14 DAY TRIAL // Investigators involved in conducting the DDB Needham Life Style Survey say that their preliminary results indicate happiness levels to be very similar between men and women, far more so than past studies had suggested.
Primarily, the study data covered the decades between 1985 and 2005. The statistics show that both men and women experienced a significant, similar decrease in life satisfaction and happiness during this time frame.
Considerable decreases were recorded in physical and mental health, as well as in self-confidence. Conversely, the number of regrets about the past increased by a wide margin, indicating that the general population wishes they could have done things differently.
These regrets may refer to personal choices, such as who to marry, or professional ones, including education and career choices. Even in this day and age, these two aspects of a person's life remain the primary sources of both happiness and unhappiness.
The new findings go against the results of a controversial study published in 2009 by University of Pennsylvania Wharton School professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers. That research suggested that women's self-confidence declined steadily between 1972 and 2006.
However, the UP study also proposed that men's happiness and satisfaction levels remained largely unchanged during the same interval. The new investigation proves that that was not the case, and that the decrease affected both genders.
The new research was conducted by experts at the Arizona State University (ASU) School of Public Affairs, who were led by assistant professor Chris Herbst. Details of the study appear in a recent issue of the Journal of Economic Psychology.
“Americans, regardless of gender, age, marital status, and labor market outcomes, experienced deteriorating life satisfaction and self-confidence, as well as increases in a range of physical and mental health problems,” Herbst explains.
“In contrast to Stevenson and Wolfers’ results, men have not been immune to the downward shift in subjective well-being,” the ASU expert adds. “It is difficult to believe that changes of this magnitude could have influenced women’s well-being without also influencing men’s,” he explains.
The primary reasons that led to decreases in happiness include becoming detached from friends, participating in few civic/social activities, and feeling little to no trust in political, religious and economic institutions.