Aside from regular emergency drills that the family runs, they’ve all found enough monotonous contentment in their isolation to keep themselves from thinking of what life may be like above ground.

By stepping back — just a little — I’ve begun to appreciate what I have, to find contentment in the slower rhythms of cooking and the small rituals of eating.

But the story of the Irish general election on Nov. 29 is nowhere near that simple, and definitely should not be understood as evidence of widespread contentment with the status quo.

Killingsworth founded trackyourhappiness.org, a global research project in which 200,000 people use smartphones to assess their mental habits and contentment in daily life.

Eguino and Fischer express contentment with life but have had some struggles with finances.