Happiness may be the only universal human pursuit. No matter how much any given two people might differ in their biological, psychological, cultural, and social circumstances, each of them is almost certain to dedicate much of their life towards improving their personal happiness and the happiness of those they most care about.

Even though this aspiration towards happiness appears to be intrinsic to the human condition, however, the method by which we pursue happiness makes a difference. In fact, as this post explains, the formula you and I follow for happiness may make more of a difference to our health and quality of life than just about anything else we do.

We live in paradoxical times. Like a modern incarnation of "A Tale of Two Cities"1, we're experiencing on one hand an era of unparalleled "happiness", at least by objective macroeconomic and health metrics. Examine from afar the stock market value, home prices, employment statistics, and access to smartphones and the internet, for example, and it is difficult not to conclude that Americans must be enjoying a period of unrivalled prosperity. Similarly, we have doubled our average lifespan in a single century, invented nuclear and green energy sources, created societal safety nets for healthcare and retirement, and almost entirely eradicated conditions such as smallpox, starvation, and tuberculosis that historically threatened countless lives each year. By all these big-picture standards, we should be happier and healthier than ever.

Yet this argument for peak happiness and health is countered by indicators suggesting that American happiness may be at all-time lows. Mental health — whether defined by conventional psychiatric diagnosis such as depression or by nonclinical symptoms such as loneliness — has been declining for at least two decades (not........

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