| Title |
Greater Happiness for a Greater Number: Did the Promise of Enlightenment Come True?
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Social Indicators Research, October 2015
|
| DOI | 10.1007/s11205-015-1128-x |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Ruut Veenhoven |
| Abstract |
In the eighteenth century 'Enlightened' thinkers challenged the belief that happiness exists only in Heaven. They claimed that happiness is possible in earthly life and foresaw that greater happiness would be achieved using reason. Did this promise of greater happiness come true? Several scholars doubt that we have become any happier and some claim that happiness has declined. These critical claims are tested using the time trend data available in the World Database of Happiness, which cover the period 1950-2010 and involve 1531 data points in 67 nations yielding 199 time-series ranging for 10 to more than 40 years. The analysis reveals that happiness has risen in most nations. The average yearly rise in the 67 nations was +0.012 on scale 0-10, which equals a rise of one full point every 83 years. At this rate happiness must have improved by more than two points over the past two centuries and, together with increasing longevity, this denotes an unprecedented rise in happy life years. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Russia | 1 | 25% |
| India | 1 | 25% |
| Germany | 1 | 25% |
| Unknown | 1 | 25% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Scientists | 1 | 25% |
| Members of the public | 1 | 25% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 1 | 25% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 25% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 62 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | 62 | 100% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Master | 16 | 26% |
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 10 | 16% |
| Student > Doctoral Student | 7 | 11% |
| Student > Bachelor | 6 | 10% |
| Professor | 3 | 5% |
| Other | 13 | 21% |
| Unknown | 7 | 11% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Social Sciences | 15 | 24% |
| Economics, Econometrics and Finance | 9 | 15% |
| Psychology | 7 | 11% |
| Medicine and Dentistry | 5 | 8% |
| Business, Management and Accounting | 4 | 6% |
| Other | 12 | 19% |
| Unknown | 10 | 16% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 01 February 2021.
All research outputs
#6,676,662
of 25,196,456 outputs
Outputs from Social Indicators Research
#623
of 1,898 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#76,134
of 290,436 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Social Indicators Research
#9
of 38 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,196,456 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 73rd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,898 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.8. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 66% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 290,436 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 73% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 38 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 78% of its contemporaries.