Concept
The happiness formula
The happiness formula, H = S + C + V, was set out by Martin Seligman in 2002 and is used by Jonathan Haidt: happiness is a set point (largely inherited) plus conditions (the facts of your life) plus voluntary activities (what you choose). C and V leave real room.
The adaptation research seems to say that only S matters and that circumstances wash out. The formula, as Haidt uses it, is a correction. Research by Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ken Sheldon and David Schkade (2005) developed the same split into a set point, circumstances and intentional activities; its often-quoted 50/10/40 division has been criticised and is best read as an illustration, not a measurement. S is real and large: twins raised apart have similar happiness. But C includes conditions people never adapt to (noise, a long commute, lack of control, conflict in close relationships), and changing those pays permanently. And V includes activities that resist adaptation because they have variety and engagement built in: exercise, learning, time with people you love, work and hobbies that produce flow. The formula also says what not to spend on: possessions and money above sufficiency fade fastest of all. Used as a worksheet, it asks two questions of a life: which conditions have I not adapted to and could change, and which voluntary activities have kept paying? Then it says to move hours from the fading items to the durable ones.
A real-life example
A nurse in Mersin writes her C and V. The new car she saved for faded within a month. The rota that leaves her one free weekend in four has not faded in three years. The Sunday swim with her sister has kept paying. She asks for a different rota, at a small cost in pay, and protects the swim.
How to use it
- 1Write your own C and V: the conditions you have not adapted to and could change, and the activities that have kept paying.
- 2Move one hour a week from a fading item to a durable one.
- 3Expect purchases to lift happiness only briefly; they rarely move the number for long.