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Maybe a Ph.D Will Make You Happy!
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The year’s coming to an end. Hanukah is over. Christmas is today, and Boxing Day is tomorrow. A truly wonderful time to contemplate the big picture questions like life, love, and happiness. I’m fascinated by the primary drivers of happiness, family, health, income, and education frequently. In the future,I’ll be covering the first 3 of these four fascinating topics more with upcoming guest Sam Harris. But today, I want to focus on the relationship between education and happiness.
When it comes to money, it’s natural (unless you’re the Notorious B.I.G.) to assume more money provides more happiness. That supposition made me wonder: Does more education lead to more happiness? I thought it was obviously yes. However, like the recent research on the lack of correlation between wealth and happiness, the correlation between education and happiness is equally complex.
Contrary to the belief that more education leads to greater life satisfaction, studies indicate varied emotional impacts. Higher education, surprisingly, is linked with negative emotions such as mourning and loneliness. This is particularly evident in China, where higher education correlates negatively with happiness, influenced by factors like housing debt in expensive cities (Wang & Zhao, 2022).
The ‘World Happiness Report’ sheds light on another aspect: education affects happiness indirectly through factors like income, job possibilities, and job security. This suggests that the benefits of education on well-being are not direct but mediated through other life improvements (Veenhoven & Vergunst, 2018).
The relationship between education and happiness is intricate and varies across different contexts and studies. While conventional wisdom often equates higher education with increased happiness, recent research challenges this simplistic view, revealing a more complex interaction.
1. Indirect Influence through Economic and Social Factors
The ‘World Happiness Report’ suggests that the impact of education on happiness is primarily indirect. Education influences well-being through its effects on economic factors like income, job opportunities, and job security. These factors, rather than education per se, play a more direct role in enhancing happiness (Veenhoven & Vergunst, 2018).
2. Positive Correlation After Controlling for Other Variables
Research indicates that when controlling for variables like health, income, and occupation, education has a significantly positive impact on happiness. This suggests that the benefits of education on emotional well-being become more apparent when other influencing factors are accounted for.
3. Negative Correlation in Specific Contexts
In certain contexts, higher education correlates negatively with happiness. For instance, in China, higher levels of education are associated with ‘acceptable’ rather than ‘extremely happy’ lives. This negative correlation is influenced by socio-economic pressures such as housing debts and high living costs in urban areas (Wang & Zhao, 2022).
4. Linked with Negative Emotional States
Higher education is not always correlated with positive affect (PA). Instead, it’s often linked with negative affect sub-facets like mourning/worries and loneliness/boredom. This challenges the notion that more education straightforwardly leads to a better emotional state.
I shouldn’t be surprised. While Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, in their foundational 2010 study, discovered an intriguing pattern: as annual income increases, so does day-to-day happiness, but only up to around $75,000. Beyond this point, happiness levels off (Kahneman & Deaton, 2010); in contrast, Matthew Killingsworth’s 2021 research at the University of Pennsylvania suggests that happiness continues to rise with income, even beyond $75,000, challenging the previous understanding (Killingsworth, 2021).
Education can have a positive impact on happiness, this relationship is mediated by various factors, including economic conditions, job prospects, and societal pressures. The direct correlation between education and happiness is not universally positive and varies greatly depending on the individual and their circumstances.
In any case, I hope to keep you educated and happy for many years to come!
Ad astra,
Brian
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