This summer I took my kids to see the movie Inside Out 2, thinking I was in for another happy-go-lucky story about the emotional life of a young child. Although there were definitely some happy moments, the story focused less on the main character of Joy and more on a whole new cast of characters—like Anxiety, Embarrassment, and Envy—that emerge when the main character, Riley, enters the trials and tribulations of adolescence. As Riley is feeling these new emotions, happiness gets pushed aside to make room for teenage angst. As I watched my 6- and 9-year-olds absorb this message, I already found myself getting weepy over Joy’s lament: “I guess that’s what happens when you grow up; you feel less joy.”
But do we really experience less joy as we get older? My first intuition was definitely yes. There were countless times this summer when I was watching my children swim joyfully in the town pool, jump waves in the ocean, and bury themselves in the sand. I wished I could get as excited about anything as my kids get about these regular seasonal activities.
Luckily, my intuitions about these things are often wrong.
Scientists are incredibly interested in studying changes in happiness, or what they call subjective well-being, over time. Subjective well-being includes happiness but goes a bit beyond how we are feeling right now and includes more stability. And different researchers have put forth........