Are Dartmouth students happy? That depends, of course, on how we define happiness. Measured in units of consumption and standard of living, we seem a safe bet. But happiness isn't that simple.
Since the days of cuneiform script, the questions of what happiness is and how we may pursue it have occupied the minds of many. Yet, a clear understanding of what happiness is and how we can attain it remains elusive.
Apart from the sages of history, recent scientific inquiry from the disciplines of economics, psychology and even neuroscience, have also explored this simple yet enduring question of what happiness means. Though these efforts have postulated some promising responses in the field of happiness, we find ourselves still incapable of adopting these insights into our lives.
Conventional wisdom also seems to tell us something about happiness that the more money we make, the more stuff we can consume, the happier we'll be. Likewise, as our modern market economies have developed, we've only increased human welfare by providing people with more choice, and choice makes people free and happy, right? And at Dartmouth choices abound.
Yet, when ranked with colleges across the country, Dartmouth students score with dismal mediocrity. In a study released a month ago by The Daily Beast, Dartmouth was placed at 30 out 100 happiest colleges. If the prestige and perks of a well-connected and resource rich school like Dartmouth aren't a recipe for happiness, then what is?
What applies to the individual holds true for nations as well. Despite the vast differences in Gross Domestic Product, many studies and surveys have shown that nations from Mexico to tiny Bhutan outrank the United States on the happiness scale.So money can't buy happiness (most of the time). Just as long as you're not destitute.
"Money doesn't buy happiness, but its been known to crack a smile or two," psychology professor Todd Heatherton said.
An important part of understanding happiness then seems counterintuitive to what the economics of wealth and GDP levels tell us. Happiness does not come from absolute judgements of wellbeing, but from their relative assessments.
Economists have termed this the "neighborhood effect." Erzo Luttmer, a Harvard economist who will begin teaching at Dartmouth this Summer, described in a recent paper published in The Quarterly Journal of Economics that a person's assessment of their happiness can hinge on the general wellbeing of those around them, or that of their neighbors.
Luttmer found, as other economists have also shown in the past, that an increase in one's neighbors' incomes leads to a corresponding decrease in one's own self-assessed happiness.This "neighborhood effect" is particularly relevant to an environment like Dartmouth, in which we are all confined to a tight-knit and isolated social web. It comes as no surprise then, that those students who report being distressed, unhappy and depressed often find themselves comparing the events and components of their lives with those of the students around them.
Taking the neighborhood effect into consideration then, it's easy to see why a wealthy country like the United States, much like a well endowed schools such as Dartmouth, can underperform peer and non-peer entities alike when it comes to measuring happiness.
I spoke with several students whose personal experience with feelings of depression and anxiety at Dartmouth contrasted with feelings of comfort and achievement at home.
"There's just so much stress at Dartmouth, from maintaining social statuses to performing well academically," said a senior whose wish to remain anonymous only reflects the very point he makes.
He added, however, "when I go home to California, I feel a lot better because the stakes are lower and my achievements shine in comparison to those around me. I guess it seems shallow but I just feel better about myself."
The extensive array of choice at Dartmouth offers another affront to happiness. Again, though it may seem counterintuitive: the amount of freedom we're given at a liberal arts school can often breed distress and disconcerting indecisiveness.
As several prominent psychologists have argued, giving people more choice only leaves them less satisfied. As told by Swarthmore psychologist Barry Schwartz in his popular book "The Paradox of Choice," a recent study showed that employees partaking in a voluntary retirement investment program showed that more mutual fund choices in which to invest only led to persistently lower rates of participation. By not participating, the employees were missing out on having up to $5,000 matched annually by their employers. With so much choice, we're left staggering in indecisiveness.
In almost every aspect of student life and academics, Dartmouth offers a lot of choices, which initially sounds great.
Unfortunately for us, Schwartz's wisdom applies here, too.We've all experienced this, often with some of the most important decisions we make are at college. It's not uncommon for students to make it to their junior year while juggling their actual major and other academic interests. Others find their D-plan plagued by an unending fight to minimize the opportunity costs of the decisions they do make. Torn asunder between the many competing options, some students eventually force themselves to make a decision, for better or for worse, just so they can focus and move on.
Diana Gopstein '12 said she spent a lot of time deciding on whether to study abroad on the Italian FSP in Rome or whether to stay in Hanover in the Spring and pursue classes more relevant to her major and premed track. Whatever decision she made, she knew she would be making sacrifices and giving up a worthwhile experience.
"I was going back and forth with the decision throughout the term, weighing all the pros and cons" she said. "But eventually I just had to make up my mind and go with it, and focus on what I would be gaining from my decision, not what I would be missing out on. So I chose to stay, and decided I would try to embrace my decision and not look back."
From outside of our community, we might be hard-pressed to find sympathizers for such decision conundrums. To many people, either of the above options seem like a fantastic way to spend 10 weeks. But, much like with the neighborhood effect, it is the relative situation of the decision maker that matters.
So, where does all this leave us? If material wealth doesn't bring mental health and abundance of choice can be cause for concern, are we doomed to a state of happiness that is fated by the irrationalities of the human race? Not necessarily.
I spoke with one senior about her experience of happiness at Dartmouth. Given her candor, she also wished to remain anonymous.
"I've found that what has caused me the most upset here at Dartmouth have been some of my personal relationships with boys," she said. "By coming to terms with my own outlook on life, I've found that the best way to lead a happy life here at Dartmouth, and wherever you may be, is to disassociate your happiness from specific possessions and relationships. These things will cause enduring harm when they fail."
Although these words may be noble, they are not for the faint of spirit. Detaching ourselves from status, possessions and, perhaps most difficultly, others is no small feat. Likewise, developing our own inner drivers of happiness can prove equally challenging.
In his book "The Happiness Hypothesis," University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt provides another example of how the study of happiness contradicts common sense. In his book, Haidt devotes a whole chapter to the benefits of adversity, in which he extols the many valuable lifelong benefits that our struggles endow in us. The college experience of one student I spoke with, Danielle Sawaya '10, echoed Haidt's arguments.
"I've found that, despite the difficulties of going to such a competitive college, I'm often happiest here when I've had to overcome challenges," Sawaya said. "The lessons I've learned from my struggles, whether coming to terms with a grade I'm not happy with or enduring the stress of finding a job, has only made me a stronger person, and I'm happy for that."
So, what we've learned so far, is that things and money can't make us happy, too much freedom of choice can cause more harm than good and as long as we compare ourselves to those surrounding us we're only going to see our flaws and difficulties in our lives can actually be a good thing. The whole study of happiness thus seems to contradict what we'd originally expect. So how are we to make any sense of it?
Travelling back in time a few thousand years, however, we might just find some hints for the generally overburdened Dartmouth student's spirit.
The ancient Greeks had several approaches to happiness. Whereas the sophists were known to advocate more hedonistic pleasures and happiness through the manipulations of others, Aristotle put forward a more virtuous way of fulfillment, or, as he called it Eudaimonia. Eudaimonia seeks to explain one's wellbeing by the larger pursuits or purpose in their life rather than merely the specific components that comprise one's actions.
Inevitably, being an undergraduate requires working through a lot of tough times. From finding one's place in Dartmouth's social scene to weathering an endless array of difficult and often opposing academic choices, the hedonistic path is no recipe for fulfillment. Rather, by identifying and cultivating one's inner self and wellbeing, the larger pursuits that we have our intellectual quests and our career goals can help us pull through the tougher times.
Staff writer Jamila Ma contributed to the reporting of this article.
