Although it could point people in the right direction to find fulfillment and happiness, this book shouldn't be mistaken for a self-help one. While most self-help books focus on giving advice and strategies to be happy and successful, The Happiness Hypothesis draws on philosophy, psychology, religion, biology, history, story-telling... to illustrate the conditions (both within and outside of ourselves) that contribute to our happiness.

It starts by dividing the self into two components: The conscious, reasoning and voluntary part and the unconscious, emotional and automatic part, or as he describes them: The rider and the elephant. According to Dr. Haidt, the elephant is mostly in control. It is the one making the decisions while the rider comes later to provide justifications to support the elephant. The rider is like a lawyer advocating for the elephant's choices.

We're then met with a formula for happiness: Happiness = H + C + V.
H = Happiness Set Point suggests that our view of our well-being is ingrained in us from birth and that each person has a higher or lower set point (What usually separates an optimist from a pessimist).
C = Conditions of living isn't as self-explanatory as one might think. For instance, beyond basic needs (Food, water, and shelter) it includes little other material possessions. Instead, it focuses on things like relationships, communing, noise, control over your life...
V = Voluntary activities or the things you enjoy doing or work on (A job that you love doing, a hobby...).
This formula isn't as simple as it looks and in fact, Jonathan Haidt dedicates the rest of his book to explore every variable of that equation.

There is a lot to cover in this rich and deep book to go over in this review, so I'll let you read and explore it for yourselves.