The main goal of this book is to show the intricate relationship between individual and societal well-being. The psychological science of well-being has focused almost exclusively on individuals’ well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, the frequency of positive emotional experiences). Consequently, we know a great deal about predictors of well-being (e.g., personality traits, quality of close relationships) and consequences of well-being (e.g., income, educational attainment, relationship stability). In contrast, we know little about whether the aggregate well-being of happy individuals will give rise to a happy, healthy, well-functioning society (e.g., low crime rate, low corruption, economic vitality, low homicide, low suicide, high rate of pro-community action, high level of civic engagement). The central question for this book is the following: Do happy people make a happy society? The answer to this question is not straightforward. There is some evidence to support the idea that happy individuals create a happy society (Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005), as happy individuals are known to be more sociable, caring, and positive around others. However, there is also evidence that some socio-ecological factors promoting an individual’s pursuit of happiness (e.g., residential mobility) can be detrimental to the well-being of communities (Sampson et al., 1997). Thus, the second critical question at the intersection of individual and societal well-being is the following: How can we maximize individuals’ happiness, while also maximizing societal happiness? The main thesis: although happiness is associated with a myriad of positive outcomes (e.g., income, marital stability), maximizing individual happiness (e.g., freedom and residential mobility) might undermine societal well-being via undermining intermediate institutions such as neighborhood and workplace social network. I will then discuss how we can reach the intricate balance maximizing both individual happiness and societal well-being. To this end, I will try to identify the optimal levels of freedom, residential mobility, economic resources, and interpersonal resources that produce maximum levels of well-being for individuals and for society. Over the last twenty years, subjective well-being research has exploded in psychology, as well as in related disciplines such as sociology and economics. Although a number of reviews and books have been published on subjective well-being, researchers in this area have paid little attention to the relation between subjective and societal well-being. This is the first book to explicitly address the issue of societal as well as personal well-being.
