I’m the doctor who invented the ‘Happiness Formula’ – take my 12-question test to show how satisfied you are in life
A new book describes a simple test that can tell anyone whether he or she is happy, very happy or flourishing – and help identify the causes of unhappiness.
The test uses a mathematical formula consisting of a person’s feelings of hope and their “hunger” (whether for relationships or success).
Its creator, Dr Alphonsus Obayuwana, told DailyMail.com: ‘The formula is that hope over hunger equals happiness.’
As a medical student in 1979, he developed an instrument to measure human happiness that was adopted by Fortune 500 companies, including Coca Cola.
The test gives people a Personal Happiness Index that can be measured to three decimal places.
Scroll to the bottom of this article to take the test:
The tool measures happiness and works for everyone (Shutterstock)
If your Personal Happiness Index is higher than one, you are considered happy, and if it is lower than one, you are considered unhappy.
Dr. Obayuwana said: ‘This is actually a discovery. This comparison found me. So now everyone can have a happiness index.
Dr. Alphonsus Obayuwana
“You can use it in any country to find happy people, very unhappy people, thriving individuals and languishing individuals in any country.”
He claimed that current methods of measuring happiness (including those used in the Gallup polls to measure global happiness) are flawed – and do not take into account important details.
For example, he pointed to results such as Finland regularly topping the charts despite also having a high suicide rate.
“The problem with current questionnaires is that they are very simplistic, uninformative and rudimentary for something as important as happiness,” said Dr. Obayuwana, noting that GDP is often used to measure happiness.
He also pointed out the rudimentary way the questions were worded. “In these studies they say that imagining the worst possible life is zero and the best possible life is ten.
“The problem is that people often view the question as political, or answer it differently depending on whether they are in Asian countries or the West.”
Dr. Alphonsus Obayuwana is author of the new book The Happiness Formula: A Scientific, Groundbreaking Approach to Happiness and Personal Fulfillment
He added: ‘I have discovered a very simple equation that makes it possible for the first time ever to assign a numerical happiness score to people. The formula is that hope over hunger equals happiness.”
The test takes just five minutes and measures people’s feelings of hope as well as their hunger for five compelling human desires: intimacy, trust, food and comfort, information and continuity.
The book provides case studies and examples of how people have made themselves happier by using hope and managing their hunger.
An example of this is Patty Stonesifer, who rose through the ranks of the technology industry and was named by Time Magazine in 1996 as one of the twenty-five most influential people in America.
Stonesifer gave it up to become head of Martha’s Table, a nonprofit organization in Washington, DC, that serves and feeds the poor – after feeling the “emptiness” of her previous life.
The Happiness Formula: A Scientific, Groundbreaking Approach to Happiness and Personal Fulfillment is released on March 12, published by Simon and Schuster.