In Search of Sustainable Well-Being Felicia Huppert

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1 Much more is known about the material conditions of people s lives than about people s perceived quality of life, which we refer to as their well-being. 80 Felicia Huppert is a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Well-Being Institute at the University of Cambridge. She is co-author of The Science of Well-Being with Nick Baylis and Barry Keverne.

2 In Search of Sustainable Well-Being Felicia Huppert A fixation on narrow national economic measures of progress like Gross Domestic Product has long been recognised as a political straitjacket, inhibiting the emergence of more sustainable development. In response, various alternative measures have been developed over the past 20 years, from The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare and the Genuine Progress Indicator to the UN s Human Development Index and Bhutan s Gross National Happiness measure. Even these, however, only present a limited picture. Professor Huppert notes that whilst national governments spend substantial amounts of money collecting and analysing economic (and, to a lesser extent, social and environmental) indicators, relatively little attention has been given to how citizens actually experience their lives. In other words, much more is known about the material conditions of people s lives than about people s perceived quality of life, which we refer to as their well-being. This is the area of pioneering work in which Huppert and her colleagues at the Well-being Institute are engaged. Objective indicators like GDP, wealth, consumption, crime rate and education tend to be only relatively weakly associated with people s experiences, as measured by happiness or life satisfaction. Indeed, there is evidence that in economically developed countries, increasing economic prosperity may even be associated with increasing rates of depression, divorce and suicide. Hence there is a need for reliable subjective indicators of wellbeing to provide a more complete picture, and one which can help to explain any disconnect between relative prosperity and high rates of individual and social problems. So how can we define and measure wellbeing? According to Huppert, well-being is more than happiness, which is a transient experience. Sustainable well-being is a combination of feeling good and functioning In Search of Sustainable Well-Being 81

3 well. Defining positive well-being as the upper end of a spectrum from very low well-being (common mental disorders depression and anxiety) to very high, the Well-being Institute has established the following ten features which characterise positive wellbeing: positive emotion, engagement, sense of meaning, self esteem, optimism, resilience, vitality, feeling competent, emotional stability, and positive relationships. These can be applied at the level of individuals or the level of communities. Huppert has also led research on well-being as part of Round 3 of the European Social Survey, conducted in across 23 countries. The findings illustrate significant differences across various measures of wellbeing. For example, there is more than a four-fold difference between the lowest and highest rates of depression (lowest in Norway at 9.9% and highest in Hungary at 41.4%). In France, fewer than half (47.5%) of the population report having time to do the things they enjoy, as compared with 81.5% in Denmark. Broadly speaking, people in Northern Europe feel they are treated with respect, whereas people in Eastern European countries are less likely to feel respected. And there is an almost ten-fold difference in volunteering and charitable work across the nations of Europe (67% in Norway versus 7% in Bulgaria). 82 Leadership Ideas

4 The UK is relatively progressive in translating the evidence into policy interventions. For example, recommendations from the Foresight Project Report on Mental Capital and Wellbeing are being implemented through wellbeing audits across government departments that are responsible for schools, work, communities and health. An All-Party Parliamentary Group on well-being economics has also been formed to challenge the government s use of gross domestic product as its main indicator of national success, and to promote new measures of social progress. The creation of well-being requires more than the remediation of problems this merely reduces ill-being. It requires that the whole population is shifted towards flourishing. According to Huppert, three concepts are fundamental to the success of such policies. First, the creation of well-being requires more than the remediation of problems this merely reduces ill-being. It requires that the whole population is shifted towards flourishing. Second, sustainable happiness results from what we do, not what we have; we need to be able to create our own wellbeing and contribute to that of others. Third, we cannot assume that translating the evidence into interventions will produce a flourishing society; we must commit to rigorous evaluation to find out what works, for whom, for how long, for which outcomes and in what contexts. Apart from developing and applying these well-being indicators as measures of the health of our social and human capital, wellbeing research has another crucial insight for efforts in sustainability. As we know, sustainability is often perceived by the public as a negative concept (making sacrifices, reducing impacts, etc). Huppert warns that this avoidance-based concept is bound to be less effective than a more positive strategy. Research shows that progress towards goals (personal projects) is associated with wellbeing, and that positive or approach goals are more effective than negative or avoidance goals. For example, making a resolution to stop eating unhealthy food is far less effective than making a resolution to eat more healthily. In Search of Sustainable Well-Being 83

5 According to the European Social Survey, the percentage of Europeans flourishing varies between 9% (Russia & Portugal) and 41% (Denmark), so there is much work still to be done. In the former case, a person feels they have failed if on occasion they choose an unhealthy option, whereas in the latter case occasionally eating unhealthy food is not a problem if the general trend is towards eating healthily. There are also important lessons for sustainability leadership. Research at the Well-being Institute confirms that leaders can increase the well-being of employees by allowing more employee control, communicating and organising well, considering employees needs, and providing constructive feedback. Good communication, fairness, respect, empowerment, and valuing diversity also contribute to well-being in the workplace. Transformational leadership and authentic leadership styles lend themselves particularly well to improved health and wellbeing outcomes among followers. Much of Huppert s work focuses on the upperend of the well-being spectrum, which she refers to as flourishing, which seems a useful addition to the concept of sustainability. The good news is that we may not have to trade off well-being and prosperity. Huppert concludes that we may have been wrong to believe that economic prosperity would bring happiness, but the evidence suggests that happiness and social well-being are likely to bring economic prosperity. Moreover, where prosperity arises from post-materialist values, it has the potential to enhance well-being without costing the earth. Research drawn from interview conducted by Wayne Visser, Senior Associate, CPSL. References Huppert, FA, Baylis, N and Keverne, B (2006) The Science of Wellbeing. Oxford University Press. Huppert, FA, Marks, N, Clark, A, Siegrist, J, Stutzer, A, Vittersø, J and Wahrendorf, M (2008) Measuring Well-being Across Europe: Description of the ESS Well-being Module and Preliminary Findings. Social Indicators Research, Volume 91, Number 3, Huppert, FA (2010) Happiness breeds prosperity: Book review of The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being by Derek Bok, Nature, Vol 464, 29 Apr. 84 Leadership Ideas