Why Young, Educated People Are Miserable
Why Young, Educated People Are Miserable
And how education can boost your happiness as you age
Going to college might be a recipe for unhappiness from age 22-30…
… But going to college will likely make you happier in your 30s and 40s.
That was the headline takeaway from Boris Nikolaev's 2016 research on the relationship between education and happiness.
Let’s look at what this research paper found, and I’ll discuss my personal anecdotal evidence that can help explain these results. I believe these results hold true for many people with high levels of education.
The research on education and happiness
Past research suggests that more education doesn't necessarily make people happier; some even show a negative connection.
This flies in the face of what society primes us for—” go to school so you can get a good job.” This is both good and bad advice at the same time.
Young grads entering the workforce are likely to be less happy than their less educated counterparts. But, in the long run, higher education does tend to lead to higher happiness (and greater lifetime income and wealth accumulation.)
Nikolaev's study is different because he tested the hypothesis that the benefits of education on happiness might not be immediate but could grow more apparent as people get older.
To explore this idea, he examined data from 2001 to 2013, covering over 26,000 people. He measured life satisfaction on a simple scale from 0 (totally dissatisfied) to 10 (totally satisfied) and considered the number of years of education each person had.
Nikolaev found that while education might initially seem to correlate with lower happiness, this changes as individuals age.
Starting in their early 30s, people with higher education levels begin to report higher happiness compared to their less educated peers.
This positive trend continues to grow over time, suggesting that the true benefits of education on happiness might only become evident as people mature and establish their lives and careers.
Happiness is about aligning expectations with reality
I think there’s a very reasonable explanation for these results and that higher education primes young people to be extremely disappointed about the realities of work—especially entry-level opportunities.
When young people go to college, a few things happen.