Happiness and Longevity: A Report on Diener and Peto's Research

This report critically analyzes two opposing viewpoints on the relationship between happiness and longevity. The first article, by Diener and Chan, argues that subjective well-being, including life satisfaction and optimism, directly contributes to a longer life expectancy, emphasizing the impact of mental factors on physical health. The second article, by Peto et al., counters this, suggesting that poor health is a cause of unhappiness, not the other way around. The report highlights the key arguments of each study, comparing their methodologies and findings. It discusses how Diener and Chan's research suggests a linear relationship between happiness and longevity, while Peto et al. challenges this notion, arguing that happiness may result from good health. The conclusion emphasizes that while subjective well-being can influence life expectancy, there is no clear cause-effect relationship. The report also briefly mentions the ancient perspectives on longevity and the value of Seneca's teachings in the context of modern life expectancy.

Running head: HAPPINESS AND LONGEVITY
Happiness and Longevity
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In the article Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health
and Longevity, the authors Ed Diener and Micaela Y. Chan maintain that the aspects of positive
well-being such as life-satisfaction, optimism, absence of negative emotion entail a long life
expectancy. They argue on the merit of the findings from empirical research that factors like
stress, anxiety and depression often lead to serious illness. Hemingway and Marmot (as cited by
Diener and Chan 2011) showed that 11 out of 11 prospective cases, depression and anxiety
caused coronary heart disease among healthy people. Diene and Chan (2011) argue that
physiological changes resulting from emotions and moods are invariably related to the changes
in health. However, it also maintains that this aspect of positive well-being may not cure illness
in a sick population.
However, in the article Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective
UK Million Women Study, Richard Peto et al maintain a diametrically opposite stance regarding
the issue. The authors, Peto et al. (2016), contend that poor health is a root cause of unhappiness,
not the other way round. To elucidate, they believe that happiness does not entail longer life
expectancy; rather happiness itself results from good health. The researchers try to establish their
claim by allowing for poor lifestyle and ill health in people. It was observed that among the
719671 respondents of the study, 44% women were occasionally happy and 17% are suffered
from chronic unhappiness. However, study showed that after the self-evaluation of health,
treatments for chronic and major diseases such as asthma, diabetes, and other socio-
demographical factors, e.g. smoking, low BMI elevated the happiness level among the
respondents as well (Peto et al. 2016).

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The findings from the first article try to connect happiness and life expectancy in a linear
approach. It suggests that subjective wellbeing has a direct impact on a healthy and long span of
life. Besides, it argues that mental factors evidently influence the physical functions and thus,
unhappiness, distress, anxiety etc. affects health (Diener and Chan 2011). However, the study
fails to prove that enhancing the level of wellbeing can cure ill health or physical distress. The
next article opposes the very idea of linear relation between these two aspects. It suggests that
happiness is not conducive of physical health, rather poor health and illness can cause mental
distress. Although unhappiness may be linked with lifestyles that can cause illness, e.g. smoking,
alcoholism etc., it cannot be regarded as a hindrance for longevity. It further claims that the
notion of linearity involves an erroneous causal relation between happiness and longevity (Peto
et al. 2016). In conclusion, happiness and longevity have no evident cause-effect relation. The
measures of subjective well-being can influence life expectancy, although they have no
linear connection that can be accounted for longevity.

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References
Diener, Ed, and Micaela Y. Chan. "Happy people live longer: Subjective well‐being contributes
to health and longevity." Applied Psychology: Health and Well
‐Being 3.1 (2011): 1-43.
Liu, Bette, et al. "Does happiness itself directly affect mortality? The prospective UK Million
Women Study." The Lancet 387.10021 (2016): 874-881.