As we see around us the increasing popularity of gadgets like smartphones and tabs and items like smart televisions, smart refrigerators etc, we can easily say that materialism is on the rise. All we care is to buy expensive goods and to show them off.
But is that really true? Why does buying a new and expensive smartphone make us happy, and for how long?
And yet, as materialistic as we may feel ourselves to be, the Happiness Study by LG has revealed that we still care more about family values, relationships and trust. Or at least, we proclaim to do so.
The Happiness Study, commissioned by LG, was conducted by IMRB. It took into account responses from 2424 Indians across 16 cities. These respondents belonged to the three Social Economic Classes, were aged between 18 to 45 years and included both genders.
I personally feel 2424 is too small a number to represent all of us. But anyway, what the responses of these 2424 people reveal is striking and insightful.
As per the findings of these study, we value Happiness and Trust above all. The study made people rank various factors leading to happiness across five domains. These main domains were Pursuit, Purpose, Pleasure, Passion and Context.
The Study revealed that the elements like love of family, strength of relationship and the time spent with the family matter more to us for our happiness than the Context like situations in country or surrounding environment. The study also showed that India is a country of strivers and we all are striving to attain a better life. Some are striving to become more prosperous, the younger ones and the women are striving to become more independent. The value of good physical appearance is also rated very highly by us, especially in the northern parts of India.
Of course, we are happy when we buy a fancy car or a smartphone. But large part of that happiness stems from our feeling of being capable of making that purchase. The striver in us feels happy of being successful enough to be able to buy fancy stuff.
However, as happy as such fancy stuff makes us feel, the happiness resulting from them is but short-lived. The happiness that results from life changing events like marriage, birth of a child or success of the child lasts longer, as per the life-cycle of Happiness indicated by LG's Happiness Study.
The Happiness Index of the study reveals Chandigarh as the happiest city in India. Chandigarh is followed by Lucknow. And then comes Delhi. Yes, surprisingly, Delhi has been found to be the happiest Metro in India. Next comes Chennai and Bengaluru. People in these top five most happiest cities of India expressed that they are happy with the quality of their relationships and the time they spent with their families. They were also happy with the control they had on their life and their independence and freedom.
The study also revealed that the younger generation cares more for happiness but is actually less happy than the older generation which has become settled in life and career. Similarly, the lower economic class rate happiness as higher but are actually less happy than more affluent people. That is, money does matter to ensure happiness. Interestingly, men were found to be marginally more happy than women.
This study was unveiled in Delhi on 11th June, 2015. Speaking on the event, Mr. Soon Kwon, Managing Director, LG India said, "LG as a brand stands for our ethos of Life's Good and our brand philosophy is to develop and market products that make our consumers' lives happy. The LG Life's Good Happiness Study is a manifestation of this commitment and has been undertaken to understand the social construct of happiness and what makes people of India happy. My heartfelt congratulations to Chandigarh on winning the title of being India's happiest city and Delhi for being the happiest metro. The findings of the study will help bring us closer to our customers and enable us to play an important role in their pursuit of happiness!"
Given below are some infographics that can give you better idea about what the Happiness Study by LG revealed:
