Most people would like to be happy. But what causes happiness? External circumstances, such as income, play a part, but research shows that in advanced economies such as the UAE, personal factors like health and strong relationships are increasingly important. In this respect, societies that nurture strong relationships – such as Arab and Asian cultures – have an advantage that should not be lost.
However, our research shows that one of the most powerful causes of a person’s happiness is that person’s own view of the world, and in particular, their propensity for optimism. Whether riches, health and friendship cause you to be happy depends entirely on how you see things. We all know cheery people who always see the best in things and think everything will turn out well, and we also know unhappy individuals for whom “everything that can go wrong, will go wrong”. So is this propensity simply a fact of life, genetic or is it somehow learnt over time and, more importantly, can it be changed so you can improve your own happiness?
Scientists have known for many years that our pessimistic or optimistic view of the world can be modified and is largely explained by the way we interpret positive or negative things that happen to us. We also know that, as humans learn most from things that go wrong, our interpretation of negative events is much more important than our interpretation of positive events.
Suppose you don’t get a job after an interview and you don’t really know why. You could explain that to yourself by saying, for example, “I had a cold” or “I am stupid”.
If you think “being stupid” is the cause, then that will affect future interviews and indeed all sorts of events, whereas “having a cold” is temporary and won’t have any future impact. In fact, an interpretation that “I am stupid” may well cause you to be less confident in future interviews so they do, indeed, turn out badly.
Everyone has a general style of explanation for bad things that happen to them – it is their “attribution style” – and a healthy attribution style leads to a general feeling that future events will turn out well. Believing that future events will turn out well creates a propensity for optimism which, in turn, causes that individual to enjoy much higher levels of happiness and to function more effectively.
So how can you develop a healthy attribution style? It is where your interpretation of the cause of a bad event will not affect similar events in the future, will not affect other kinds of events and is not part of your character or make-up.
“I had a cold” is an example of a healthy attribution in this case, whereas “I am stupid” is an unhealthy attribution. Attribution style is usually assessed by the following types of questions: imagine you fail to achieve something. Write down the most likely cause. Is that cause likely to affect similar events in the future? Likely to affect other types of events? Due to something about you?
One way to improve your attribution style, and therefore your happiness, is to actively consider your views on why a bad thing might have happened. So, for example, instead of immediately assuming that “I failed an interview because I’m stupid”, let’s think about other possible explanations.
For example, could it be that “I wasn’t on top form”, that the interviewer wasn’t very good, that “I didn’t really want the job”, that “I didn’t have some very specific skill” or didn’t prepare very well? The very act of considering other explanations reduces the chances of an unhealthy attribution and increases the chances of a more optimistic view of life.
Of course, attribution style, and other useful techniques from positive psychology such as mindfulness, need a bit more of a concentrated and guided effort to make a real difference, but hopefully you can at least think about your own attribution style and try to make tiny modifications for a big improvement on your happiness.
Prof William Scott-Jackson and Dr Najat Benchiba-Savenius represent Oxford Strategic Consulting, a UK and GCC-based consultancy
