Student blog post: Only 1 in 3 Americans are very happy, according to Harris Poll.

Feed URL: https://blogs.kent.ac.uk/criticalthinking/2017/04/04/student-blog-post-only-1-in-3-americans-are-very-happy-according-to-harris-poll/feed/?withoutcomments=1

The story claims that, only 1 in 3 Americans are very happy according to the Harris poll. However it can be argued that this headline is misleading because it is based on people’s emotions which are relative and can change at any point, thus making it harder for this research to be reliable. The methodology used was a quantitative online survey that consisted of different questions and statements to test their level of happiness. For example, they were asked to agree or disagree with the following statement; “my relationships with my friends bring me happiness.” However, the limitation to this is that the research was not there to assist them with the survey if they did not understand certain questions or statements, which could lead to misleading answers. Despite this, the sample size of 2,345 U.S adults aged from 18 and above was a large enough sample size to make generalisations about the rest of the target population, thus making the research representative. However, the research does not clarify whether these respondents were chosen at random or was a nonprobability sample, thus is at a high risk of being bias. Nevertheless, by the story comparing the results of 2009 to the results of 2016 it allows the reader to see the comparison in the level of happiness. For example 33% of Americans claimed they were very happy in 2016, whereas in 2009 it was 35%, showing a decline. Thus it is easier to see trends and patterns by using this quantitative data. On the other hand a problem with this story is that it makes assumptions about the reasons why people may feel happy or unhappier. An illustration of this is that they assume that someone’s level of stress and their age are the main factors in determining somebody’s happiness, however does not provide evidence showing this. Thus, lowering the validity of the research since they are assuming what the statistics mean instead of conducting qualitative methods such as interviews to get evidence about the reasons behind this. Overall the headline that 1 in 3 American’s are very happy can be seen as misleading since the definition of happiness is relative and may be interpreted by the respondents differently.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/01/happiness-index-only-1-in_n_3354524.html
http://www.theharrispoll.com/health-and-life/Annual_Happiness_Index_Again_Finds_One-Third_of_Americans_Very_Happy.html