Role of Happiness When Evaluating Society

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Thank you for your contribution to the Encyclopedia, which I recommend for publication after some minor revisions. Here are some constructive suggestions, sequenced in order and then by line number.

1. 1. Title: Instead of the current title, perhaps "The Neurobiology of Happiness as it Relates to Societal Evaluation".
2. 8. Instead of "what happiness is about" say "the nature of happiness".
3. 9. Instead of "biological, or evolutionary, framework" say "biological--specifically evolutionary--framework".
4. 17. Instead of "tangible" perhaps "quantifiable".
5. 24. Instead of "initiative for" say "initiative of".
6. 25. Instead of "what happiness is about" say "the nature of happiness."
7. 26. Instead of "one approach to gain insight" say "one heuristic approach"
8. 43. Instead of the two "thats" say "Mental health and happiness are correlated insofar as the more common..."
9. 47. Instead of "inappropriate" perhaps "disproportional".
10. 87. Instead of "to experience something" perhaps "to experience something self-consciously."
11. 156. Instead of "inappropriate" perhaps "disproportional and debilitating".
12. 175. Instead of "interest in happiness" say "happiness index."
13. 194. Perhaps add after "an index" "and how to define, refine, and explicate the methodological parameters of the happiness index."
14. 241. Instead of "exercise" perhaps "activate".
15. 265. Instead of "(yet)" say "currently".
16. 288. Should Oxford University Press (and the other references) be capitalized? Should the journal titles be italicized? etc.
17. The author might be interested in the happiness course at Yale: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/13/style/happiness-course.html
18. The author might be interested in Yale Divinity School's interest in the relationship between happiness and joy: https://faith.yale.edu/media/joy-and-human-flourishing

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

To the authors, 

This was extremely well written and presented a different contribution than I am more familiar with (outside of biology). My one comment (or perhaps question), is to understand why you did not include additional references and deeper discussion on happiness. For example, the following have been published about happiness that I would have expected to see in this entry and I do not see their application here:

• Intelisano, S., Krasko, J., & Luhmann, M. (2020). Integrating philosophical and psychological accounts of happiness and well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21(1), 161-200. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00078-x
• DiMaria, C. H., Peroni, C., & Sarracino, F. (2020). Happiness matters: Productivity gains from subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies, 21(1), 139-160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00074-1
• Bowling, N. A., Eschleman, K. J., & Wang, Q. (2010). A meta‐analytic examination of the relationship between job satisfaction and subjective well‐being. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83(4), 915–934. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317909X478557.

Author Response

Thank you for very positive comments and for drawing my attention to relevant articles. I have looked at the articles and decided to include two of them in the present version.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Bravo on your publication.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear author(s), excellent work in the revisions. I have re-reviewed and feel this is ready to be published. I have no further edits. Great job.