> What makes people happy?

Technically, it's hormones. What makes brains produce them is the perceptions of external world, but the details are different for every culture and then different for every individual.

Now, proverbially, more knowledge brings more sadness^W stress, so perceptive people must have extra hurdles to overcome than blissfully ignorant ones.

"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."

Ecclesiastes 1:18