There is a growing body of research into the causes of
happiness as this article from The New York Times points out. The research is
allowing us to pinpoint what makes us happy and who is most likely to be happy.

It appears that conservative women are most happy and
liberal men are least happy.

The research indicates that about 50pc of our happiness
comes from our genes. Some people are simply happier than others by nature.

Another 40pc or so comes from recent life events like
getting married, or on the negative side experiencing the death of a loved one.

The remaining 10 or 12pc comes from the choices we make and
especially the values by which we choose to live our lives.

According to the article, “choosing to pursue four basic values
of faith, family, community and work is the surest path to happiness, given
that a certain percentage is genetic and not under our control in any way.”

Perhaps this explains why conservative women are happiest.
They are very likely to have a religious faith, to take their marriages very seriously,
to be embedded in a community and to believe in the value of work, which could
often mean working hard within the home for their families.

Liberalism obviously isn’t incompatible as such with any of
these values but liberalism is a very individualistic philosophy which places a
huge premium on personal autonomy and choice.

Such a philosophy can in practice end up being incompatible
with the sort of freedom-sacrificing commitments involved in faith, family,
community etc.

Incidentally, although only 10 or 12pc of our happiness
seems to be determined by the choices we make, surely it is much higher than
this in practice. The recent life events that can affect our happiness must be influenced
to a significant extent by our choices.

Often we can cope with the death of a loved one better if we
believe we will see them again in the next life and if we can turn to God for
solace.

Likewise, a strong belief in marriage makes us more likely
to get married and to stay married. In other words, there is a feedback loop at
work here.

By the way, an excellent book to read on this whole topic is
The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt.