lecture 5 Happiness Flashcards
problems with measuring happiness by self-report
- subjective (difficult to standardize)
- comparative
- different cultural interpretations
- happiness in the moment differs from long-term well-being.
two types of values
- ultimate values
- instrumental values
ultimate values
things we want for their own sake like happiness or food. you enjoy or consume these things.
instrumental values
things we want because they help us get other things like money. money itself does not bring joy, but what you can trade it for does.
easterlin paradox
whithin a country richer people are happier and people in richer countries see to be happier on average. however, as countries get richer people don’t seem to become happier.
-> robustness of this phenomenon is still debated because of limited data and timespan.
foreshadowed by Karl Marx. you don’t become happier when everyone is better off, because in comparison you stay the same
research outcomes on the Easterlin paradox
- most countries show positive relation between happiness and money.
- people in richer countries are happier
- countries that start low income and go up become happier, but rich countries as happy as wealth increases.
- there is evidence against the aspect that countries don’t get happier as their wealth increases
measures of happiness
- evaluative well-being
- experienced emotional well-being
which method is better depends on what you are interested in.
evaluative well-being
overall life satisfaction. retrospective, longer time scale. life as a whole: projecting in the future and thinking about the past. influenced by many factors
- biased/flawed memory
- meaning
experienced emotional well-being
what is happening in the moment, experience. not on a broad scale. momentary, short time scale, influenced by fewer factors.
aspects of happiness and the two measures
- evaluative well being: income and education
- experienced, emotional well-being: health, caregiving, loneliness, smoking
Kahneman & Deaton (2010)
found that there are diminishing returns for positive affect, blue affect, stress and life satisfaction.
pinpointed the plateau point at $75000 annual income.
follow up study on Kahneman & Deaton (2010)
found that life satisfaction did increase with money, but that there is no levelling on the log scale.
some explanations
- differences between groups: diminishing returns are stronger for very unhappy people and weaker for happy people. The first study had a lot of people that started happy
- satiation: happiness still increases with bigger amounts.
affective forecasting
predicting emotional response to future (intensity and duration)
we underestimate our ability to adapt to big changes.
impact bias
tendency to overestimate the impact of purchases or experiences on our happiness
- because we tend to exclude context.
study on impact bias
found that people predict they will feel worse when losing 4 dollars than when gaining, but that in reality there is little difference in happiness when actually experiencing the gains or losses.
affective forecasting for anticipatory pleasure
with gains anticipated it is nice to pay now and enjoy later, because you can look forward to it, and with this you stretch out the experience of enjoyment.
-> however because of ignoring the context we sometimes fail to anticipate the lasting impact of negative things.
slower adaptation to experience versus things
- slower adaptation to experiences
- experiences are more variable, surprising
- experiences can be shared better with others
- experiences have stronger memories and anticipation
things that influence happiness “other than money” (Di Telle & MacCulloch, 2008)
- life expectancy
- welfare state generosity
- leisure
- environmental protection
- safety
- employment
- social connection
- equality
Bhutan gross national happiness
encompasses living standards, health, education, environment etc.
different way of looking at how a country is doing instead of money.
-> fundamental motives pyramid
Buettner et al., (2020)
looked at ways to greater happiness on a policy and an individual level.
- look what works for whom (policy) at the top
- invest in friends and family (individual) at the top
Folk & Dunn (2024)
researched how people can become happier by reviewing preregistered studies and found
- gratitude
- smiling
- focussing on positive/silver lining
- being social
- spending on others
- avoid comparison to better alternatives
- reduce unpleasant tasks (if high enough income)
best determent that makes people happy
good social relationships
- people with more social contact are happier
- people who engage in social activities report being happier
linking happiness to consumer behavior
consumer behavior can shape whether and how we bond with others.
charitable giving?
spending money on others makes you happier than on yourself. doing good feels good when it satisfies core social motives
core social motives
- relatedness
- competence
- autonomy
Mogilner & Norton
study in which they primed people to either think about money or time. then monitered what people did in a cafe.
- people thinking about money tend to work
- people thinking about time socialised more.
Roher et al., (2018)
socially engaged pursuit to happiness leads to increases in life satisfaction.