The Happiness Hypothesis
The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidtby Jonathan Haidt
Shares rank 4 of 9 psychology books by recommenders
People recommend it as a decent book that covers the baseline phenomenon and related happiness concepts in more detail than other sources.
People recommend it as a decent book that covers the baseline phenomenon and related happiness concepts in more detail than other sources.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Covers the baseline phenomenon
“There's a decent book on the baseline phenomenon called Happiness Hypothesis”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “Dad brains: How fatherhood rewires the male mind” Covers concepts in more detail
“covers this and other concepts in much better detail relative to the OP”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Why I Stopped Arguing with People” Nice book on happiness
“There is a nice book by Jonathan Haidt about this called The Happiness Hypothesis.”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “I made my phone slow on purpose”
Other psychology books people recommend
The four most recommended other psychology books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Courage to Be Dislikedby Ichiro Kishimi | 7 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | — |
| Influenceby Robert Cialdini | 7 | 1 | 88% | 5 | — | — |
| The Inner Game of Tennisby W. Timothy Gallwey | 4 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| The Happiness Hypothesisby Jonathan HaidtThis page | 3 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Stumbling on Happinessby Daniel Gilbert | 3 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“covers this and other concepts in much better detail relative to the OP”
“There is a nice book by Jonathan Haidt about this called The Happiness Hypothesis.”
“There's a decent book on the baseline phenomenon called Happiness Hypothesis”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.