Results of the Happiness Survey

Back in March I crafted a survey to help understand what makes people happy and if technology can help us become happier. Volunteers completed the survey anonymously either online or on paper. There were two groups of respondents: a) middle class, age range of 20-40 y.o., who use technology for social purpose, not particularly religious, mainly employed, b) middle to upper class retired people, i.e. 50 y.o. and above, who are not too fond of technology vs. face-to-face meetings for social purpose, mainly non-religious, but with high priorities on ethics and humanism (representatives from Boston Ethical Society). Thank you to all participants!

The Happiness survey is phase One of The Ultimate Answer project, which is about:

• ›What makes people happy?
• ›How open are people to share their ideas about happiness and help each other?
• ›Are there any “common denominators” of happiness?
• ›Is it possible to measure happiness and how?
• ›How can happiness be increased in the world?
• ›Can technology leverage human potential to increase happiness and how?
• ›What is the meaning of life and how to find it?

82 people answered the survey: 15 from Boston Ethical Society(BES) and 67 from non-BES.

Here are some highlights:

• 99% knows what happiness is, but only 72% knows what the meaning of life is. Those 28% who have no clue really need to catch up on Monty Python…
• People are more likely to give a piece of advice than to receive it.
• 9 out of 10 said that happiness is not permanent, it changes over time.
• Answers from BES (more ethical and older) group were different from non-BES respondents.
• Meaning of life is different from personal happiness.

Please, feel free to check out the results of the survey for yourself Happiness Survey Results

via Results of the Happiness Survey.