The Map of Human Happiness

The Pudding has taken the results of a 2017 research project and turned them into something much more engaging: a map of human happiness. In the original study, 10,000 people were asked to share their “happy moments.” The Happy Map transforms those responses into a visual landscape, where each moment is represented by a small person-shaped marker and grouped with similar experiences.

The map is laid out as a collection of thematic “islands” - family, sensory pleasures, friends, hobbies, and more. What makes it especially interesting is how it reimagines cardinal directions. Instead of north, south, east, and west, the map is organized around ideas like immediate vs. long-term happiness, and more agency vs. less agency. Moments that satisfy immediate desires (like eating your favorite food) appear toward the top of the map, while longer-term achievements (such as earning a college degree) are positioned closer to the bottom.

There are also a few nice interactive touches. You can filter the “people” shown on the map by age, sex, and marital status, which changes the emotional landscape in subtle ways. There’s even a search tool that lets you look up specific words - try “birthday,” “bonus,” or “children” - to see where those moments cluster.

In part two of The Map of Human Happiness, I’ll show you how you can create your own interactive concept map ...