Evolutionary Perspectives on Enhancing Quality of Life

Positive psychology is a thriving field with increasing political influence, yet there are few evolutionary studies that have had a tangible impact on rethinking mechanisms of well-being. This Element reviews existing literature and proposes synthesizing insights into human flourishing under an umbrella of multilevel selection (MLS). Conceptualizing quality of life as 'Happiness + Meaning = Well-being' draws attention to how people navigate between individual and group needs, and how they reconcile selfish pursuits with altruism and cooperation. We define happiness as the cluster of affects that reward individuals for solving adaptive challenges. We approach meaning as a reward that individuals experience when contributing to their community. By way of examples, we critically examine the Nordic well-being societies whose ethos and education advance prosocial values and practices and strike a balance between individualist and communitarian ideals. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

1. Introduction: the battle of the books in well-being studies; 2. A Century of well-being studies; 3. Ideas of good life: are there cultural universals?; 4. Happiness from an evolutionary perspective; 5. From welfare to well-being society, the Nordic blueprint; 6. Conclusions; References.