The Happiness Workout

Authors: Paul Dolan Georgios Kavetsos Ivo Vlaev

Publish Date: 2013/12/24

Volume: 119, Issue: 3, Pages: 1363-1377

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Abstract

This study tests for causality from exercise and physical activity to life satisfaction LS by applying an instrumental variable approach with the respondents’ perceived benefits of exercise participation as instruments Using data across 25 countries from the Eurobarometer survey our results confirm the positive association between exercise and LS In terms of causality the results indicate that being active increases LS for both gender though more for men than women One main reason for this relationship is that exercise is perceived as being pleasurable something that policymakers should keep in mind when designing programmes to get us off the sofaThe authors wish to thank Peter Ayton Karol Borowiecki Daniel Fujiwara Laura Kudrna Andrew Oswald Tessa Peasgood Nick Powdthavee Anastasia Stathopoulou Stefan Szymanski and an anonymous referee for valuable comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this studyThis section presents the results of the factor analysis carried out for the perceived benefit indicators included in the survey The methods carried out here are well documented in textbooks and handbooks—see for example Manly 2005 and Nardo et al 2008 In brief we first perform a factor analysis where the suggested number of factors is identified based on the Kaiser criterion which drops factors with eigenvalues below unity Second the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin KMO measure for sampling adequacy is calculated both for individual variables and for the overall analysis KMO values vary between zero and one where values equal to 06 or above are desirable since large values imply that a certain variable has enough information in common to produce a reliable factor analysis Third in order to obtain an interpretable pattern of factor loadings a varimax rotation is usually performed Finally factor scores are estimated

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