How Does Health Affect Happiness?

Happiness increases with better health and decreases when health worsens. Although some psychologists argue that people adapt quickly and completely to a change in health—even one as severe as an accident that leaves a person a paraplegic or quadriplegic—both the broader cross-section evidence and time-series data indicate otherwise. Generally, the benchmark people use in evaluating their health is their past personal best and is fairly fixed; for most people, it is rooted in the earlier years of life. Hence, as physical health diminishes with age, happiness decreases as people fall further and further below their benchmark. However, improvements in health due, say, to diet and exercise will make one happier.