When the LSE economist Richard Layard wrote a book on happiness research and its policy areas in 2005, he gained strong reactions, especially from the right side. Some of the criticisms were justified: Uncritical belief in the measurability of subjective phenomena, and a collective definition of what gives happiness and well-being, can awaken associations to totalitarian societies that we do not like to compare ourselves with.

Read more... ABC Nyheter (Norway)