The State of the Art in Happiness Advice; Can We Escape the Dodo-Verdict?

Abstract

Sonja Lyubomirsky is one of the leading happiness researchers in the world and her self- help book The How of Happiness has received wide acclaim from important scholars in positive psychology.1 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes that Lyubomirsky ‘provides prac- tical suggestions for improving one’s life that are easy to follow’. He adds that her book is a ‘wonderful addition to everyone’s library’. Martin Seligman: ‘The right place to look for science-based advice on How To Become Happier.’ Daniel Gilbert is even more outspoken: ‘Everyone has an opinion about happiness, and unfortunately, many of them write books. Finally we have a self-help book from a repu- table scientist whose advice is based on the best experimental data. Charlatans, pundits, and new-age gurus should be worried and the rest of us should be grateful. The How of Happiness is smart, fun, and interesting—and unlike almost every other book on the same shelf, it also happens to be true.’ If we take the remark of Gilbert literally, we can call the The How of Happiness the new bible of popular positive psychology and say ‘amen, praise the scientist’. I intend to be a little more cynical. I will regard Lyubomirsky’s book as the state of the art in popular advice about happiness, and try to assess how far we have come. In general I agree that Lyubomirsky’s book is about as good as it gets, but still it leaves a lot to be desired.