LSE’s mappiness project may help us track the national mood: but how much should we consider happiness in deciding public policy?

It is impossible to open the papers today without reading about how the Government’s cuts will cause ‘misery’ or ‘unhapiness’ for particular organizations, socio-economic classes, regions, or communities. Yet how can we actually measure individual well-being across time and space? George MacKerron and Susana Mourato of LSE’s Department of Geography and Environment and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment have unveiled an iPhone application meant to do just that, which could change the way we think about individual and national wellbeing.