Study shows getting rid of your car increases happiness levels
But only if it’s not because you can’t afford it.
A new paper by Ann-Kathrin Hess, a researcher at the University of Basel, examines the relationship between cars and happiness.
The researcher investigated whether “car shedding” (i.e., giving away a vehicle so that the household no longer has its own car) has an effect on subjective well-being.
On one hand, car ownership and usage contributes to happiness as they facilitate activities and are also items fulfilling symbolic or self-image purposes. On the other hand, zero-car households develop alternative strategies for being mobile and for participating in activities, e.g., by using alternative transportation modes, or by choosing the proximity of everyday activities.
In the past, there has been little research on the link between zero-car ownership and happiness, and there has also been a lack of research assessing adaptation effects after changes in travel options. However, exploring the relationship between car shedding and subjective well-being can shed light on the more generic relation between reducing behavior-based emissions and happiness.
This new study aims to address these research gaps by interviewing over ten thousand people for 5 years before and 2.6 years after non-affordability-driven car shedding, and 4.3 years before and 1.7 years after affordability-driven car shedding.
After analysing the data, the author came to the conclusion that people who sold their cars to save money experienced a drop in leisure satisfaction in the year after they (had to) shed their car.
But car shedders not driven by affordability (i.e. people who got rid of their cars, but not because they could not afford them) experienced an increase in the frequency of joyful feelings one to three years after they shed.
