# The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

3 Hacker News commenters recommended The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a decent book that covers the baseline phenomenon and related happiness concepts in more detail than other sources.

## Why people recommend it

- Covers the baseline phenomenon (1 comments): "There's a decent book on the baseline phenomenon called Happiness Hypothesis" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47836146))
- Covers concepts in more detail (1 comments): "covers this and other concepts in much better detail relative to the OP" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48756808))
- Nice book on happiness (1 comments): "There is a nice book by Jonathan Haidt about this called The Happiness Hypothesis." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48366437))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/courage-to-be-disliked.md): 7 recommend
- [Influence by Robert Cialdini](https://hackerapproved.com/p/influence.md): 7 recommend
- [The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/inner-game-of-tennis.md): 4 recommend
- [Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stumbling-on-happiness.md): 3 recommend
- [The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer](https://hackerapproved.com/p/authoritarians.md): 3 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465028012?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780465028016) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt", https://hackerapproved.com/p/happiness-hypothesis/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).