Can Happy People Change the World?
Years ago, I remember seeing a bumper sticker that declared, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." In our current media landscape, outrage has become a popular strategy to capture attention. A growing proportion of news headlines now convey anger, fear, disgust, and sadness, while emotionally neutral headlines are on the decline. People often complain about all the negativity in the news, yet our online behavior tells a different story – we give more clicks to headlines that use negative words. Against this backdrop of pervasive doom and gloom, those who maintain a positive outlook and express happiness are often viewed with skepticism.
When others around them are being negative about the state of things, happy individuals are frequently labeled as naive, accused of having their heads in the sand, or dismissed as indifferent to the world's problems. There appears to be a widespread belief that to truly care about social issues and drive progress, one needs to be outraged, sad, or afraid.
Perhaps this mindset is even contributing to the rise in reported mental health problems among young Americans. My team at the Human Flourishing Lab, in partnership with Discover.AI, recently explored conversations about the future that young Americans are having in online spaces. We found that when younger generations discuss major global challenges such as climate change, they frequently use negative emotional language involving mental health terminology. Terms like "climate anxiety," "eco anxiety," and "existential anxiety" are common in these discussions.
But is it true that positive feelings lead us to be less concerned about the world and less motivated to solve its problems? Do we need to choose between personal happiness and human progress? Research in psychological science suggests otherwise, and the findings might surprise you. In fact, happy people are generally the ones most likely to not just care about the world around them, but to take action to improve it.
For instance, a series of studies published in the Journal of Positive Psychology found that happiness is positively associated with engagement and action across various societal and global issues. In one study, participants first completed a questionnaire assessing their general levels of happiness and unhappiness. They then chose an issue they cared about and answered questions about their level of concern for that issue and the extent to which they had taken action to help address it. To measure people's current motivation to stay engaged with the issue, the researchers gave participants an opportunity to sign up for a newsletter that would keep them informed on the topic. The findings were revealing: both happy and unhappy people expressed high levels of concern about their chosen issue. Importantly, happy individuals were more likely to have taken action to help address the issue and were more willing to sign up for the newsletter to stay informed about it.
In a subsequent study, the researchers found that very happy people were more likely to engage in environmentally friendly behaviors, such as recycling and avoiding environmentally harmful products, compared to those who were less happy. This effect persisted even when controlling for age, gender, education, and income. It seems that being happy doesn't make us complacent – it might actually motivate us to take action!
This doesn't mean negative emotions are always unhelpful. The researchers found that while being generally unhappy wasn't associated with taking action, negative emotions specific to an issue (like worry about a particular problem) were associated with a greater motivation to act. This suggests that the key isn't avoiding negative emotions altogether, but rather maintaining a generally positive mood that allows us to respond appropriately to specific concerns.
The researchers noted that their findings are consistent with the affect-as-cognitive feedback model. This model suggests that positive emotions act as a 'Go' signal, while negative emotions act as a 'Stop' signal. In other words, having a generally positive outlook on life might energize us to channel our negative emotions about specific problems into productive actions.
According to the broaden-and-build theory, positive emotions function to promote a more expansive mindset, leading people to be more willing to explore and accept new information and to think more creatively. Thus, being happy may benefit human progress by fostering the kind of open-mindedness and divergent thinking that leads to new solutions to problems as well as a greater openness to collaboration and compromise with others. Both happy and unhappy people care about major societal and global problems, but happy people may be better psychologically positioned to productively work towards resolving these challenges.
This is a big reason why I believe our growing mental health problems are much more than a barrier to individual flourishing. Consider, for instance, how rising anxiety and depression rates can undermine discovery, invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship—all drivers of progress. These activities involve risk-taking, an openness to new possibilities and opportunities, the motivation to persist despite obstacles and setbacks, and a positive mindset about the future. Depression is characterized not just by chronic sadness, but also by a pessimistic outlook and a lack of motivation. Anxiety makes people less willing to take risks and less open to new possibilities and opportunities. For example, research finds that the more anxiety people experience, the less likely they are to engage in entrepreneurial activities.
All of this suggests that cultivating personal happiness doesn't make us complacent or less engaged citizens. On the contrary, it might give us the strength and motivation we need to take constructive action on issues we care about.
So the next time someone suggests that happiness means ignorance of or indifference to the world's problems, you can tell them that this is not the case. Joy and contentment might be the very ingredients we need to spark positive change in the world.
Have a great weekend!
Clay