Lecture 24 - Happiness

Question 1

The pursuit of happiness is

not so clear cut… Why?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

We don’t know what we

want

Answer 2

— Science of happiness not so clear cut

— It is not that we don’t get what we want

— Miswanting
— Not wanting what we get!

Question 3

Miswanting

Answer 3

— 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

Question 4

Miswanting 1 - #1

Imagining the wrong event

Answer 4

— 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

Question 5

Miswanting 2 - #2

Using the wrong theory

Answer 5

— 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

Question 6

Miswanting 3 - #3

Misinterpreting feelings

Answer 6

— 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)

Question 7

Miswanting over time

Answer 7

— 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?

Question 8

Focalism

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Immune neglect:

the invisible shield

Answer 9

— 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)

Question 10

We struggle to enjoy what we have

Answer 10

Hedonistic treadmill

Relative Comparisons

Question 11

Hedonic treadmill

Answer 11

— 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)

Question 12

Relative Comparisons

Answer 12

“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

Question 13

Counterfactual comparison

asymmetry

Answer 13

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)

Question 14

Counterfactual thoughts study 2

Answer 14

— 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

Question 15

Decision Illusions

Answer 15

— 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

Question 16

Solving the satisfaction

equation

Answer 16

— 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

Question 17

Gratitude

Answer 17

— 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

Question 18

Gratitude study

Answer 18

— 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

Question 19

Other forms of gratitude

Answer 19

— 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

Question 20

It’s a wonderful life

Answer 20

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

Question 21

Hidden sources of

happiness

Answer 21

Work
Stuff we build
Close relationships
Familiarity

Question 22

Work

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Study 1a: make IKEA box

Answer 23

— “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)&raquo_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&raquo_space; Non-builders (5x as high!)
— Builders = non-builder bids for creations made by
experts

We like it even more than objectively better things

Question 24

Study 2: Completion

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Residential mobility

Answer 25

— Is residential mobility associated with increased wellbeing and interpersonal relationships?
— 7,108 American adults followed for 10 years
— Time 2 (N=4,963): measured well-being (life
satisfaction & psychological well being), positive and
negative affect
— “How many times during your childhood did you
move to a totally new neighborhood or town?

Interaction between number of moves and extro/intraversion

Extraverts ok at most movements, introverts not, decrease in proportion to # of moves

Why?

Close relationships mediate this

Question 26

What percentage of Americans have

moved in the past 5 years?

Answer 26

.41-50%

Question 27

Residential mobility and familiarity study

Answer 27

If moving has the potential to make us feel lonely do
we gravitate towards familiar things?
— ID “mobile” (e.g., Nevada) vs. “non-mobile” (e.g.,
Maine) states
— Proportion of state residents living in a different house 5 years prior to 2000 census

Study 1: National chain stores have more stores in
residentially mobile states (e.g., Nevada) than nonmobile states (Maine)

Study 2: People primed to think of mobility preferred familiar vs. unfamiliar objects (previously
seen/or not Chinese ideographs)
— Mediated by anxiety - gravitation towards familiar things might be due to managing anxiety

Question 28

Summary

Answer 28

For some aspects of our existence we have very little
control
— Sometimes we have to move because of circumstance
— Sometimes we want to move because of opportunities
— Just remember to cultivate and nourish your social
relationships—especially if you tend to be
introverted!
— And, take comfort in familiarity

Question 29

Coherence & Meaning

Answer 29

Rate photographs of trees
— Presented in patterns

G1 Seasonally

G2 not

DV rate:
meaning
implicit affect

Results

No difference in positive or neghative explicit affect

Aig difference in implicit affect in the seasonal group

Just the experience of coherence is relevant to people’s meaning in life