Lecture 5

Question 1

Ultimate values of happiness

Answer 1

Things we want for their own sake (like happiness)

Question 2

Instrumental values of happiness

Answer 2

Things we want because they help us to get other things (like money)

Question 3

Easterlin paradox

Answer 3

• Richer people within a country are happier
• People in richer countries are happier
• As counties get richer, people don’t become happier (not supported, people do become happier when countries get richer)

Question 4

Evaluative well-being

Answer 4

How satisfied are you with your life? (longer time scale, influenced by many factors)

Question 5

Experiences, emotional well-being

Answer 5

How happy/worried are you right now? (short time scale, influenced by fewer factors)

Question 6

Income loss/gain:

Answer 6

-Gaining income makes people happier
- Losing income makes people less happy
- Negative effect of losing income is stronger than the positive effect of income gain –> Loss aversion

Question 7

Affective forecasting

Answer 7

Predicting emotional respons (people are bad at this)

Question 8

Hedonic treadmill

Answer 8

Buy many small pleasures instead of a few large to reduce adaptation (people quickly return to a stable level of happiness)

Question 9

Impact bias

Answer 9

We tend to overestimate the impact of purhases or experiences on our happiness

Question 10

Anticipatory pleasure

Answer 10

Buy now, enjoy later

Question 11

Experiences vs. things

Answer 11

• Slower adaptation to experiences than things
• Experiences are more surprising
• Experiences can be shared better with others
• Stronger memories for experiences