Summary: The article discusses Molly Young’s experience in Finland, the country ranked the happiest in the world for eight years. Despite its reputation, she finds winter in Helsinki bleak and questions the true nature of happiness. Young explores Finnish culture, particularly the significance of saunas, but realizes that happiness is more complex than what tourism promises.
Despite thousands of years of inquiry, nobody (from Confucius to Aristotle to Jeremy Bentham to Richard Easterlin to Oprah Winfrey) can agree on what happiness is: Is it a quantum of pleasure? The absence of pain? A perception of purpose, hope, community? How does it relate to health or wealth or income? Is happiness a mood? A neurotransmitter? (View Highlight)
The question is called the Cantril Ladder. Here it is:
Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from 0 at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time? (View Highlight)
Affective happiness captures emotions, immediate responses to events, whether we are experiencing joy or sadness at one moment or another. Evaluative happiness is a more contemplative or systemic matter, mapping a person’s overall appraisal of life and whether they are satisfied with theirs. (View Highlight)