PS'r'CHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
HAPPINESS IS A STOCHASTIC PHENOMENON
~
()/I II birlil-record-ha,~ed
David Lykken and Auke Tellegen
5)1
{)'nil.C'rsit.\' (if Minl/l'.~'}t(1
50
or .~lIhjeclil'e II'e"-beill"',
"'a,~ IIIt'a,~llred
,..tll/lple (if ,..el'('ral IhOlI,..(I/I'" middle-
(IKed ",'ills I"..i/l", Ille We"-Beilll: (WB) ,..cllle (Jj'lhe Mlillidime/lSiOIl(ll Per...ollllliIY QllesliOll/lairt'
, Neililer ,..(x'i(}e('(11I0I11;C,,'fI(II/.f, ed"c'llio/lal
(11I(li,lmelll, f(II"ily ill('Olllt', marilal ,~/all/.~, lIor
all ind;c(ml
of r('li",i()/(,~ C()/lImillll('1I1 ('(}Ilfd ((C(.mllll for IIlore
~
4
~
diu not reach the eighth grdue. whereas others have doctorates:
they live on farms. in small towns. in big cities. and in furcign
lanu~; thcir ~ocioeconomic levcls are representative of Minnesota-born adults.
B(I.\"ed
(}II
Ille
rele,\"1
(}i
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(Ii
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ai'er
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e,fllmale
Ilia
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.
C(Impllllt'1I1 .,I'(IJ SIt !/eCI/I'e lI'e -eml:
I
Il,e
',enlUhll,I.1'
(Ii
Ihe
,..I(lble
J
IOt",,'appr(}(IC Ie,.. OV/T'.
Happiness depends. as Nature shows. les~ on exlerior thin8~ than mu~t
sup~se.
-Willi;,n:, Cuwpcr
(
I
!iC
II..'.
-rating
quc!itlonnillrc
.1
WiI~
ilumlntstcrc
1°1
"
d
to
.,.,
~.-"
It)
he
r~
0
I .
t h
l!i
...
twin
rcgl!itry.
0
nc
0
f
t h
c
questionnaire
...
Itcm~
rea
~
01- ~
,
mcm-
O
~
4.5
METHOD
A
"
,\"IlIllller
\
~I
201
111(111
(lbolll J% (If Ille I'l/riuII(.e i" WB. rr()/ll 44~, I(} 52(Yi (!( Ihe
1'((ri(III('(';1I WB, II(I"'CI'er, i,f (1,\',~(lci(lle(1 11';111
,(,'I'lIel;c 1'(lri(II;(}I."
40!
d
as
..
10IIows:
Ctll/(el/lmCI/(.. Tilking the good with the bild. how hapry and clJntented
are you on thc UVef'dgcnow. compared wilh other people'?
Thc twins wcrc ilskcd to milkc thcir ratings on a 5-point scalc:
I = ,he 1IIII'est5% I!f the po/l.a,ilm, 2 = ,he loll'('r 3or/c, 3 ~
Are those people who go to work in suits happier and more
fulfilled than those who go in overalls? Do people higher on the ,h(' middle 300/0.4 ~ ,he tipper 30%, and 5 = ,he hiJ,'he.~'5%,
Figurc I shows that thcse scem to be contented people by
socioeconomic ladder enjoy life more thun those lower down'?
Can money buy happiness? As a consequence of rdcism and and largc ,md that thc women are at least as happy as the men.
relative poverty, are black American~ less contented on aver- ~ re than 86% or these twins rated thcmselves as among the
ppcr 35% in overall contentment, Most people (at least pcople
age than white Americans? Because men still hl)ld the reins l)f
rn in Minnesota) believe that they arc above average on most
power, are men happier than women? The survey in this journal
trait~, but this pleasant illusion is strongcst ror the trait
by Myers and Diener (1995) indicated that the answcr to these ~sitivc
\, questions. surprisingly, is "no." These authors pointed out thut I\of contentmcnt. Only 42C/cor the twins in this sample ra)J:4
ihemselvcs in thc uppcr 35% on intelligence, ror e"ample.~e
people have a remarkable ability to adapt, both to bad fortune
and to good, so that one's life circum~tances, unlcss they are interpret these ratings to mean tbat most people are in fact
is tcmpted to speculate
erY bad indeed, do not sccm to havc lasting effect~ Oil one'!; reasonably happy most of the tim~ne
that n,lturnl ~clection tended t~vor
happy people because
ood.
thcy werc more likely to mate and r..ise childrcn and thus to
Yet some people do secm to bc happier on ilverdge than
become our ancestors.
other people arc. Although e
t surprisingly
quickly
to
Figure 2 displays thc mean contentment ratings for the twins
i both
good
news
and
bad.
th
set
poin
around
which
happincss
varies from time to timc app
itTers from one per~on to in cach of the seven categorics or the Holling~head and Rcdlich
another. Myers and Diencr considered pcr:;onal rclutiol1ships, system for cla~sifying socio~conomic stutus, Thcrc is remarkI religious fuith. and the "now" of working towurd achicvable i ably little r~duction in selr-l1Ited contentment as one moves
goals as possible determiners of individual diffcrence!i in thc from thc highest. or professional. category (SES = I) down
cv~n to unskillcd labor (SES '= 6) and uncmploycl! (SES = 7).
happiness set point.
Both or thc~ lindings corrob..)l1Itc Mycrs and Dicncr. 'Incsc
We had already cl)lIected dcmogr:ll'hic and quc!itionnilire
data on a large sampic of adults, and it seemed appropriate to rcsult~ Icd us to cxaminc a mcasure of happiness having bcttcr
psychomctric prl)pcrtics than this singlc r,lting itcm.
try to replicatc and pcrhaps cxtcnd some of Mycrs and Dicner's
Thc Wcll-Bcing (WB) scalc or thc Multidimensional Personfindings. The Minnesota Twin Registry (Lykkcn, Bl)uchard,
McGue, & Tellegen, 1m) is a birth-record-bascd regi~try of ality Que~tionnaire (MPQ; Tellegcn. 1982; Tellegen & Waller.
1994)appears to be a rcliable and valid measure ofthc condition
middle-aged twins born in Minnesota from 1936 to 1955. We
know how far these twins went in school, their appro,~imate that its namc dcnotes. the dislJUsition to rcel good about onesclf
and one's own corner or the world. lne 30-day retest reliability
family income, their marital status, and their socioeconomic
status (SES), based on their occupations. These twins provide or the WB scale is ,90. and its alpha reliability is .92. We have
MPQ scores. corrected for age and sex and expres!ied in
an unusually representative sample of the white population
T-scorc units (M = 50, SD = 10). on 5,945 twins in thc Min(during thc 20 birth years ~earched. fewer than 2% of Minnesota
nesota Twin Registry.
births were to African or Native Americans). Some of the twins
Figure 3 shows thc distribution of MPQ-WB scores ror the
AddRSS corn:spondence
~- to David Lykken. Department of ~ycool2,486 twins rrom whom we also had contentment ratings. For
purposes or comparability with the ratings distribution. T scores
for thc WB distribution were divided into five intervals: <33.
Fig. 1. Cot
I born twins.
5% (if ,he T
33-45.46-~
mal.these.
I JO'k. and
specUled rc
the figure.
like the co
piness arOl
(rather tha
Myers;
~
II
.
rAbstract-Happillt"~'~'
Copyright @ 1996 American Psychological S(>ciety
VOL. 7. NO. 3. MAY 1m
coni
emerge rei
s
iE !t
i
3~
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IJ
~
~
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~ 2'
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Fig.2. ~
I
twins dis
status fr(
unemplo
YOL.7.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
~
David Lykken and Auke Tellegen
~~rI.
Ii
8Irl
5011
soil
401'-
10
.l
0
./ c
2
2
3
5
4
3
ContW',lm811
I ,368 Women
~~we
Contentment Sell.Rating
4
5
---;
CY MPQ-WB
-~CmI~Im"1
Sc(X~
Rali~ !
I Fig. 1. Contentment ratings by gender for :?',310Minnesota-
Fig. 3. Contentment !;elf-rnting!; and Well-Being !icores on the
born twins. Ratings are on a ~elf-rel'ort scale from I (Ihe 1(111"'.~1
Multidimcn!;ional Per!;onality Que!;tionnaire (MPQ-WBI for
5% nj Ihe !'()!'lIlali()n) to 5 (Ih(' hiKh('.fl.~o/(!).
2.310 twin~.
133-45, 46--54, ~5-67, and >67; if the WB distribution were nor-!
Imll, the~e categorie~ would have frequencic~ ()f 5~" JO'Jf.,30'Jf.,
30"1t.,and -,'Jf, re~pectively, thc ~Ime perccntage~ that were'
specified l"or rdtings on the contentment scale. A!i can he seen in
the figure, the WB distribution is reasonably symmetrical, un-I
like the contentment self-ratings, pre~umably because the sum
\
of the respon~es to the WB items measures variations in happiness around a mean value that represents a generally positive
(rather than a negative or neutral) state of mind.
Myers and Diener (1995) suggested that their definition of
~ubjective well-being (SWB) includes both the "presence of
DOsitiveaffect" and the "absence of negative affect" (p. II).
There is indeed substantia! evidence that po!litive and negative
emotions do not behave as mer4y the opposite poles of the
same continuum. Positive and negative affect (PA and NA)
emerge reliably as two largely independent !iuperordinate state
N OF INDIVIDUALS
! 164
~
456
481
4-1' !
I~ i
--I
i
400
265
~
60
dimcn!;ion!; (c.g.. Wat:;on & Tellegen, 1985). The trait variables
cl)rre~ponding to these PA and NA :;tate variables are the
highcr order Po!\itivc and Negative Emotionality (PE and NE)
personality factors, both represented in the MPQ, In addition to
~ ' ludes a
thelWB scalc, which is a PE indicator, the MPQ
corMponding
markcr
of NE,
the
Stress
Reaction
S
scale.
WB and SR scores were correlated -.45 in the presen sample
of middle-aged twins. We estimated SWB sm
as the difference between the two scores (i.e., SWB = ~~).
Bccause the predictor!\, years of education. s~
marital
status, and current family income, were measured categorically, we computed eta coefficients, separately for men and
women. and the proportion of the total variance in WB and in
SWB accounted for by each of the predictors. In the case of
married people, SES was defined as the status associated with
either the subject's occupation or the subject's spouse's occupation, whichevcr was higher. To estimate the influence of religious commitment on happiness, we computed the correlation
between WB and the Traditionalism scale of the MPQ. Finally,
we estimated the heritability of WB on a large sample of middleaged twins and the heritability of the stable component of happiness on a sample oftwin~ who had been tested at about age 20
and then tested again some 10 years later.
s 3}Ii
RESULTS
1;:
!
DemographicStatus
~ 2~i
Educational attainment accounted for less than 2% of the
variance in WB for women. and le!is than I % of the variance forl
men. For both men and women, SES a(;counted for less than
2
3
4
5
6
2% of the variance in general well-being. The data for income
SOClo-ECa1om1C Status
mirror those for SES: In(;ome category accounted for les~ than
I
! Fig. 2. Mean sclf-ratings for contentment of 2,186 middle-aged .2% of the variance in feeling~ of well-being.
Even if one cannot predict happiness from the components
twins di!\tributed among the seven categories of soci()economic i
status from the profcssional class (I) to unskilled labor (6) and ~, of worldly ~uc(;ess, such as education, income. or SES. maybe
I unemployed (7).
marital status ha~ a stronger impact. Myers and Diener (J995, p.
1~~
VOL. 7. NO.3. MAY 19%
187
-,
-
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Happine~~ Is Stochastic
15) cited meta-analy~cs indicating tho" there i~ a "happinc~s
The Heritability of Happiness
gap" between the married and the ncver-marricd, and wc found
one also, b~~t w~.
The mean T score on WB for 3.571
_Thc MPQ was administered twice to a sample of younger
married (and never divorced) twins was 50.1 (:to.161. and the tWinS who averaged 20 years of age at the first tcsting and 30
mean for 337 never-married twin~ wa~ 48.3 (:to.611. Less th.ln ycars at thc second !McGuc, Bacon, & Lykkcn. 1993). This
1% of the variance in WB was associated with marital status for
sal1:'plcincluded 79 monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs and 48 diZymen or women.
gotlc (DZ) twin pairs, 2.54 individuals altogether. Scale scores 11
When these computation~ were repeated for our SWB cstiwerc corrected for quadratic regrcssion on age, separately for
mate in place of WB, the relationships with the dcmogrdphic
mcn and womcn, Thc rctest corrclation for thc WB scalc was
variables were slightly stronger. Educational attainment and
.50, indicating, as one would expcct, that there is considerable
SES accounted for about 3% of the variance in SWB. and in- ~uctuat~on in one's sen~~ofwell-~ing.
espccially pcrhap~urcome for about 2%. but marital status still accounted for less ,ng thc Important tran~ltlonal penod from age 20 to 30. ~e
1% of the variance. Thus, it appc.lrs that positive mood, I variation~ in ~ubjcctivc wcll-bcing no doubt arc dctcrmincd by
J states are not much more frequent or intense for people with the in~ividual vicissitudes of lifc but not, apparently, byone's
high social status or wealth and that people at the lower end of SES, Income, educational achicvement, marital status. or relithe social ladder are only slightly more vulncrdblc to negative gious commitment (although it seems likcly that marked and I ~
suddcn chang~s in ~ny of thesc wou d roducc at Icast transiT d O'
I V I
tory changes In fccllngs of well-being).
F h
.
ra Ittona a Des
or t csc younger twins who wcrc rctestcd aftcr 10 years,
The Traditionalism scalc of thc MPQ is muo.lcnltcly corrcwc ~orre!~.tcd Twin A'~ score on WB ,It Timc I with Twin B's
lated (.49 ~ .~15) with religious commitmcnt as mcasurcd by ~~o~c.I~ Ilmc 2 (a~~, similarly. Twin B'~ ~corc at Timc I with
KOjClln, Lykken, Tellegcn, and Bouchard (1990) but
I Win ~ S:;core at ~ Ime 2). For the 48 DZ pairs, this cross-twin,
II very weakly correlatcd (.05 :t .016) with scores on WB. Figure
cro~s~tlm~corrclatlon for WB was cssentially zero (,07); for the
114s~ows that, whereas mean WB scores increilse consistently, )9 MZ ~I~S. It equaled .4(J, or 80% of the retest correlation of
Ilwh.lle SR scores decrease from the lowest to thc highest self- .50. This dlsattenuate~ M~ correl~tion s~ggest~@ the stable
I.ratln~ .on c.ontentment,~~;~ted
pe°11le.,.
scorc no higher on
~mponent ,:,f well-being (I,~,: tr.llt happiness) IS largely deterl 'Tradltlonal'sm than dis~ted
peoP.!V Although thcsc rc- m~ncdgenetlcal~e
neglIgIble DZ correlation suggests that
suits do not refute thc findings cited by Myers and Diener, they this. stab~cand ncritable component of happiness is an emerIJ at least suggest that individual differcnce:; in religiousness can- gemc trait (Lykken, 1982; Lykken, Bouchard, McGue, & TellcIii not ilccount for much of thc variancc.in ha~piness. The same gcn. 1992). t.hat i~, .a. trait tha.t is detcrmined by a configur~1
Myers and Diener Invokcd to explain
r.lt~r than an additive function of components. Emergemc
why status and income do not determine happincss must apply
ralt~, alth?~gh determined in part genetically. do not tend to
here as well; religiou~ conversion or being "born again" is said run In :a~lIle~, as 0.10traits that are polygenic-additive.
to be a joyful experiencc. but its effect on mood may not bc
A similar rcsult was reported in an earlier study of 217 MZ
more lasting than bcing promoted or winning the lottery.
and J 14 DZ pairs ofmiddle-ilged Minnesota Regi~try twins. plus
44 MZ and 27 DZ pairs who were separated in infancy and
reared apart (Tellegen ct al., 1988). The best estimate of the
heritability of WB in that study was .48 (:t .08) and. a~ we found
in lhc present study, a model involving only additive genetic
effects did not filthe data. We assume that the 100year retest
reliability of WB for these older twins would be higher than the
.5~ reported ~or the age span from 20 to 30 years. Twenty-six
pairs of the middle-aged twins reared apart were in fa~t retested
on thc MPQ by mail about 4..5 years after their first testing; the
retest stability of WB for these 52 individuals was .67. If the
long-term (e.g., 10 year) stability of WB is, say,
V
f
"t
()
age
is d
fcct
r
wor
in h
inv(
bcir
effe
abol
teri~
stan
oftt
one'
bctto
edU(
I:
V
I~
I,
ing 200/0
of the c
We now have MPQresults from both membersof 1.380pairs
of middle-agedMinnesotaTwin Registrytwins (rearedtogether
1VLd Well Being
-Tradltia1a1ism
~
Stress Reaction
and reprcsentedas MZf or DZT twins) and from a somewhat
L-augmentcdsampleof twins reared apan (MZA or DZA twins).
Fig. 4. Mean Well-Being,StressReaction. and Traditionalism The intraclass correlations for the WB scale on these larger
scores on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire _,samples
are given in Table I. Becausethe DZ values are so
(MPQ)plotted againstself-ratedcontentment.The MPQ scores I~,mall. and the MZT correlations are not larger than the MZA
have_beenconverted into T-score form with mean = 50 and values, wc can concludeth.a~the effects of~~~
~
SO -10.
onmcnton SWB were negligibleafter the tWinSreachedmiddle
2
3
Ccnlentmenl
5
Rating
YOLo 7. NO.3. MAY 1996
YOLo
~
-
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
David Lykken and Auke Tellegen
or new experiences and tend to brood upon depressing thoughts
rather than concentrating on their work. Then, when their mood
swings toward elation. these same people tend to do the things
that happy people do. There is undoubtedly a James-Lange
feedback effect: D sfunctional behavior exacerbates depression. whereas the things happy peo e 0 en ance elr appl-
Table 1. Intracluss correlationson the Well-Bemgscalt'
of the Mttltidimens;onal Pt'rsonality Qul'stionnairefor
middle-agedtwins reart'd together and rt'ored apart
Inger
idJO
This
lizy-
---
Number
Type--~C)ftwin
-_~ipair
:ores
V for
of pairs
Twins reared together:
Monozygotic
Dizygotic
was
-able
durhese
d by
.ne's
reli-
Intraclass
647
733.08
R
pW::.werorgue.
howe;er.
th~ttfieIffij:;e;t~~
;~-~~~~;fffi~-ffi~
to behavior than in the reverse direction. It may be that trying
to be happier is as futile as trying to be taller and therefore is I
.44 (~.O3)
(~.04)
counterproductive.
Twins rearcd apart:a
Monozygotic
Dizygotic
75
36
---
.52 (~.IO)
-.02 (~.17)
CONCLUSIONS
If the transitory variations of well-being are largely due to
fortune's favors, whereas the midpoint of these variations is
determined by the great genetic lottery that occurs at conception, then we are led to conclude that individual differences in
aWeare indebted toT.J. Bouchanl, Jr., for providing these
data from the Minnesota Study of Twins RearedApart.
and
ansi-
age
~,
is I
8's
f~
chance.
with
win,
.the
n of
able
:terthat
ner~\le-
work, or winningthe lottery tends to bring about an increment
in happiness,justas flunking out, beinglaid off, or a disastrous
REFERENCES
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p/r
;"h'!l'"
'9:
:'61-3?3.
..
D. T.,
&.."hard,l
.J.. Jr., McGue.
M.,
& Tellegcn,
A. (19'X)).
The
Mlneffects of these events appear to be transitory fluctuations lykk"n,
ncsola Twin Registry: Some initial findin&s. A,'a G"",,'icQ~ MI'dicul' ..,
abouta stable temperalnf:lltal set point or trait that is characI G..mm../tohllli.'t'.39.35-10.
teristic of the individual.~ddle-aged peoplewhoselife circum- lykken, D. T., Bouchard.T .J, Jr.. McGue. M., &.Tcllegen. A. (1992). Emer&enesis: Genetictraits that may not run infamilies. Aml',ican P,..ch.,'ogisl. 47.
stanceshavestabilized seemto be ~ually contentedregardless
r 15('~1511.
of their socialstatusor their incom~e
reported well-being~ ."IwIcGue,
M. Bacon,S., &. lykken. D.T. (1993).Personalitystability and change
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I
OIlY. 1\1,%-IW.
educational achievement, income, or status.
MZ
)Ius
and
the
Jnd
:tic
test
the
.six
ted
the
the
lie.
, or
Tellegen, A. (1982). Bri..f ma",.al fi" Ih.. MII/lidim~n,ional P..,sonu/iry Qut'slio,,"ai,I'. Unpublished manuscript, University of Minnesola. Minneapolis.
.I
Is It "Happy Is as Happy Does" or the Other
Way Around'!
/'J:.iyers and Diener ~uggesledthat people who .enjoyclose
who become
I (I¥/&nd
th~
Myer.. D.G., & Diener. E. 11995,.Who is h..ppy? Psychological Scil'n..I'. 6.
tll-l9.
,Bouchard. T.J.. Jr, Wilcox. K.. Segal. N., & Rich,
S (19118).
Personulity.imililrity in twins re-dredapan and together. joamal
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j4, t031-1039.
T"lIegen. A., & Waller, N. (1994). E~ploring pe"",nalilY through test construclion: Developmentof the Multidimensional PersonalityQuestionnaire. In
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""U/""li"" (Vol. I, pp 133-161).Greenwich,l.T: JAI Press.
with determination are hao-Diero~
~
'J w~.
We agree. but we questio the direction of the
fcausal arrow. We know that when peo( lie with bipolar mood
, tend to avo, :I intimate encounters
gious inlere"ls, perwRillily. aoogenelic,,: A study oflwins reared together
und apart. P'y,lru/ogicu/ Sci!'nr,. I. 1311-142
Watson. D.. & Tcllegen. A. (1985). Toward a consensualslruclurc of mO<K!.
Ps."clruluKir,nBln/eun. 98. 219-235.
(RECEIVED4/4/95: ACCEPTED7/12/95)
In-
!in.
ss.
~rs
1er
~at
IS).
~r
so
r.A
vi.
ne
VOL. 1, NO.3,
MAY 1996
189