Insight asks: can we, and should we be happier? Or is the pursuit of happiness making us more unhappy? Watch at 8:30pm on Tuesday February 22 or on SBS On Demand here.
Psychiatrist Professor Nick Glozier has been researching happiness in Australia over the past two decades. He says our happiness as a country “has been on the decline for six or seven years."
“So it started before COVID … I think everyone would agree it’s probably taken a further dive since then.”
Prof. Glozier draws a distinction between happiness – which he describes as fleeting, positive emotions like joy – and satisfaction, which is more to do with our contentedness with our quality of life, achievements and social standing.
“We’re actually a very satisfied nation,” Prof Glozier told host Kumi Taguchi on this week’s episode of Insight.
“We’re not doing so well on happiness.”
This means that while we may be just as satisfied with our lot in life, our moments of bliss and elation are becoming fewer and fewer.
Experts aren’t sure of the exact reasons for the decline.
Some Insight guests told Kumi their careers didn’t bring the happiness and sense of achievement they expected. Some say social media has a negative impact on their mood or recall difficult periods of illness or social isolation that left them decidedly unhappy.
Others point to the rise of ‘toxic positivity’ – a pressure to keep our chin up and always look on the bright side, that can instead backfire, leaving us even more miserable when we inevitably experience difficult emotions.
Social psychologist, Professor Brock Bastian, said negative feelings and pain are important to our happiness and should be acknowledged rather than avoided.
“If you took the pain out of marathons, no one would run them, it would be pointless,” he said.
“You couldn’t get a sense of achievement at the end. And no one would sponsor you, either.”
