Nostalgia Happiness Are not Boon Companions

The study's data clearly demonstrate that nostalgia for the past has a negative impact on the level of happiness of people. Consequently, individuals who believe that people were happier in the past than today as well as those who would have rather lived their lives 50 years ago systematically have RHI values lower than the general average as well as a lower differential between improvement and deterioration in their state or happiness last year.

The same applies to people who have a harder time accommodating to life today and those who believe that modern society makes it more difficult to achieve happiness.

Along the same lines, greater concern about the future directly affects respondent RHI and differential.

So, if you meet somebody who constantly broods over how the past was better, very often calls to mind periods of the past, and constantly compares them to today to explain or justify his or her position, you will know that he or she has a happiness deficit.