The Difference Between a Happy Life and a Meaningful Life

Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl once wrote, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” For most people, feeling happy and finding life meaningful are both important and related goals. But do happiness and meaning always go together? It seems unlikely, given that many of the things that we regularly choose to do – from running marathons to raising children – are unlikely to increase our day-to-day happiness. Research suggests that while happiness and a sense of meaning often overlap, they also diverge in important and surprising ways.

Roy Baumeister and his colleagues published a?study?in the?Journal of Positive Psychology? that helps explain some of the key differences between a happy life and a meaningful one. They asked almost 400 American adults to fill out three surveys over a period of weeks. The surveys asked people to answer a series of questions their happiness levels, the degree to which they saw their lives as meaningful, and their general lifestyle and circumstances.

As one might expect, people’s happiness levels were positively correlated with whether they saw their lives as meaningful. However, the two measures were not identical – suggesting that what makes us happy may not always bring more meaning, and vice versa. To probe for differences between the two, the researchers examined the survey items that asked detailed questions about people’s feelings and moods, their relationships with others, and their day-to-day activities. Feeling happy was strongly correlated with seeing life as easy, pleasant, and free from difficult or troubling events. Happiness was also correlated with being in good health and generally feeling well most of the time. However, none of these things were correlated with a greater sense of meaning. Feeling good most of the time might help us feel happier, but it doesn’t necessarily bring a sense of purpose to our lives.

Interestingly, their findings suggest that money, contrary to popular sayings, can indeed buy happiness. Having enough money to buy what one needs in life, as well as what one desires, were also positively correlated with greater levels of happiness. However, having enough money seemed to make little difference in life’s sense of meaning.?

This same disconnect was??found in a multi-national?study?published in?Psychological Science ?by Shigehiro Oishi and Ed Diener, who show that people from wealthy countries tend to be happier, however, they don’t see their lives as more meaningful. In fact, Oishi and Diener found that people from poorer countries tend to see their lives as more meaningful. Although the reasons are not totally clear, this might be related to greater religious belief, having more children, and stronger social ties among those living in poorer countries. Perhaps instead of saying that “money doesn’t buy happiness,” we ought to say instead that “money doesn’t buy meaning.”

Not too surprisingly, our relationships with other people are related to both how happy we are as well as how meaningful we see our lives. In Baumeister’s study, feeling more connected to others improved both happiness and meaning. However, the role we adopt in our relationships makes an important difference. Participants in the study who were more likely to agree with the statement, “I am a giver,” reported less happiness than people who were more likely to agree with, “I am a taker.” However, the “givers” reported higher levels of meaning in their lives compared to the “takers.” In addition, spending more time with friends was related to greater happiness but not more meaning. In contrast, spending more time with people one loves was correlated with greater meaning but not with more happiness. The researchers suspect that spending time with loved ones is often more difficult, but ultimately more satisfying, than spending time with friends.

When it comes to thinking about how to be happier, many of us fantasize about taking more vacations or finding ways to avoid mundane tasks. We may dream about skipping housework and instead doing something fun and pleasurable. However, tasks which don’t make us happy can, over time, add up to a meaningful life. Even routine activities — talking on the phone, cooking, cleaning, housework, meditating, emailing, praying, waiting on others, and balancing finances — appeared to bring more meaning to people’s lives, but not happiness in the moment.?

More broadly, the findings suggest that pure happiness is about getting what we want in life—whether through people, money, or life circumstances. Meaningfulness, in contrast, seems to have more to do with giving, effort, and sacrifice. It is clear that a highly meaningful life may not always include a great deal of day-to-day happiness. And, the study suggests, the American obsession with happiness may be intimately related to a feeling of emptiness, or a life that lacks meaning.

Differences Among Generations and Political Parties in the U.S.

It is a common assumption that younger generations — Gen Z and millennials — are more greatly concerned with global challenges affecting their quality of life. Born in the digital age, these generations are seen to be more health-conscious, socially aware and environmentally responsible. This narrative is consistently reiterated by the media who frequently highlight the willingness of these younger generations to stand up for what they care about.

In our?Radically Better Future: The Next Gen Reckoning Report ?with BBMG, 73 percent of young people support public protests to raise awareness of issues, with the Black Lives Matter movement cited as an example of the next generation raising their voices on the issues that matter. This is in comparison to their older counterparts, who are perceived to be less vocal and less optimistic about the future.

Recent research from GlobeScan’s annual?Healthy and Sustainable Living ?study has helped to provide a deeper understanding of how generations differ in their opinions, experience and attitudes toward sustainability.

Designed in collaboration with a range of partners including CVS Health, IKEA, PepsiCo, Visa and WWF International, this study surveyed 27,000 people across 27 markets to explore their sentiment around healthier, sustainable lifestyles. One takeaway from the research is that globally, younger generations are more likely to feel ashamed ("very often" or "often") about living lifestyles that are unhealthy and are not environmentally friendly, compared to their older peers.

With this in mind, it is not surprising that younger generations are also more interested in changing their behaviors to become more healthy and sustainable in their day-to-day lives.

Gen Z are the most likely to say they desire to change their lifestyles to be more healthy, environmentally friendly and helpful to others, followed by millennials.

A similar pattern persists when looking at actions taken in the past year, with Gen Z consumers claiming to have made some or major changes to be more environmentally friendly (74 percent), healthy (80 percent) and more helpful to others (77 percent).

This data in relation to having happy vs meaningful lives can also be reflected in political party allegiances and pressing social issues. According to a study by Real Clear Politics, the there is a significant gap between the Republican party voters and Democratic Party voters when it comes to age: "With 18-to-29-year-olds, the average marginal difference favors Democrats by 25 percentage points over the last 16 years."

This gap almost parallel the difference between the two parties when it comes to climate change issues. A Pew Center 2019 study reported "Sixty-seven percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said dealing with global climate change should be a top priority, compared to 21% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents–a 46-point gap. On the environment, the gap between partisans was 43 points. Seventy-four percent of Democrats said protecting the environment should be a top priority; 31% of Republicans said the same.?"