World Database of Happiness

The World Database of Happiness is "an ongoing register of scientific research on subjective appreciation of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for synthetic studies."

The research and scientificality of the whole thing may be overwhelming at first, but even a cursory reading, and relatively random browsing, will lead you to ask some revealing questions about the scientific community - like why such an essential study remains so obscure. On the other hand, the fact that such an inquiry and community of scholars exists, and is making itself accessible by Internet to anyone, is in itself reassuring.

Start with the introductory text (when you access this link you'll be asked for a password - hit "cancel" and you'll still get there). The paper is nicely hyperlinked. Click around. It'll either make you think about happiness in new and revealing depth, or it will make you happy to discover that even if you never study happiness, you can still experience it.