Key to happiness? Avoid having children, going to university or living near a lottery winner, says expert

Want to live happily ever after? Then don’t have children, go to university or live near a Lottery winner.

Prof Paul Dolan, a ‘happiness expert’ from the London School of Economics, says our desire to keep up with the Joneses and have a family because that is expected of us can be detrimental to our wellbeing.

“It would be categorically awful if anything happened to them, but the experiences we have with children are largely miserable,” he told the Hay Festival, adding that many parents might secretly agree with an academic colleague who “said that he liked the existence of his children but not their presence”.

While there is a “biological imperative” to procreate, “as long as you get pleasure from having sex, the baby comes out looking like you, and it does just enough so you don’t kill it, there is no reason thereaftter why children should make you happy,” he said.

“For some people, having children is great. But for a lot of people it isn’t, and the idea that we can’t talk openly about why that might be is a problem.”

The happiest sub-group of the population is single women without children, he said.

Society places too much emphasis on going into higher education, becoming rich and getting married, he said, when many people would actually be happier with a vocational course, an average income and being single.

“I’m not suggesting that people don’t strive for wealth and success and education. What I’m suggesting is, it’s not for everybody all of the time,” he said.

He cited a US study that found having a Lottery winner in your neighbourhood increases your likelihood of going bankrupt, due to the “contagion effect” of conspicuous consumption.

Another study found that single women without children are the happiest, while men are happier when married. “If you are a man you should probably get married. If you’re a woman, don’t bother,” he said.