Every week around the world, millions of people play lotteries, desperately hoping to win the jackpot that will bring them happiness… or so they think.
Others browse dream homes and imagine the contentment they’d find in them, or scan job listings or swipe dating apps, always craving that one change in life that will make everything better.
And yet what psychology research shows us is that all these external factors matter far less to our happiness or satisfaction than what’s inside us already.
This might risk sounding like a vacuous message from a fortune cookie, but it derives from legitimate, carefully controlled studies that have explored how much our personality traits influence our sense of wellbeing in life.
What the research has shown is that there’s one trait in particular that’s absolutely crucial. It’s one of the so-called ‘Big Five’ personality traits, from the most respected personality model in psychology.
