It seems there is a specific gene variant – an “allele” – that regulates sensory pleasure and pain reduction; and the more of it found in a population, the happier that population tends to be. Researchers from Bulgaria and Hong Kong discovered that Ghana, Mexico and Nigeria all had populations with a high incidence of this particular allele, and all came high on the happiness scale. The appearance of the genetic feature was least common in the people of Jordan, Iraq, Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Taiwan, and they were the ones least likely to rate themselves as very happy. The same analogy held within Europe: people in the UK, Sweden and other northern nations were found to have a much higher prevalence of the allele, and to feature higher on the happiness spectrum, than their cousins in Italy and elsewhere in the South. However, the researchers acknowledge that the prevalence of the allele isn’t always the determining factor. There is a relatively high incidence of it in Russia, yet its people are not very happy; this may perhaps be explained by its political and economic situation. Happiness levels have also recently fallen in Egypt; probably, as the scientists surmise, due to the political upheavals.
This seems a stretch. Why don’t I believe it? If a bunch of violent drug hoodlums can over-ride this newfound allele (see Mexico) it can’t be very robust. If you have been mis-governed for centuries (see Iraq and China) the same can be said. My personal observation, for what it’s worth, is that, next to the Italians, Greeks and other South Europeans (who know how to live) the North Europeans are comparatively dour and sad (see Finland). No, I think happiness is a matter of individual circumstances and early environment. Maybe future research will prove me wrong, but someone wrote a while ago in the New Scientist that too much can be made of genetics and not enough of “stuff happening”.
Comment: A team led by Richard Peto at the University of Oxford asked more than 700,000 women in the UK about their health and how happy and relaxed they felt. Ten years later, after allowing for any initial disparities in health, there turned out to be no difference in death rate between those who said they were happy and those who were unhappy (The Lancet, DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(15)01087-9).
“Obviously, extreme stress can make people commit suicide or guzzle chocolates,” says Peto. “But unhappiness itself doesn’t have a direct effect on health.” Other studies that have found the opposite must have been mixing up cause and effect, Peto says. “It’s likely that being ill makes you unhappy, rather than the other way round.”
To Epicurus happiness was the overall end,”summum bonum” or “reason for living”. Happiness meant peace of mind and body, tranquillity or undisturbedness (ataraxia), free from fear (or anxiety), and a body content with natural satisfactions. He taught that mental pleasure is better than bodily pleasure. It can be called enlightened hedonism. But he never said he thought it gave you a longer life. I wonder where that idea came from?