Like most "happiness research", this seems to rely on dodgy methodology and be aimed at some sort of political agenda. Ooh, and here it is:
So what are the policy implications for this new research. The researchers said single-shot events such as a tax cut will probably have little impact on people's happiness. By contrast, "policies that lead to small but repeated gains are likely to succeed."
Well, for starters, who says that a tax cut is a "single shot event"? A tax cut would give me more money every single month, which I could then use to buy more of those "lots of little events".
Yeah, that sounds weird. (Maybe they were thinking of the single-shot "tax rebates" that have been given out?) But which methodology did you think was dodgy?
Well, I think the main problem is that running up to people and asking them how "happy" they are isn't a very good measure of their overall well-being.
So what are the policy implications for this new research. The researchers said single-shot events such as a tax cut will probably have little impact on people's happiness. By contrast, "policies that lead to small but repeated gains are likely to succeed."
Well, for starters, who says that a tax cut is a "single shot event"? A tax cut would give me more money every single month, which I could then use to buy more of those "lots of little events".