World Happiness Report 2023 25 In some cases, it may be possible to quantify a policy’s effects on the level and distribution of well-being. In other cases, the effects will be complex and downstream, yet the long-term implications of the policies for well-being may still be subject to scrutiny, with due regard for long-term uncertainties. Scrutiny of the links between policy and well-being will require new tools, including experimental methods when appropriate, combined with complete monitoring of the well-being of all those affected. Evaluations of past policies in terms of their impacts on the subjective well-being of the affected individuals and communities are still rare. Closing that research gap will require a change in outcome measures at both the individual and community levels. Even where well-being itself is not included, research based on the determinants of life evaluations in the relevant populations can still be used to provide weights to attach to the various other outcomes. This is a key step in moving from a list of well-being objectives to specific policy decisions. Measurement The World Happiness Reports use subjective life evaluations as their central umbrella measure of well-being, with positive and negative emotions playing important mediating roles. The evidence thus far available suggests that several different forms of life evaluation, including the Cantril ladder, satisfaction with life, and being happy with life as a whole all provide similar conclusions about the sources of well-being.41 They are, therefore, interchangeable as basic measures of underlying well-being. Short-term positive and negative emotions are also useful to measure the impact of fast-changing circumstances. They also provide important mediating pathways for longerterm factors, especially those relating to the quality of the social context.42 That emotions and life evaluations react differently to changes in the sources of well-being in just the ways that theory and experiments would suggest43 adds to the credibility of both. There is much also to be gained by complementary information about well-being available from examining neural pathways,44 genetic differences, and what can be inferred from the nature of how people communicate using social media (see Chapter 5). These are all active and valuable research streams worthy of further development. The future measurement agenda should also seek much better measures of the quality of the social and institutional fabric that is so central to explaining well-being. Such subjective measures should, of course, be complemented by the continued collection of various kinds of objective measures, such as measures of deprivation (hunger, destitution, lack of housing), physical and mental health status, civil rights and personal freedoms, measures of values held within the society, and indicators of social trust and social capital. The Effect of Well-being Finally, there is the issue of the effects of well-being on other valued outcomes – such as longevity, productivity, pro-sociality, conflict, and voting behaviour. Such effects add to the case for improving well-being. Some of these effects are well documented, 45 but work on the political and social effects of well-being is in its infancy. Some studies show that higher well-being increases the vote share of the government46 and that well-being is more important than the economy in explaining election results. Similarly, low well-being increases support for populism.47 Clearly, well-being will be at the centre of future political debate. But it needs a lot more work. Conclusion Increasingly, people are judging the state of affairs by the level and distribution of well-being, both within and across generations. People have many values (like health, wealth, freedom and so on) as well as well-being. But increasingly, they think of well-being as the ultimate good, the summum bonum. For this reason, we suggest that the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and beyond should put much greater operational and ethical emphasis on well-being. The role of well-being in sustainable development is already present, but well-being should play a much more central role in global diplomacy and in international and national policies in the years to come.
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