Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson have just published a large meta-analysis of happiness inequality in the United States (hat tip: Marginal Revolution.). And they've found that in this, at least, America has become more egalitarian since the 70s. In part, this is because the saddest among us are no longer so sad. And in part, this is because the happiest among us are no longer so happy. The following graph shows how different segments of the happiness distribution have fared since the 1970s. The graph is a bit tricky to read, but remember that 0 is how happy they were in 1972, and any variation upward means an increase in happiness, and any variation downward a decrease:
So the unbearably happy among us got a bit sadder. The gloomy got a bit happier. The median got a bit less giddy. And the changes were small among most groups. "On average," writes Wolfers, "we get the well-documented puzzle that U.S. happiness hasn’t risen." In some ways, that is a puzzle. How can you not be happier in a world where you can call up, at will, a video of a small brown bear falling adorably asleep? On the other hand, there's a whole lot more traffic today, and lots of people have to sit in it, and far fewer of us live near our families, and most adults report having fewer close friends than did previous generations. So there are explanations. There's also the argument that above a certain level of income, happiness is mostly a function of personal outlook and brain chemistry, which I tend to buy. But I'd sort of expect that the abrupt availability of Prozac and Xanax would have led to a substantial increase in total happiness. The counterfactual of what these numbers would look like were those drugs not available is, I think, one of the more interesting avenues for research.Related: More happiness graphs, courtesy of Justin Wolfers, here.
So the unbearably happy among us got a bit sadder. The gloomy got a bit happier. The median got a bit less giddy. And the changes were small among most groups. "On average," writes Wolfers, "we get the well-documented puzzle that U.S. happiness hasn’t risen." In some ways, that is a puzzle. How can you not be happier in a world where you can call up, at will, a video of a small brown bear falling adorably asleep? On the other hand, there's a whole lot more traffic today, and lots of people have to sit in it, and far fewer of us live near our families, and most adults report having fewer close friends than did previous generations. So there are explanations. There's also the argument that above a certain level of income, happiness is mostly a function of personal outlook and brain chemistry, which I tend to buy. But I'd sort of expect that the abrupt availability of Prozac and Xanax would have led to a substantial increase in total happiness. The counterfactual of what these numbers would look like were those drugs not available is, I think, one of the more interesting avenues for research.Related: More happiness graphs, courtesy of Justin Wolfers, here. 
