Public policy is often aimed at alleviating the negative aspects of life, such as poverty and pain. But by being so focused on making bad things better, governments can neglect enhancing the positive aspects of life, such as joy. Some may see it is frivolous yet recognising the value of joy in cost–benefit analyses could lead to improved wellbeing, greater fairness, and stronger public support for government decisions.

Why joy matters

Measuring wellbeing is an important way to inform policymaking. Fifteen years ago, I advised the Office for National Statistics on this, and suggested they should look at four aspects: life satisfaction, happiness yesterday, anxiety yesterday and worthwhile activities. The OECD followed these guidelines, and I recently provided them with some updated guidance, recommending four further measures: pain, loneliness, meaning – and joy.

Joy is a central part of living well. It is sought after, and it signals flourishing. Beyond its direct benefits, it has been shown to promote resilience, creativity and social connection. And it has considerable positive spillovers in private and public spheres of activity.

Why policymakers neglect joy

It’s surprising, then, that joy rarely features in economic appraisal or public spending decisions. I think there are two reasons for this.

The first is that policymakers don’t seem to appreciate how important joy is to people’s lives. I’ve encountered too many who are suspicious of the idea of having fun for its own sake. The phrase ‘bread and circuses’ was used in ancient Rome to describe the use of food and entertainment as a way to distract people from more ‘serious’ issues – and this perception of joy, as a frivolous thing, persists.

The second reason is that joy is seen as the responsibility of private citizens rather than policymakers. It’s the government’s job to stop bad things from happening to people – not to help them do things that they enjoy.

In academic terms, the alleviation of negative affect is seen as a greater policy concern than the enhancement of positive affect. So, cost–benefit analysis tends to focus on economic productivity, risk reduction and health impacts, at the expense of leisure quality, cultural participation and public spaces.

How this affects policy outcomes

When joy is overlooked in economic appraisal, there are distributional consequences too. Disadvantaged people often lack the means to access joy in their private lives, and so ‘serious’ policy ends up neglecting what matters to the people most in need of public resources.

Social cohesion is affected too. Many of the activities and amenities that promote joy – parks, festivals, sport, public art – are shared across groups in society. This not only fosters togetherness but also increases the likelihood that more people, including those on higher incomes, buy into the provision of public services.

I lived in Newcastle in the late 1990s, and I remember the fuss that was caused by the decision to build The Angel of the North, which was finished in 1998. It was criticised as a waste of money and many people wanted the money to go to the NHS. But it didn’t take long for the sculpture to become a beloved source of regional pride – “a beacon for the community’s evolving hopes”, according to Wikipedia. Investments like this, which generate shared pleasure and purpose, struggle to compete with spending that tackles more tangible ‘problems’.

Measuring the power of collective joy

I live in Brighton now, along with a much more famous resident, Norman Cook – better known as the DJ Fatboy Slim. A few months ago, we worked together to run a happiness experiment during two of his performances at The Old Market, a local music venue with a capacity of around 450.

We collaborated with Polar, a wearable tech company, to measure the heart rate variability of everyone in the audience. We also used thermal imaging cameras and conducted happiness surveys. We’re still analysing the data, but early results suggest the crowd’s heart rates became increasingly synchronised over the course of the night.

There was a lot of happiness in the room, and even more so whenever we presented data back to people on screens. Whatever the heart rates or the happiness levels, people cheered – loudly.

This is an important finding. There is evidence that paying attention to happiness can make people feel less good, but our early results suggest that the opposite is true when happiness is a shared experience. So joy is not only measurable, but becomes even more powerful when it’s experienced collectively. There are implications here for how public policies are framed.

Improving outcomes and strengthening public support

Public policy should not only protect people from misery – it should also help them experience joy. And the shared experience of joy should not be confined to those who are able to pay for it privately. Policymakers should be thinking of ways we can all benefit from the kind of joy that people experience at events like the one in Brighton – without requiring us all to go raving.

To make this shift, we need to give joy a real place in economic appraisal as a legitimate and measurable benefit – as something that makes life worth living. If cost–benefit analysis could better reflect this, it might not only help improve people’s wellbeing, but strengthen public support for government decisions too.

Paul Dolan is a Professor of Behavioural Science at LSE. He is a member of Frontier’s Economic Advisory Council, which brings together economists and business leaders to help clients navigate economic and policy challenges.