Sep 26 2007
Study Says Men Are Happier Than Women
I’m not shocked by this headline, given all that women do today, but I am a bit surprised.
“The New York Times,” is reporting that men are happier than women. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, economists at the University of Pennsylvania (and a couple), have looked at the traditional happiness data, in which people are simply asked how satisfied they are with their overall lives. In the early 1970s, women reported being slightly happier than men. Today, the two have switched places.
It goes on to say:
A big reason that women reported being happier three decades ago — despite far more discrimination — is probably that they had narrower ambitions, Ms. Stevenson says. Many compared themselves only to other women, rather than to men as well. This doesn’t mean they were better off back then.
I wonder if the women in this study truly aren’t as happy as men, or they are just putting too much pressure on themselves to be “happy.” Do men and women have different thresholds for happiness?
Read reader comments on this article here.
