Ruut Veenhoven
Published in: European Psychologist, 2005, special section on 'Human
development and Well-being', vol. 10, pp. 330-343
ABSTRACT
Human society has changed much over the last centuries and this process
of 'modernization' has profoundly affected the lives of individuals; currently
we live quite different lives from those forefathers lived only five
generations ago. There is difference of opinion as to whether we live better
now than before, and consequently there is also disagreement as to whether we
should continue modernizing or rather try to slow the process down.
Quality-of-life in a society
can be measured by how long and happy its inhabitants live. Using these
indicators I assess whether societal modernization has made life better or
worse. Firstly I examined findings of present day survey research. I started
with a cross-sectional analysis of 90 nations and found that people live longer
and happier in today's most modern societies. Secondly I examined trends in 10
modern nations over the last 30 years and found that happiness and longevity
have increased in most cases. Thirdly I considered the long-term and review
findings from historical and comparative anthropology, which show that we lived
better in the early hunter-gatherer society than in the later agrarian society.
Together these data suggest that societal evolution has worked out differently
for the quality of human life, first negatively, in the change from a
hunter-gatherer existence to agriculture, and next positively, in the more
recent transformation from an agrarian to an industrial society. We live now
longer and happier than ever before.