Lecture 24 - Happiness Flashcards
The pursuit of happiness is
not so clear cut… Why?
We don’t know what we want
- We have a hard time enjoying the things we have
- Hedonic adaptation
- Relative comparisons
- And hidden sources of happiness
We don’t know what we
want
Science of happiness not so clear cut
It is not that we don’t get what we want
Miswanting
Not wanting what we get!
Miswanting
Liking has to do with how things make us feel
Wanting is a prediction of linking—I think this thing
is going to make me feel good
But predictions can be wrong—miswanting
Unhappiness = not liking something as much as we
thought we would have
Actual liking < imagined liking
Three perceptual processes lead to miswanting
Miswanting 1 - #1
Imagining the wrong event
c/n predict details of future situations
movie stars “acting out” - then we are surprised such a person could act like this (even though we have no idea what their life is like)
terminally ill patients given meaning is surprising as we imagine it must be awful but some of them find meaning here
Details are unknown and we imagine the wrong thing
Miswanting 2 - #2
Using the wrong theory
Even if we do know all details, we c/n predict
preferences in future situations
What snack do you want each Monday?
Snickers for the first two weeks then nachos the third
week “for a change”
3rd wk: unhappy with nachos (not favorite!)
Made a choice based on the idea that they will be tired of snickers but were actually not
Erroneous theory: Variety is NOT the spice of life! (not
for me)
Incorrect theories about who we are è incorrect
theories about what will make us happy
Miswanting 3 - #3
Misinterpreting feelings
c/n separate feelings about future from current
feelings
“Don’t go grocery shopping when you’re hungry!”
Affective contamination
Feelings do not say where they come from (can be from NOW and therefore not relevant in future)
Miswanting over time
Effects can be particularly profound for long-term
projections
People overestimate their emotional rxn to future
events, leading to long-term miswanting
Getting tenure
Election results
Immediate effects, but they don’t last
Why?
Focalism
Overemphasizing the focal event and underemphasizing everything else (the rest of your life)
• General happiness = event + everything else
• Not so much event, as sheer # of experiences the
event will alter that shapes the strength or weakness of the event re happiness
Immune neglect:
the invisible shield
Ignoring our capacity for rationalizations and
positive illusions
Voters who overestimated duration of disappointment d/n realize that their psychological
immune system would kick in only to make them
like the governor they didn’t want
(we can make the best of things)
We struggle to enjoy what we have
Hedonistic treadmill
Relative Comparisons
Hedonic treadmill
Remain at stable level of happiness despite a
change in fortune or achievement of major goals
Make > $, expectations and desires rise in tandem, so no gain
Lottery Winners & Accident Victims
After initial impact, happiness levels typically returned to average
Individuals have different “set points,” partly
heritable (~50%, maybe)
Welling being and changes in martial status, birth of
1st child, loss of employment (Lucas et al. 2003)
Negative more impactful than positive
Adaptation for divorce, losing a spouse, birth of child, and job loss (women)
But not for marriage or job loss (men)
3,608 German residents tracked for 17 years; rated
SWL each year (Fujita & Diener, 2005)
Only 25% exhibited shifts
Only 9% showed significant change
Those with higher mean levels more stable (happier people are happier stably)
Relative Comparisons
“When less is more”
(Medvec, Madey & Gilovich, 1995)
People’s objective achievements matter less than how they are subjectively construed
Difference between actual and:
expected outcome
imagined outcome “what almost happened”
Analyzed emotional expressions of 1992 bronze and silver medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
(conclusion of event and at stand)
Silver medalists less happy immediately and at the stand
Cos of counterfactual thinking
Counterfactual comparison
asymmetry
Silver medalist Compare upward (to Gold) Qualitative difference: 1st vs. everyone else Also, “only a step away” No downward comparison (to Bronze) does not involve status change (both winners, both not #1
Silver medalist Compare upward (to Gold) Qualitative difference: 1st vs. everyone else Also, “only a step away” No downward comparison (to Bronze) does not involve status change (both winners, both not #1
Bronze medalist Compare downward Qualitative difference: Medalists vs. not No upward comparison (to Silver) does not involve status change (both winners, both not #1)
Counterfactual thoughts study 2
Study 2: ps evaluate the Olympians’ postcompetition interviews
“At least I…” to “I almost…”
Silver > Bronze
(look for counterfactual thinking, find more in silver people speech)
Study 3: asked athletes about the nature of their
counterfactual thoughts
“At least I…” to “I almost…”
Silver >bronze
Decision Illusions
Useless options
No one wants it
But helps people figure out what they want
Don’t know preferences well so susceptible to
external forces
E.g., Tom, Jerry and Ugly Jerry
Ugly Jerry makes Jerry more popular (and vice versa)
(1) Economist print - 60
(2) Economist print and online 120
(3) Online only - 120
Most people want 2
But take away (3) and everyone wants (1)
People are not aware of this and it influences them
Solving the satisfaction
equation
Satisfaction = what you have / what you want
Most people focus on increasing numerator
Work, spend, work, spend, work, spend
But hedonic adaptation!
Don’t obsess about your haves
Rather, manage your wants
Buddha already did it
Gratitude
Gratia: grace, graciousness, gratefulness
Thankful appreciation for what you receive
Recognizing that goodness lies outside of self, help
to connect with something larger
Correlates:
feel more positive emotions
relish good experiences
improve health
deal with adversity
build strong relationships
Gratitude study
Write about things you were grateful for that
occurred over the past week G1
Write about daily irritations or things that had
displeased you G1
Write about events that had affected you (with no
emphasis on positive or negative). G3
Diary for 10-weeks
Gratitude condition was happier about life as a whole, had less physical symptoms, and did more exercise
Other forms of gratitude
Gratitude letter (Martin Seligman)
Write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked for his or her kindness, - be there when they get it
Three good things
Savoring
It’s a wonderful life
We often hear that we should be thankful for all the
wonderful things that happen to us
Gratitude
A feeling of thankfulness or appreciation, as for gifts or favors
Does thinking about the presence of positive vents
make us happy, or their absence?
Describe and think about:
First time you met your partner (G1)
What it would be like if you never met your partner (G2)
G2 had a much bigger change in emotional satisfaction even though they said G1 would.
Why?
Surprise (intensified emotional rxn)
Counterfactual reasoning:
We make downward comparisons for negative events (feels good)
Analogous to downward social comparison: compare actual self to self that didn’t experience such great thing (cf. Wilson)
People unaware of affective benefits of such comparisons
Makes this more effective
Hidden sources of
happiness
Work
Stuff we build
Close relationships
Familiarity
Work
The “IKEA Effect”
People rate their jobs as their least pleasurable
activities but also their most rewarding
Effort justification:
more effort people put into some pursuit, the more
they come to value it (Festinger, 1957)
But did note test whether labor had to be successful
Labor induces liking of the fruits of one’s labor
People need to feel efficacious
Study 1a: make IKEA box
“Builders” assemble a plain black IKEA storage box
(given unassembled box with assembly instructions)
“Non-builders” given fully assembled box and
opportunity to inspect it
“Make a bid on the box” (also rated liking and
hedonic-utilitarian)
Bid: Builders ($0.78)»_space; non-builders ($0.48) (63%
premium!), also liked it more
We like what we invest in
Study 1b: Make origami
Builders: Make origami (frog or crane) and place bid
Non-builders: Make bid on builder’s origami
creations (to estimate “market price”)
Other non-builders: Bid on “expert” creations
Bids:
Builders»_space; Non-builders (5x as high!)
Builders = non-builder bids for creations made by
experts
We like it even more than objectively better things
Study 2: Completion
Prebuilt: dyads provided with pre-assembled Lego
set
Build: dyads assembled Lego sets themselves
Build & unbuild: dyads build Lego sets and take sets apart
Bid on own and partners set; highest bidder takes
set home:
Own > partner
Build > Pre-build & unbuild
Bid x condition interaction
People that built it will bid more. more than in unbuild condition
Must have succeeded in producing something
