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Is 'U-shaped happiness' universal? Not for rural subsistence populations, say researchers

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2024-11-06 19:30:05

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

A theory that's been around for more than a decade describes a person's subjective well-being—"happiness"—as having a U-shape throughout the course of one's life. If plotted on a graph, the shape would be concave, revealing high happiness levels throughout one's youth, declining and bottoming out at middle age—the so-called "midlife crisis"—until happiness, somewhat counterintuitively, rises again.

If you live in a rich, industrialized society, this may ring true. By and large, the carefree nature of youth gives way to multiple stressors and pressures as one grows older, followed by what could be a late-life rise in contentment due to a variety of factors: more stability, acceptance and appreciation of one's place in life, more mature relationships, just to name a few.

However, according to UC Santa Barbara anthropologist Michael Gurven, the U-shape of happiness is not as fundamental to humanity as previously assumed.

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