A study published in the Journal of Individual Differences suggests
there’s more to happiness than feeling satisfied with one’s life. The
study found that experiencing the self as interdependent coincided with
increased happiness through feeling greater harmony with others.
It
is commonly believed that a person’s happiness depends on their
evaluation of their life and their well-being. But study authors Nicolas Pellerin of Toulouse University and
his colleagues wanted to explore an alternative model of happiness
called the Selflessness/Self-centeredness Happiness Model (SSHM). This
approach maintains that selflessness and self-centeredness are two
aspects of self-based psychological functioning that carry different
consequences for happiness.
“As
Westerners, we tend to believe that the sources of happiness are
limited to an accumulation of pleasures, resources, the satisfaction of
needs or the achievements we reach in life,” Pellerin told PsyPost.
“However, the pursuit of pleasures and achievements could diminish the
quality and stability of our happiness in many ways, especially when the
person is strongly egocentric, that is, strongly preoccupied with their
own happiness. Indeed, the more a person craves his or her own
happiness, the more unhappy he or she will be when bad things happen and
the less satisfied, he or she will be when good things happen.”
“Given
the limitation of the egocentric pursuit of happiness, is there another
way to achieve qualitative and stable happiness? According to a new
model of happiness, SSHM, there are two distinct psychological
functioning at the source of happiness.”
Self-centeredness
involves the feeling of being an independent and autonomous being. This
mindset involves seeking pleasure by maximizing positive outcomes for
oneself, leading to fluctuations in happiness that are dependent on
external stimuli. On the other hand, selflessness and the feeling of
being interdependent promotes lasting happiness, since one’s happiness
is no longer dictated by external events. It has been proposed that
selflessness gives rise to feelings of harmony, inner peace, and what is
called “authentic-durable happiness.”
“This
model has been validated, but most often in the laboratory or with
questionnaires that do not capture the quality of everyday experiences,”
Pellerin explained. “In our study, we used a methodology that allowed
us to observe fluctuations in the level of altruism and happiness in
daily life. To do this, we sent text messages to individuals 5 times a
day for two days that invited participants to answer short questions
about altruism and happiness.”
The
researchers decided to test the SSHM, by capturing people’s
moment-level perceptions of happiness, selflessness, and harmony. Over a
period of two days, a sample of 64 adults completed short
questionnaires five times a day via their smartphones. The sample
consisted of adults between the ages of 18 and 62, the majority of whom
were women (81%) and French.
Two
separate items asked participants to indicate the extent that they felt
inner peace and contentment (authentic happiness). Two items assessed
feelings of being in harmony with others and of being in harmony with
themselves (feeling of harmony). Finally, three items assessed feelings
of oneness, perceived body boundaries salience, and connection with
others (selflessness).
First,
it was found that all three variables — authentic happiness, feeling
harmony, and selflessness — were positively related. Next, it was
revealed that higher selflessness predicted greater happiness. That is,
the more a respondent reported feeling selfless, the more happiness they
tended to report, too.
Feeling
in harmony with others also positively predicted happiness. Moreover,
harmony explained 86% of the total effect between selflessness and
happiness, which was no longer significant once harmony was taken into
account.
Pellerin
and his colleagues say that their findings largely support the SSHM,
revealing that selflessness is positively associated with happiness and
that this effect is driven by feelings of being in harmony.
“This
study shows that there is a link between the way the experience of
selflessness and happiness,” Pellerin told PsyPost. “In simple terms,
seeing ourselves to be separated from others and our environment (i.e.,
the experience of self-centeredness) was linked to lower happiness,
whereas seeing ourselves to be closely linked to other and the world
(i.e., the experience of selflessness) was linked to higher happiness.
It also appeared that when individuals experienced selflessness, they
felt a sense of harmony with other and themselves.”
“Our
analyses suggest that it is this increased sense of harmony that
explains the link between selflessness and happiness. In other words,
the more we experience selflessness, the more we experience feeling of
harmony which contribute to our happiness. Our study supports the idea
that not only pleasures and accomplishments are important for happiness.
One of the keys to happiness could be the way we relate to the world
and to others, whether this is done with a feeling of connection of
separation.”
However,
since the study design does not allow tests of directionality, the
researchers note that it cannot be assumed that selflessness leads to
greater happiness. It could be that harmony is positively influencing
both selflessness and happiness, or that a fourth variable is
influencing all three variables. For example, better resources might
lead to greater happiness and also lower self-centeredness, since people
with a large number of resources would not feel the need to act
selfishly to acquire more. The study authors propose that future studies
should attempt to uncover the temporal ordering of these variables to
shed light on causality.
“If
we look closely, the results from our study might be interpreted in two
ways. Is that selfless people that are happier than self-centered
people (between-person level)? Or is that temporary changes in
selflessness within an individual which is linked to happiness
(within-person level)? It is impossible with our analyses to know
whether the relationship holds at the between-person level, the
within-person level, or both,” Pellerin explained.
“Moreover,
we did not test whether selflessness was associated to a stabilization
of happiness. To answer all this, we have launched a similar study with
much more observations per individual (the study is currently under
review). Overall, the results of this are consistent with our
hypotheses, with selflessness linked to higher and more stable
happiness, both at the within- and between-person levels. All these
results tend to support the idea that it is possible to experience high
and stable happiness other than through pleasure seeking and pain
avoidance.”
Despite
certain limitations, the findings suggest that happiness does not
simply depend on one’s life satisfaction. Rather, happiness is also
shaped by the extent that one feels interdependent and in harmony with
others.
“The
study of harmony-based type of happiness versus satisfaction-based is
in its infancy,” Pellerin noted. “Much more studies will be needed to
better understand exactly how happiness is produced in our minds. We
hope that this work will inspire future psychotherapeutic development
and help people to reach high and stable happiness despite adversity and
to promote a more peaceful and serene society at large.”
The study, “Selflessness and Happiness in Everyday Life: An Experience Sampling Method Based Study”, was authored by Nicolas Pellerin, Eric Raufaste, and Michaël Dambrun.