Michael Dahlen became Sweden’s youngest economics professor in 2008, at the age of 34. According to his webpage, he rose rapidly to take up a leading position in the intersecting areas of consumer behavior, human happiness, welfare, marketing and creativity. Learn more about the Swedish asktronaut.
Michael Dahlen’s award-winning research within marketing, creativity and consumer behavior has been published in six books and numerous journal articles. Dahlen’s books have reached a global audience, rights being sold to countries such as the U.S, U.K, Germany, South Korea, Russia and Brazil. In 2013 Dahlen stated in an interview that he was writing a novel.
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Last year, he was the world’s first recipient of a professorship dedicated to happiness, wellbeing and welfare. Dahlen is ranked number 2 in the world among researchers in his field (The Journal of Business Research, September 2021), and was nominated for the Business Professor of the Year Award by The Economist’s Intelligence Unit.
Professor Dahlen has written six books on diverse topics such as marketing, happiness, serial killers (it’s true), sex, the numbers that make us tick, long term well-being and social media. His books are published in Europe, in Asia and in the United States.
Dahlen has given keynote presentations in cities that include Istanbul, New York, Lisbon, and Shanghai, for clients such as Google, Ericsson, Samsung, Deloitte, Volkswagen, Fujitsu, and Oriflame. As part of his happiness role, he will now head up a new center dedicated to this topic at the Stockholm School of Economics (SSE).
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Related: Six Explanations Why Nordic Countries Rank High on Happiness and Finance Indexes
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Dahlen’s PhD thesis, “Marketing on the Web: empirical studies of advertising and promotion effectiveness”, challenged the traditional logic of Web advertising and suggested that Internet marketing could be much more effective if designed and evaluated differently.
Already 10 years ago, Dahlen introduced happiness studies to his students and in his books, he offers a scientific approach to its research. In fact, his entire life signifies his mission and breaks with the stereotypical view of a professor. His tattooed arms work as Post-it notes for things that make him happier.
When he presents his cutting-edge research on happiness, he shakes up auditoriums and inspires the kind of curiosity that drives not only discovery – but creation. That’s why he has labeled himself as an asktronaut. “Because we may be hurtling through space on a pale blue dot, but we can all improve the journey for the billions travelling with us”.
Despite the current world situation, Dahlen embraces his happiness concept and believes that we have a bright future ahead. To the British magazine Monocle he said, “I’m an optimist for two reasons. First, the future hasn’t happened yet, which means that anything is possible. Secondly, we still have so much to discover,” and the asktronaut adds, “I’m sure that there are lots of fantastic opportunities ahead.”
The Swedish Asktronaut, written by Tor Kjolberg
All images © Peter Cederling/Michael Dahlen