Personality and Happiness

Personality and Happiness

Using the "Big Five" personality dimensions, we can attempt to estimate how happiness varies with the conditions in which a person lives ("the environment").

The Big Five dimensions are represented by the acronym OCEAN*:

Originality (preserver to explorer)
Consolidation (flexible to focused)
Extraversion (introvert to extrovert)
Accommodation (challenger to adapter)
Need for stability (reactive to resilient)

If we score each dimension between zero and one (low score to high score), the resulting five numbers will represent a person's personality, or "ideal state": O_pC_pE_pA_pN_p. The environment can be similarly scored, corresponding to the personality that thrives best in it: O_eC_eE_eA_eN_e.

The person will be totally happy (H = 1) when the two sets of values match, that is:

O_p = O_e

C_p = C_e

E_p = E_e

A_p = A_e

N_p = N_e

The person will be totally unhappy (H = 0) when the differences between each value are at their maximum (1):

ABS(O_p - O_e) = 1

ABS(C_p - C_e) = 1

ABS(E_p - E_e) = 1

ABS(A_p - A_e) = 1

ABS(N_p - N_e) = 1

We can therefore estimate the "happiness components" as:

H_O = 1 - ABS(O_p - O_e)

H_C = 1 - ABS(C_p - C_e)

H_E = 1 - ABS(E_p - E_e)

H_A = 1 - ABS(A_p - A_e)

H_N = 1 - ABS(N_p - N_e)

The total happiness is therefore the average of the happiness components:

H = AVERAGE(H_O, H_C, H_E, H_A, H_N)

For example, an adaptable person in a changing environment might have the following profile:

	O	C	E	A	N	Average
Preferred	1	0	0.5	1	1	0.70
Environment	1	0.5	0.5	0	1	0.60
Happiness	1	0.5	1	0	1	0.70

Average happiness (H = 0.70) can be converted into ecological footprint (F) and life expectancy (L) for a population of such people using the relationships derived from world data:

F = 5.29 hectares

L = 77 years

Note that in an unchanging environment (O, C, E, A, N = 0, 0.5, 0.5, 1, 0), the average person in such a population would be less happy, consume fewer resources per year, and live a shorter life (H = 0.50, F = 1.06, L = 61). A population of unadaptive people (preferring 0, 1, 0.5, 0, 0) would have opposite reactions to such environments (H = 0.50 for a changing environment, H = 0.70 for an unchanging environment).

For estimates of how the environment is changing over time, see Environment History.

* From The Owner's Manual for the Brain (Pierce J. Howard, Bard Press, 2006), p. 755.