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The word "happiness" refers both to the temporary emotion and a long-term state of being satisfied with your life. Nowadays the long term state is often called "life satisfaction" in research.

Someone in a gulag would have low life satisfaction.

The original lottery winners vs accident victim study attempted to measure the long term state: https://www.talenteck.com/academic/Brickman-Coates-Janoff-19...

That study isn't the final word though. Other studies have found that winning the lottery increases life satisfaction, while still others have found that they don't.



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