6. Are You Happy?

Question 1

What are the 2 types of utility that is supposed to determine happiness?

Answer 1

Experience utility and decision utility

Question 2

What is expected utility theory?

Answer 2

rules of rationality that should govern decision utility. Doesn’t say anything about hedonistic experiences.

Question 3

What are the 2 versions of ourselves?

Answer 3

The experiencing self

The remembering self

Question 4

How does the experiencing self measure pain?

Answer 4

Measures pain or pleasure on the spot.

“Does it hurt now?”

Question 5

How does the remembering self measure pain?

Answer 5

summarises the overall experience

“How was it, on the whole?”

Question 6

How do we measure pain/pleasure?

Answer 6

Hedonometer
measure pain and pleasure at the moment. Varies as a function of time. Duration weighted, computation is “area under the curve” so it assigns equal weights to all moments.

Question 7

What are the 2 factors affecting the experience of pain and pleasure?

Answer 7

1) Duration neglect

2) Peak-end rule

Question 8

What is duration neglect?

Answer 8

the duration of the procedure had no effect whatsoever on the ratings of total pain

Question 9

Describe the peak-end rule.

Answer 9

the retrospective rating of the event was well predicted by the average between the peak level of pain and at its end of the experiment.

Question 10

What is the dilemma for medical practitioners?

Answer 10

reduce the amount of pain felt (experiencing) vs memory of pain (remembering)

Question 11

If objective is to reduce memory of pain, what should the medical practitioner do?

Answer 11

1) Lower peak intensity of pain
2) Gradual relief may also be preferable to abrupt relief. Patients retain a better memory when pain at the end of the procedure is relatively mild.

Question 12

If objective is to reduce overall pain felt, what should the medical practitioner do?

Answer 12

conduct the procedure swiftly

Question 13

Describe the coldhand situation.

Answer 13

Participants asked to put their hand in painfully cold water until asked to remove it, and given warm towel. Short episode - 60s at 14degrees.
Long episode - 60s at 14degrees + 30s at 13degrees
(warm water flow into the tub for last 30s, just enough for them to detect a slight drop in pain intensity)
Participants experienced the short and the long episodes, each with a different hand. Participants were given a choice about the third trial. They were told that one of their experience they had with their left hand or right hand.

Question 14

What was the coldhand experiment designed to do?

Answer 14

The experiment was designed to create a conflict between the interests of the experiencing and the remembering selves, and also between experienced utility and decision utility.

Question 15

In the coldhand experiment, what was the experiencing and remembering self’s respective verdict of the pain?

Answer 15

Experiencing self – long trial was obviously worse.
Remembering self – peak-end rule predicts a worse memory for the short than long trial. Duration neglect predicts that the difference between 90s and 60s of pain would be ignored. Hence participants would have a more favorable memory of the long trial and choose to repeat it.

Question 16

What were the findings of the coldhand experiment?

Answer 16

80% of participants indeed chose to repeat the long trial. They chose to repeat the episode of which they had the less aversive memory.
Rules of memory determined how much they disliked the two options, which in turn determined their choice. This revealed a discrepancy between decision utility and experienced utility. Our memory is a function of System 1 and it has evolved to represent the most intense moment of an episode of pain and pleasure (the peak) and the feelings when the episode was at its end

Question 17

What is the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM)?

Answer 17

Subjects were asked to list their daily activities and the feelings they generated. This measures experienced well-being (experiencing self). Answered questions about each episode of their day, based on the experience-sampling method.

Question 18

How is the Unpleasant Index (U-index) constructed?

Answer 18

Captures the percentage of time an individual spends in an unpleasant state. Based on an objective measure of time.

Question 19

Describe the inequality in the U-index in the population.

Answer 19

Half the participants reported going through an entire day without experiencing an unpleasant episode. But a significant minority of the population experienced considerable emotional distress for much of the day. Appears that a small fraction of the population does most of the suffering.

Question 20

In terms of days, the u-index was 6% higher on _____ than ______. Why?

Answer 20

weekdays; weekends
on weekends people spend less time in activities they dislike and do not suffer the tension and stress associated with work

Question 21

For American women, which activity was rated less enjoyable than doing housework?

Answer 21

Time spent with children

Question 22

What sort of activities were more pleasant than passive leisure? What are some implications of this finding?

Answer 22

Active experiences, such as socializing and or exercising are more pleasant than passive leisure.
Switch time from passive leisure (eg. watching tv) to more active forms of leisure (eg. socializing, exercise)
Improved socializing opportunities for elderly

Question 23

What is the role of education in happiness and well-being?

Answer 23

More education is associated with higher evaluation of one’s life, but not with greater experienced well-being. The more educated tend to report higher stress

Question 24

What is the difference between the rich and the poor in terms of the proportion of a headache increasing proportion reporting sadness or worry?

Answer 24

richest 2/3: 19-38%

poorest 10%: 38%-70%

Question 25

How does being poor make you less happy?

Answer 25

Beneficial effects of the weekend on experienced well-being are significantly smaller for the very poor than for most everyone else

Question 26

Does income improve experienced well being?

Answer 26

income does not (on average) improve experienced well-being

• Higher income brings higher satisfaction, until $75,000, after which it ceases to have any positive effect on experience.
• It has zero effect on well-being after $75,000. Possible because higher income is associated with a reduced ability to enjoy the small pleasures of life.

Question 27

What are the 2 ways of interpreting the decline in life satisfaction with marriage?

Answer 27

1) process of adaptation, in which the early joys of marriage quickly disappear as the experiences become routine
2) heuristics of judgment - The score you quickly assign to your life is often determined by a small sample of highly available ideas, not by a careful weighing of the domains of your life.

Question 28

Experienced well-being is on average unaffected by marriage, why?

Answer 28

Related to how married vs single women use their time.
Women who have a mate spend less time alone, but also much less time with friends. They spend more time making love, but also more time doing housework, preparing food, and caring for children, all relatively unpopular activities.
Experienced well-being is on average unaffected by marriage, not because marriage makes no difference to happiness but because it changes some aspects of life for the better but others for the worse.

Question 29

Life satisfaction represent the needs of the _____ self.

Answer 29

remembering

Question 30

What is the role of genetics in happiness?

Answer 30

Experienced wellbeing and life satisfaction is determined by genetics of temperament
A disposition for well-being is heritable. People who appear equally fortunate can vary greatly in how happy they are.

Question 31

What is the focusing illusion?

Answer 31

“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.” The more we probe, the more we realise how multidimensional happiness is. Many small things affect how we feel!

Question 32

Name the 6 variables that explain 75% of the differences in national average happiness.

Answer 32

1) GDP per capita
2) Healthy life expectancy
3) Social support – social capital and trust
4) Freedom to make life choices
5) Generosity
6) Freedom from corruption

Question 33

Describe the importance of social institutions during a crisis.

Answer 33

When faced with a financial crisis, social capital can strengthen social ties and alleviate the negative effects of the crisis, leading even to positive effects on happiness (eg. Ireland, Iceland)
On the other hand, if these institutions are not adequate, the crisis will erode them further, leading to even greater happiness losses (Greece)