Searching for Happiness: The Importance of Social Capital

Abstract

After four decades of research, scholars of happiness continue to debate its causes. While it is generally agreed that a combination of internal and external factors play a role, predicting happiness well remains a challenge. Recent research has proposed that social capital may be a vital factor that has been overlooked. This paper attempts to address that omission. According to Coleman's (Am J Sociol 94:S95-S120, 1988) seminal work, three dimensions of social capital exist: (1) trust and obligations, (2) information channels, and (3) norms and sanctions. Using bootstrap hierarchical regression on data from the Canadian General Social Survey of Social Engagement Cycle 17 (2003), we identified blocks of social capital variables described by Coleman, as well as an additional factor of belongingness. Even after controlling for major demographic and individual characteristics, the majority of these blocks show significant relationships with happiness. Our findings support social capital as an important piece in predicting happiness. Keywords IntroductionThe pursuit of happiness is an important personal goal that has attracted the attention of many social scientists across various disciplines around the world. In 1967, Warner Wilson summarized the characteristics of a happy person as follows: 'young, healthy, well-educated, well-paid, extroverted, optimistic, worry-free, religious, married, with high self-esteem, high job morale, modest aspirations, of either sex and of a wide range of intelligence' (p. 294). Wilson's observations have led to four decades of research on happiness. Many researchers have re-examined the factors suggested by Wilson (Argyle 2001;Diener et al. 1999;Frey and Stutzer 2002). Recent research has proposed that social capital may be a vital factor that has been overlooked (Diener and Oishi 2004;Helliwell 2006). Social capital refers to individual resources accumulated through interpersonal activities that help to develop a strong social network and ties among individuals and their community (Leung 2002).The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between happiness and different forms of social capital. A review of the happiness literature will identify important correlates of happiness. The literature on social capital will then be examined. Finally, extant literature on the potential relationship between happiness and social capital will be presented to construct a theoretical framework and to generate hypotheses about the relationship between happiness and social capital. Following Bjornskov (2003) and Frey and Stutzer (2002), we use the terms 'happiness', 'life satisfaction', and 'well-being' interchangeably. However, it is acknowledged that each of these terms can be defined in different ways and may contain a variety of components. Review of Literature Correlates of Happiness from Previous ResearchMost research on happiness has focused on the relationship between external factors and the level of happiness as summarized by Argyle (2001), Diener et al. (1999), Dolan e...

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