In Pursuit of Greater Happiness for a Greater Number: A Personal Account

I was raised and tasked by my parents to contribute to society. As a student, I learned about the moral principle that we should aim at achieving greater happiness for a greater number of people and took this as a lead. I do not advocate any particular way to greater happiness, but I have spent my academic life charting determinants of happiness. To this end, I developed the World Database of Happiness. This is a findings-archive in which I stored the results of empirical research on happiness in the sense of life-satisfaction. Research on this subject has grown exponentially since the 1960s and to date (2022) the archive holds some 50.000 findings. This provides an evidence base for rational pursuit of happiness.