That doesn't say anything about whether making them happy in other ways reduces their assholishness. It might do. (Perhaps they have a certain happiness setpoin

That doesn't say anything about whether making them happy in other ways reduces their assholishness. It might do. (Perhaps they have a certain happiness setpoint, and if they're not made happy enough by other things then they'll achieve it by being assholes.) Or it might not. (Perhaps they associate happiness with assholishness, and an increase in either provokes an increase in the other.)