38 pages • 1 hour read
Eric WeinerThe Geography of Bliss
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaIntroduction-Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary
After college, Weiner becomes a journalist, partly to travel. After visiting many unhappy, war-torn countries for National Public Radio, he wonders, “What if, I wondered, I spent a year traveling the globe, seeking out not the world’s well-trodden trouble spots but, rather, its unheralded happy places?” (1).
Weiner describes himself as an unhappy person. Most people historically have been unhappy, he contends. However, in recent times, happiness has become a common expectation.
Self-help books promise that happiness resides within. However, Weiner counters this idea with eastern philosophy, arguing that there is not a rigid distinction between the inside and outside of a person. The outer environment, physically and culturally, also affects happiness: “We speak of searching for happiness, of finding contentment, as if these were locations in an atlas, actual places that we could visit if only we had the proper map and the right navigational skills” (3).
Since ancient times, people have often thought of paradise as a place. Weiner prepares for his travels by studying the science of happiness, along with travel books. Weiner sets off, noting that he does not seriously expect to find happiness.
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Netherlands—Happiness Is a Number”
Weiner writes that people like to watch other people having fun; this accounts for pornography and going to cafes.
In the Netherlands, Weiner visits a Rotterdam cafe. Watching people, he drinks and smokes. Sitting in a cafe is about taking time to reflect—for instance, on the contrast between Dutch tolerance of sex and drugs and the strict anti-Muslim policies of the Netherlands.
Weiner meets a Dutch happiness researcher, Ruut Veenhofen. Veenhofen runs the World Database of Happiness (WDH), which tracks things and places that make people happy.
Veenhofen went to school in the 1960s, but instead of aspiring for an ideal social system as his friends did, Veenhofen tried to study social results. Extending the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, Veenhofen investigated the positive side of society. Today, numerous researchers investigate positive social sciences.
Weiner writes that although philosophy and religion also represent a search for happiness, nowadays, science offers more information. To measure subjective well-being, or SWB, researchers measure stress hormones, cardiac rhythms, and facial expressions; conduct surveys; and look at the brain using MRI scans. Positive feelings activate a more recently evolved part of the brain.
People feel significantly better about their overall selves after finding a dime, showing that the most recent five minutes affect overall feelings. People also present themselves as happier in person. Though these facts make it more difficult to measure happiness, Weiner still believes in the science: “So assuming that these happiness studies are reasonably accurate, what have they found? Who is happy? And how do I join them?” (13).
In the database room, Weiner describes the results. Outgoing, committed, wealthy people tend to be happier than melancholy, idle, poor people. Scientists struggle to discern whether happiness causes or results from the behaviors.
Different cultures have their own takes on happiness. In East Asia, communal betterment has more importance than personal betterment, but people there are less happy. However, in America, where personal betterment is more at the forefront of society, people tend to exaggerate their happiness.
Homogenous countries like Iceland and Denmark are among the happiest. Countries with large income gaps can be as happy or happier than more egalitarian countries. Democracies are not necessarily happier than dictatorships.
The United States, overall, is not a particularly happy place. African countries are often unhappy and poor. Former Soviet republics are unhappy. Tropical countries are often of average happiness. Temperate and cold countries can be happier.
Most countries report that they are happy, although a few do not. Weiner blames journalists and philosophers for depicting an exaggeration of problems.
The Dutch report high levels of happiness. This tolerant country allows drugs, prostitution, and other activities. Veenhofen has found that people who consume very small or large amounts of stimulants report less happiness than moderate consumers. Permissive approaches to sex produce happiness.
Weiner spends some time smoking hashish at a coffee shop. He departs, noting that Veenhofen has more interest in the research itself than in happiness.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Switzerland—Happiness Is Boredom”
Weiner next visits Switzerland. The Swiss have high happiness levels. The country is wealthy and clean. Swiss residents cite cleanliness and the trains running on time as causes for happiness. Also, the Swiss do not stand out from each other, which can provoke envy and unhappiness.
The people lack problems, but also lack outward signs of the positive effects of being happy. To Weiner, however, the Swiss have a narrow band of emotions and no sense of humor.
The Swiss do enjoy outside activities, so Weiner decides to go to the Swiss Alps. At the summit, he relaxes with fondue. Referencing mid-20th-century biologist E. O. Wilson and more recent scientists, Weiner describes biophilia, the pleasure people take in being in natural settings.
In Geneva, Weiner meets Jalil, a Swiss youth, and his American girlfriend, Anna. Jalil jokingly cites the permissive euthanasia law as a reason for happiness. Switzerland has one of the highest suicide rates. The reasons for happiness versus sadness can differ in type.
In Switzerland, people have ties to their places of origin, which creates large amounts of trust—something that can increase happiness:
One study found that, of all the factors that affect crime rate for a given area, the one that made the biggest difference was not the number of police patrols or anything like that but, rather, how many people you know within a fifteen-minute walk of your house (39).
The Swiss people he meets seem patient, despite being wealthy. Weiner rides the Swiss trains, visits government buildings in Bern, the Swiss capital, and notes the cleanliness of Zurich. Weiner goes to Saint-Ursanne, a medieval town, where Andreas Gross, a member of the Swiss parliament, describes his political and social views to Weiner.
The swiss eat large amounts of chocolate, which can make people happier. Chemicals such as tryptophan and anandamide may affect emotions. Weiner visits a chocolate shop.
Choice can also make people happier, although excess choice has the opposite effect. The Swiss have numerous choices, include frequent votes even on small issues. A Swiss economist found that of the 26 Swiss cantons, or states, those that voted the most often had the most happiness. Weiner decides that the happiness of the Swiss is closer to the feeling of contentment than bliss.
Introduction-Chapter 2
Happiness has been discussed for millennia in such cultural institutions as religion, art, and philosophy. More recently, scientists have also begun to investigate positive emotions with tools that probe the mind’s physical biology rather than its less tangible sense of self.
Weiner considers himself a relatively unhappy person, and research has borne out that each person has a baseline happiness, which fluctuates slightly in different environments. Assuming that some places may be more conducive to happiness than others, Weiner sets out to visit locations of greatest happiness to find a place more conducive for someone like him to be happy.
He immediately realizes that different cultures have their own notions of happiness. The Netherlands and Switzerland have high happiness scores, according to the World Database of Happiness. However, in practice, both of these countries seem ordinary, and the people are not noticeably happy. This is because Weiner’s expectations of what happiness looks like differ from the feeling of general contentment that the Dutch and the Swiss experience. For instance, Dutch tolerance and Swiss orderliness both contribute to particular types of happiness. In neither case do these entirely match with Weiner. When he
tries the favorite activities of these countries—smoking hashish, riding trains, relaxing in the Alps—he feels somewhat better, but not blissful.
The factors affecting emotions are diverse, and people are happy for surprising reasons. Moderation and commitment can increase happiness. The factors that affect emotion often differ from that which people expect.
