My short answer is YES – but first let’s explain what “Smile” I’m referring to.
In the 2000s, David Blanchflower’s research indicated a correlation between age and happiness: teens and 20s were some of the happiest and most enjoyable times of life, followed by a decline through the 30s and 40s, hitting the lowest point around the 50s, before increasing again to reach the highest point in the 80s. These results gave origin to the concept of the Smile or U-shaped curve of happiness (popularized by Rauch’s “The Happiness Curve” book) to describe well-being changes over people’s lifetime.
Recent results from the Global Flourishing Study (2025) present a different picture. They show that multiple flourishing dimensions, including optimism, purpose, life satisfaction, and happiness, have declined among the youth. The large scope (200,000+ participants, 22 countries) of this longitudinal study – conducted by researchers at Harvard University and Baylor University, and in partnership with Gallup and the Center for Open Science – makes these results highly alarming as they seem to illustrate a similar state of happiness in several countries.
For instance, data presented in a recent talk from the Center for Wellbeing, Welfare and Happiness at the Stockholm School of Economics indicated this change for Sweden – considered one of the happiest countries in the world – when only looking at the data points from the 18–24-year-old population: their ranking significantly decreases from the 4th place as a nation and 1st place for the 80+ year-old population to the 30th place in the world. Data from other countries also shows similar trends.
What does this mean? The front end of the happiness curve is disappearing. Now, teens and 20s are the most unhappy times of life. In this context, the Smile does not represent the curve of happiness anymore. The U-shaped curve has been replaced for a J-shaped curve to more accurately represent this recent shift among young adults and the overall happiness across the lifespan.
How does imagination fit here?
Having been working in the imagination space for almost a decade, I have witnessed the powerful benefits for people when they regain control of their imaginative abilities, particularly for the younger population. One of the most meaningful learnings from teaching the Creativity Seminar to Freshman college students at Princeton University was its transformational effect on their mindset. As students allowed themselves to dream and play, they became more open to notice and be surprised by life. This is how one of the students explained their inner-development:
“Since returning to my home, I have started to notice and wonder about things I hadn’t noticed before (…) I think about local restaurants that I never went to, the smells and sights outside my house and the sounds of my car as I’m driving. All these things seem to pop out to me now… I find almost a new world inside a world that I already thought I knew so well: my own home. Overall, I’m just genuinely surprised at how much more I’m able to think about and notice around me.”
By the end of the seminar, as students learned to harness their imagination and deliberately control their creative thoughts, their self-confidence also grew. They felt empowered to pursue the life they wanted, as one of them explained it:
“I often find myself living how others want me to live and choosing things that are the most “logical” (a mental block!); it was this past semester, though, that I came to realize my own unhappiness and my desire to live for myself, not other people.”
Many other students have shared similar experiences after more intentionally using their imagination. These experiences are compelling evidence of the strong connection between imagination and happiness. While we may need more than imagination to flourish, nurturing individual and collective imagination is a step towards a healthier and happier society.
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