Thread by @HappierLivesIns

From today to 31 Dec, we'll be exploring #20charts about happiness & wellbeing.

1/20 - The global rise of unhappiness

@JonCliftonDC (CEO of @Gallup) collects happiness data from all over the world. His book, Blind Spot, highlights a worrying trend...

gallup.com/analytics/3946…

@JonCliftonDC @Gallup 2/20 - What is wellbeing?

Since 2011, @ONS has used the #ONS4 questions to track 3 aspects of wellbeing:

Evaluative - overall satisfaction with life
Eudaimonic - meaning & purpose
Affective - positive & negative emotions

More on theories of wellbeing: happierlivesinstitute.org/report/the-phi…

3/20 - Research on wellbeing is growing exponentially

Today's chart is from 'Can We Be Happier?' by @RichardLayard

Layard argues that the goal for society must be the greatest possible all-round happiness and that focusing on GDP & growth won't help.

penguin.co.uk/books/307159/c…

4/20 - The globalisation of happiness research

In the 2022 @HappinessRpt, @profcpbl crunches the data on how the public & popular narrative about wellbeing and progress is shifting towards a modern, happiness-oriented view of human experience.

worldhappiness.report/ed/2022/trends…

5/20 - Can we measure feelings with numbers?

This chart from @YouGov suggests we're actually quite good at using words & numbers to communicate our subjective judgements.

Read @MichaelDPlant's working paper for more: happierlivesinstitute.org/report/the-com…

6/20 - Life satisfaction around the world 🌍

2022 was the 10th anniversary of worldhappiness.report

@HappinessRpt ranks countries by their average life satisfaction (using data from the @Gallup World Poll)

You can dig into the data @OurWorldInData
ourworldindata.org/happiness-and-…

7/20 - Does money make people happier?

Yes, but the effect gets smaller as you get richer.

@RyanDwyer5 & @DunnHappyLab present *causal* evidence that $10,000 will buy a lot more happiness in a low-income country compared to a high-income country.

pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

8/20 - We're *really* bad at happiness predictions 🔮

@Matt__Coleman's report on #AffectiveForecasting explains the common mistakes we make when predicting the intensity and duration of our own and others’ feelings.

happierlivesinstitute.org/report/affecti…

9/20 - Depression & anxiety have a *much* bigger impact on life satisfaction compared to:

- other health conditions
- debt
- unemployment
- divorce

This chart comes from @Happi_Research's excellent report on wellbeing-adjusted life years

happinessresearchinstitute.com/waly-report

10/20 - Depression & anxiety are two of the leading causes of 'years lived with disability'.

This chart comes from the excellent #WorldMentalHealthReport published by the @WHO this year.

who.int/teams/mental-h…

11/20 - 300m tonnes of #morphine are distributed each year, but only 0.1 tonnes go to low-income countries.

50% of the world's population receives less than 1% of the world's morphine, leaving many people to die in terrible pain.

thelancet.com/journals/langl…

12/20 - How much international aid is spent on different diseases relative to their disease burden (i.e. $ per DALY)?

Official Development Assistance (ODA) for mental health is *much* less than HIV/malaria/TB, despite being a major disease burden.

journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…

13/20 - In *every* country, the % of the health budget spent on mental healthcare & research is *nowhere near* the % disease burden from mental disorders.

Adapted from @matthewridley93, Gautam Rao, @FrankSchilbach, & Vikram Patel (2020):
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

14/20 - 80% of gov expenditure on mental health is spent on psychiatric hospitals (in low & middle-income countries).

Moving to community-based care models would deliver better outcomes for the same spending.

Read our mental health report for more: happierlivesinstitute.org/report/global-…

15/20 - @GiveDirectly & @MakeStrongMinds have a similar total effect on wellbeing but...

Cost per person:

@GiveDirectly = ~$1,000

@MakeStrongMinds =~$130

Read our full report: happierlivesinstitute.org/report/donatin…

16/20 - Here's that @GiveDirectly v @MakeStrongMinds comparison with #cost on the x-axis, and #effect (in WELLBYs) on the y-axis.

The clouds of coloured dots represent the range of uncertainty around the point estimates.

Read more: happierlivesinstitute.org/report/happine…

@GiveDirectly @MakeStrongMinds 17/20 - How bad is death at different ages?

@GiveWell's 'moral weights' rely on guesses from donors (60%), beneficiaries (30%) & staff (10%).

But there are other approaches: forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/8whqn2Gr…

@GiveDirectly @MakeStrongMinds @GiveWell 18/20 - The value of 'saving' a life depends on two philosophical assumptions:

1) the relative value of death at different ages

2) the point on a 0-10 scale where wellbeing switches from +ve to -ve.

These are crucial considerations but often ignored.

happierlivesinstitute.org/report/the-ele…

19/20 - deworming has no effect on long-term happiness

There's been a lot of debate about the effects of deworming #wormwars

Our contribution is to show that the effect on happiness is either non-existent or too small to estimate with certainty.

happierlivesinstitute.org/report/a-can-o…

20/20 - Our final chart summarises the results of our research from the last three years (inc. our uncertainty).

@MakeStrongMinds is the most cost-effective charity we've found so far and it's not too late to send them a year-end donation 💵

Read more: happierlivesinstitute.org/2022/11/24/202…