meaning: the richer a country, the more meaning it means for its citizens.

Others have observed this pattern before. Researchers write in journals Psychological Science In 2013, a larger sample of countries was studied (132) and the same conclusion as GFS was concluded: answering the question “Do you think your life has important purpose or significance?” respondents in high-income countries expressed much weaker beliefs than those in low-income countries. The researchers also found that these results may be explained by secularism in wealthy countries.

This raises the question that certain things about material success in society naturally drive religion or spirituality, thus meaning, and thus thrives. Of course, many writers and thinkers throughout history have been because of this. Indeed, we can go back to the Bible and New Testament stories where the rich young man asks Jesus what he needs to do to enter heaven. Jesus told the young man to sell everything he had, give it to the poor, and follow him. The gospel says, “It fell on this man’s face.” “He was sad because he had a wealth of wealth.”

Arthur C. Brooks: Nostalgia is a shield against misfortune

tHis research on global prosperity Many interesting patterns are revealed that will undoubtedly stimulate other research in the coming years. However, you don't have to wait for this discovery to apply it to your life, especially if you are a young person living in a wealthy post-industrial country. Here are three things you can do:

I know that's a kind of authenticity. But Truism does have real merits – the booming investigation reveals the dangers of how we forget these important authenticity. Sometimes, cold, hard data is something we need to remind us that we have always known but ignore.