WEBVTT 00:00:00.095 --> 00:00:02.460 The following content is provided under a Creative 00:00:02.460 --> 00:00:03.870 Commons license. 00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:06.910 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare continue to 00:00:06.910 --> 00:00:10.560 offer high-quality educational resources for free. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:13.460 To make a donation or view additional materials from 00:00:13.460 --> 00:00:17.390 hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare at 00:00:17.390 --> 00:00:18.640 ocw.mit.edu. 00:00:29.670 --> 00:00:32.980 PROFESSOR: So we began just a few months ago with this goal 00:00:32.980 --> 00:00:35.250 of trying to understand the scientific study of human 00:00:35.250 --> 00:00:38.930 nature, how our mind operates, why we behave the way we do. 00:00:38.930 --> 00:00:42.410 From the brain basis, how we see and hear the world, how we 00:00:42.410 --> 00:00:45.680 think, how we feel, our predispositions to act in 00:00:45.680 --> 00:00:49.870 certain ways, how we develop from infancy to adolescence to 00:00:49.870 --> 00:00:53.100 adulthood, through the middle ages and into 00:00:53.100 --> 00:00:55.880 old age, we all hope. 00:00:55.880 --> 00:00:59.590 The remarkably odd things about human social 00:00:59.590 --> 00:01:02.140 interactions, which are just amazing I think. 00:01:02.140 --> 00:01:05.180 And the challenges that so many people face, with a 00:01:05.180 --> 00:01:08.440 degree of vulnerability in these very kinds of abilities 00:01:08.440 --> 00:01:10.010 and behaviors. 00:01:10.010 --> 00:01:12.480 And so it's hard to know what to conclude on. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:14.360 So I thought I would touch on two things. 00:01:14.360 --> 00:01:18.580 One, sort of fun to think about, hard to know how to 00:01:18.580 --> 00:01:20.510 think about scientifically. 00:01:20.510 --> 00:01:24.170 And one, it probably matters to us all the time. 00:01:24.170 --> 00:01:26.250 So let me talk about this. 00:01:26.250 --> 00:01:29.190 So when we think about why we do things, how our brain is 00:01:29.190 --> 00:01:33.020 organized, mind is organized, we know that we've evolved 00:01:33.020 --> 00:01:35.770 over a long period of time, from other species. 00:01:35.770 --> 00:01:38.270 And that many things in us reflect this evolutionary 00:01:38.270 --> 00:01:42.630 history, cast into a modern, unimaginable world from the 00:01:42.630 --> 00:01:45.440 viewpoint of biology. 00:01:45.440 --> 00:01:48.600 But here we are, sort of creatures from the past living 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:52.620 in an incredibly accelerated, changing environment. 00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:55.240 And so evolutionary psychology, people say, let's 00:01:55.240 --> 00:01:58.500 try to identify why we have certain patterns of thoughts 00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:02.605 and feelings, given the evolutionary history of our 00:02:02.605 --> 00:02:04.240 minds and brains. 00:02:04.240 --> 00:02:05.160 And I'll say a word about that. 00:02:05.160 --> 00:02:08.690 It's tough in many ways though to have, as much as you 00:02:08.690 --> 00:02:11.630 believe that's true, it's got to be true, it's very tough to 00:02:11.630 --> 00:02:13.070 approach scientifically. 00:02:13.070 --> 00:02:15.590 Because often, it comes down to people telling fun, 00:02:15.590 --> 00:02:17.510 interesting, clever stories. 00:02:17.510 --> 00:02:19.090 Very hard to test. 00:02:19.090 --> 00:02:22.690 So we know it's a big part of who we are, in a deep sense 00:02:22.690 --> 00:02:24.120 where we came from. 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:26.120 Very hard to test experimentally. 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:28.610 But I'll show you a couple examples where people have 00:02:28.610 --> 00:02:29.980 probed this a bit. 00:02:29.980 --> 00:02:32.495 And then another question is in the last decade, some 00:02:32.495 --> 00:02:34.960 people have said, well so much of psychology seems to focus 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:37.530 on the negative, the harm we're willing to do, the 00:02:37.530 --> 00:02:39.340 stereotypes we're willing to hold. 00:02:39.340 --> 00:02:40.690 How about positive psychology? 00:02:40.690 --> 00:02:43.050 How about thinking about what can we learn from psychology 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:47.660 to lead a better, happier, more meaningful life. 00:02:47.660 --> 00:02:51.260 As I'm going to tell you about the core results about 00:02:51.260 --> 00:02:52.280 research about happiness. 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:54.730 And some of them I think will surprise you. 00:02:54.730 --> 00:02:56.910 Some of them, you'll tuck in the back of your mind maybe, 00:02:56.910 --> 00:02:58.900 as you think about what will make you happy. 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:03.510 I mean we all want to be happy in a deep sense. 00:03:03.510 --> 00:03:06.620 We don't know what's on the other side of this life. 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:09.460 But we know this is the one we have in our hands. 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:13.210 And so what can psychology suggest that might make you 00:03:13.210 --> 00:03:16.600 think what's a path to happiness? 00:03:16.600 --> 00:03:18.890 So we talked about throughout this course about the fragile 00:03:18.890 --> 00:03:20.350 power of the human brain. 00:03:20.350 --> 00:03:23.010 It endows us with an unbelievable capacity for 00:03:23.010 --> 00:03:26.410 thought, sight, behavior, vulnerabilities at every 00:03:26.410 --> 00:03:28.890 stage, from neurological injuries to 00:03:28.890 --> 00:03:30.890 neuropsychiatric disorders. 00:03:30.890 --> 00:03:34.020 And again, we know this all has grown through this Paul 00:03:34.020 --> 00:03:37.670 MacLean triune brain idea, that within us are kind of a 00:03:37.670 --> 00:03:41.020 version of reptilian brains, within us are simple mammalian 00:03:41.020 --> 00:03:44.030 brains, and then finally the primate and 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:46.190 human expanded neocortex. 00:03:46.190 --> 00:03:49.110 And so within us, it's almost as if we represent in a 00:03:49.110 --> 00:03:52.280 certain sense, our species history, literally in your 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:55.160 brain, literally right now, in some complex way of 00:03:55.160 --> 00:03:56.040 interactions. 00:03:56.040 --> 00:03:59.090 With parts of the brain that have evolved modestly and 00:03:59.090 --> 00:04:01.650 parts that evolved spectacularly in humans. 00:04:06.210 --> 00:04:08.540 And the usual story, you're used to this in evolution, is 00:04:08.540 --> 00:04:10.640 that our brains and minds evolved in nature. 00:04:10.640 --> 00:04:14.910 And natural selection was the dominating part of the story. 00:04:14.910 --> 00:04:17.399 Survival of the fittest for passing genes into the next 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:22.100 generation, that sort of all stories boil down to that. 00:04:22.100 --> 00:04:26.150 And I'm going to tell you two specific examples. 00:04:26.150 --> 00:04:29.070 One that surprised me and then one that's just sort of fun I 00:04:29.070 --> 00:04:31.730 think in a silly way. 00:04:31.730 --> 00:04:34.340 So the first one is attitudes towards race and sex. 00:04:34.340 --> 00:04:35.000 And this can came up. 00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:37.380 And then the second one is different attitudes in men and 00:04:37.380 --> 00:04:41.600 women, who might have in terms of sex and procreation. 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:45.040 So let me focus on this for a moment. 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:48.290 In the last election, you may remember that there was a 00:04:48.290 --> 00:04:53.410 long, grueling race across the primaries between Hillary 00:04:53.410 --> 00:04:56.070 Clinton and Barack Obama. 00:04:56.070 --> 00:04:59.160 And in many ways, this is a huge surprise in the United 00:04:59.160 --> 00:05:02.870 States, because with such a history of racism and sexism, 00:05:02.870 --> 00:05:05.750 the idea that the two leading candidates are a woman and an 00:05:05.750 --> 00:05:08.660 African American, was just kind of an amazing thing. 00:05:11.810 --> 00:05:13.510 As much as we had distance to go, that we 00:05:13.510 --> 00:05:14.640 have come that far. 00:05:14.640 --> 00:05:17.140 That these were the two candidates on the Democratic 00:05:17.140 --> 00:05:20.240 side, who are competing state to state across the country, 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:22.370 one of whom would become the Democratic 00:05:22.370 --> 00:05:24.890 nominee and the President. 00:05:24.890 --> 00:05:26.710 And I got call from a reporter from the Boston Globe. 00:05:26.710 --> 00:05:29.410 And he said, he was writing a story saying, which is the 00:05:29.410 --> 00:05:34.220 worst problem these candidates faced, sexism or racism? 00:05:34.220 --> 00:05:38.650 And many of us, and I'm no exception, our egos get turned 00:05:38.650 --> 00:05:40.120 up when somebody from the press calls. 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:41.740 Because our name will be in the newspaper. 00:05:41.740 --> 00:05:44.770 And we can show it to our friends and family. 00:05:44.770 --> 00:05:46.940 And then they know we have a real job and somebody thinks 00:05:46.940 --> 00:05:49.750 we know something. 00:05:49.750 --> 00:05:50.200 You laugh. 00:05:50.200 --> 00:05:52.380 And the graduate students, like their parents never 00:05:52.380 --> 00:05:53.570 understand anything, except when their 00:05:53.570 --> 00:05:54.700 name gets in the newspaper. 00:05:54.700 --> 00:05:57.300 You know how that is, right? 00:05:57.300 --> 00:05:59.850 So I thought, well, I'm going to say something really clever 00:05:59.850 --> 00:06:02.510 and all the neuroscience and all the psychology I know, 00:06:02.510 --> 00:06:04.410 either from my own research or for teaching this course. 00:06:04.410 --> 00:06:05.080 I'll have something. 00:06:05.080 --> 00:06:06.160 And I just had nothing to say. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:07.820 I mean we can agree that racism is bad 00:06:07.820 --> 00:06:08.970 and sexism is bad. 00:06:08.970 --> 00:06:12.380 And it's kind of excellent that candidates are beating 00:06:12.380 --> 00:06:16.710 those glass ceilings in the national leadership. 00:06:16.710 --> 00:06:19.265 We know from research on things like the IAT test, that 00:06:19.265 --> 00:06:21.120 you heard about, that both remain a problem. 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:24.380 Negative stereotypes of certain kinds remain in our 00:06:24.380 --> 00:06:27.700 society to this day, across society. 00:06:27.700 --> 00:06:31.770 So I was like, which is worst, terrible thing A or 00:06:31.770 --> 00:06:32.800 terrible thing B? 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:35.000 And I had nothing to say. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:38.290 And then a newspaper article came out and said, oh, 00:06:38.290 --> 00:06:41.320 according to evolutionary psychologists, and I was not 00:06:41.320 --> 00:06:42.580 included, because I nothing to say. 00:06:42.580 --> 00:06:44.530 This was very sad. 00:06:44.530 --> 00:06:48.370 They said well, really Hillary Clinton faces the harder path. 00:06:48.370 --> 00:06:51.740 Because in their mind, sexism is built into our species. 00:06:51.740 --> 00:06:54.310 Because the whole idea of how we procreate, how men and 00:06:54.310 --> 00:06:58.360 women relate in species and investments, that's deep in 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:00.580 us, all through evolution. 00:07:00.580 --> 00:07:03.320 Whereas racism is culturally specific and malleable. 00:07:03.320 --> 00:07:06.990 There's countries where one group is picked on. 00:07:06.990 --> 00:07:09.170 There's countries where another group is picked on. 00:07:09.170 --> 00:07:11.570 There's changes in societies. 00:07:11.570 --> 00:07:13.050 That's a changeable thing. 00:07:13.050 --> 00:07:15.260 This is a tougher thing to change, was their 00:07:15.260 --> 00:07:15.920 interpretation. 00:07:15.920 --> 00:07:17.440 I thought well, that sounds good. 00:07:17.440 --> 00:07:18.490 And it might even be true. 00:07:18.490 --> 00:07:21.490 It's like a lot of evolutionary psychology, a 00:07:21.490 --> 00:07:24.510 good possibility, a better answer by infinitely far than 00:07:24.510 --> 00:07:25.640 I could give. 00:07:25.640 --> 00:07:26.980 But who knows? 00:07:26.980 --> 00:07:30.980 And then this one study came out, that's kind of curious. 00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:35.320 So this is a study of children with Williams syndrome, a rare 00:07:35.320 --> 00:07:38.880 disorder, but very studied in both human genetics and human 00:07:38.880 --> 00:07:40.770 psychology. 00:07:40.770 --> 00:07:41.950 And partly, it's interesting. 00:07:41.950 --> 00:07:43.690 These are the unusual facial features of 00:07:43.690 --> 00:07:45.060 these kinds of children. 00:07:45.060 --> 00:07:46.630 They're born this way. 00:07:46.630 --> 00:07:49.540 And it's caused by deletion of 26 genes from the long arm of 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:50.410 chromosome 7. 00:07:50.410 --> 00:07:54.180 It's one of the most purely defined and specific genetic 00:07:54.180 --> 00:07:56.970 developmental disorders in humans. 00:07:56.970 --> 00:07:59.110 So it's really drawn the interest of geneticists. 00:07:59.110 --> 00:08:03.490 Because it's a disorder that's really very linked to a very 00:08:03.490 --> 00:08:08.790 specific part of the human genome always. 00:08:08.790 --> 00:08:11.760 Distinctive, what they call elfin facial features, 00:08:11.760 --> 00:08:14.330 developmentally delayed language skills. 00:08:14.330 --> 00:08:19.570 And maybe the most curious and charming element is unusually 00:08:19.570 --> 00:08:21.800 cheerful demeanor and ease with strangers. 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:24.150 These are the children who will walk up to strangers and 00:08:24.150 --> 00:08:29.140 talk your ear off and not be afraid of anybody or anything. 00:08:29.140 --> 00:08:32.159 To an extent that's charming, can get you in trouble with 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:35.740 the world being the way it is. 00:08:35.740 --> 00:08:37.429 It's sometimes contrasted with autism. 00:08:37.429 --> 00:08:39.700 Because individual with autism find social interactions 00:08:39.700 --> 00:08:42.880 sometimes laborious, difficult, mysterious. 00:08:42.880 --> 00:08:45.320 These individuals find it delightful, nonstop. 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:47.590 You get tired sometimes of talking to such children, 00:08:47.590 --> 00:08:50.570 because they're ready to go infinitely in terms of social 00:08:50.570 --> 00:08:52.070 interaction. 00:08:52.070 --> 00:08:53.680 And there's been some study that they have atypical 00:08:53.680 --> 00:08:56.690 amygdala function and lack of fear response there. 00:08:56.690 --> 00:08:58.800 So that's the background about Williams syndrome. 00:08:58.800 --> 00:09:01.370 And then somebody did a IAT study. 00:09:01.370 --> 00:09:02.270 This was in France. 00:09:02.270 --> 00:09:05.150 But its been replicated since. 00:09:05.150 --> 00:09:06.990 That shows that for these children with Williams 00:09:06.990 --> 00:09:11.100 syndrome, they still have a gender IAT effect. 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:14.000 That is for example, they're willing to consider women less 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:15.990 likely to be good at science and math, 00:09:15.990 --> 00:09:17.290 which we know is silly. 00:09:17.290 --> 00:09:20.270 But that's the stereotype. 00:09:20.270 --> 00:09:22.810 But they showed no racial IAT effect. 00:09:22.810 --> 00:09:25.660 And they had control participants who showed both. 00:09:25.660 --> 00:09:27.340 So now, there's still interpretation. 00:09:27.340 --> 00:09:31.920 But all of sudden, it's as if this is deeper in the brain. 00:09:31.920 --> 00:09:33.650 And maybe this is learned. 00:09:33.650 --> 00:09:35.900 And these children aren't learning this one. 00:09:35.900 --> 00:09:39.000 But they can't stop this one. 00:09:39.000 --> 00:09:42.090 So a suggestion that there is something true about this 00:09:42.090 --> 00:09:44.160 evolutionary psychology thing. 00:09:44.160 --> 00:09:46.390 And that maybe the hardest thing for us to change deep 00:09:46.390 --> 00:09:50.770 down, because of the fundamental sexual relations 00:09:50.770 --> 00:09:52.310 in procreation. 00:09:52.310 --> 00:09:55.340 That's a hard thing for us to work our head around, without 00:09:55.340 --> 00:09:58.160 being thoughtful and careful about it. 00:09:58.160 --> 00:10:00.810 So here's an experiment that was used to demonstrate. 00:10:00.810 --> 00:10:03.610 So what's the usual story? 00:10:03.610 --> 00:10:06.440 The usual story in evolution is people on average, not 00:10:06.440 --> 00:10:07.830 everybody of course, wants to have kids. 00:10:07.830 --> 00:10:09.870 Because that's how they pass their genes down. 00:10:09.870 --> 00:10:13.300 And who has a lot of investment per kid, in however 00:10:13.300 --> 00:10:14.710 way you look it? 00:10:14.710 --> 00:10:16.520 Women. 00:10:16.520 --> 00:10:20.080 For women it's, just the first part is nine months. 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:22.570 And then the immediate support. 00:10:22.570 --> 00:10:26.240 For men, how long is the minimal contribution? 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:26.970 15 seconds. 00:10:26.970 --> 00:10:29.170 OK, well 15 minutes. 00:10:29.170 --> 00:10:29.860 It varies. 00:10:29.860 --> 00:10:31.110 But you know. 00:10:33.260 --> 00:10:36.180 So there's a theory that if the thing you cared about was 00:10:36.180 --> 00:10:37.740 just getting us your genes down 00:10:37.740 --> 00:10:40.370 there as much as possible. 00:10:40.370 --> 00:10:42.230 Was it Wilt Chamberlain, the former basketball player, who 00:10:42.230 --> 00:10:43.850 said he had slept with 1,000 women. 00:10:43.850 --> 00:10:47.620 That he would be like the champion example in men. 00:10:47.620 --> 00:10:52.230 And with women, it's you can't do a 1,000 nine-month cycles. 00:10:52.230 --> 00:10:54.190 So that for men, if that was the only thing in 00:10:54.190 --> 00:10:55.120 life, and it's not. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:57.260 But here's the experiment they did. 00:10:57.260 --> 00:10:59.200 We couldn't have an IRB approve this. 00:10:59.200 --> 00:11:01.450 But this was done at a university. 00:11:01.450 --> 00:11:02.610 And they said, we're going to show you an 00:11:02.610 --> 00:11:03.450 experiment like this. 00:11:03.450 --> 00:11:05.680 And this is meant to be kind of silly. 00:11:05.680 --> 00:11:06.690 But this is how evolutionary 00:11:06.690 --> 00:11:07.850 psychology, things are expressed. 00:11:07.850 --> 00:11:09.450 And it's kind of funny, I think. 00:11:09.450 --> 00:11:10.870 We'll see. 00:11:10.870 --> 00:11:13.656 So what they would do is they pick take an attractive man 00:11:13.656 --> 00:11:14.520 and an attractive woman. 00:11:14.520 --> 00:11:16.440 They were the confederates. 00:11:16.440 --> 00:11:18.880 And they would approach a student leaving the library, a 00:11:18.880 --> 00:11:21.090 random student. 00:11:21.090 --> 00:11:22.400 And here's the responder, who is a woman. 00:11:22.400 --> 00:11:24.620 Imagine yourself as women now, for those of you who are 00:11:24.620 --> 00:11:27.560 woman, leaving a library, kind of late at night, not too 00:11:27.560 --> 00:11:27.870 threatening. 00:11:27.870 --> 00:11:32.180 But somebody walks up to you and says, I've noticed you in 00:11:32.180 --> 00:11:33.540 the library a few times. 00:11:33.540 --> 00:11:35.260 You seem very nice. 00:11:35.260 --> 00:11:36.890 Do you think there's any chance we could get together 00:11:36.890 --> 00:11:40.000 for a date sometime? 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.090 What percentage of women said yes? 00:11:44.090 --> 00:11:48.155 In this study, 50%. 00:11:48.155 --> 00:11:50.680 Do you think that's high? 00:11:50.680 --> 00:11:53.800 Let's pretend it was a better approach 00:11:53.800 --> 00:11:57.376 than what I just said. 00:11:57.376 --> 00:11:59.450 I tried to make it low key and nice, a 00:11:59.450 --> 00:12:00.700 low key, nice approach. 00:12:04.810 --> 00:12:07.230 For other women, the same male confederate walks up and says, 00:12:07.230 --> 00:12:08.050 I've noticed you in library. 00:12:08.050 --> 00:12:09.490 You seem very nice. 00:12:09.490 --> 00:12:12.570 What do you about going back to my apartment and having 00:12:12.570 --> 00:12:13.820 some coffee? 00:12:15.810 --> 00:12:16.510 We'll take turns then. 00:12:16.510 --> 00:12:19.160 Women, what do you think is the number? 00:12:19.160 --> 00:12:20.630 We start with 50. 00:12:20.630 --> 00:12:20.880 What? 00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:22.130 20. 00:12:26.300 --> 00:12:27.540 I noticed you in the library. 00:12:27.540 --> 00:12:28.290 You seem very nice. 00:12:28.290 --> 00:12:31.010 I think there's something compatible between us. 00:12:31.010 --> 00:12:32.715 What do you think about going back to my apartment and 00:12:32.715 --> 00:12:33.965 having sex right now? 00:12:36.430 --> 00:12:38.820 See finally, the course gets super practical. 00:12:44.740 --> 00:12:45.400 I'm not saying it. 00:12:45.400 --> 00:12:47.580 This is just one study. 00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:48.540 Now, we reverse the roles. 00:12:48.540 --> 00:12:51.040 Men, you get ready, all right? 00:12:51.040 --> 00:12:53.040 An attractive woman walks up to you and says, I noticed in 00:12:53.040 --> 00:12:53.450 the library. 00:12:53.450 --> 00:12:54.590 You seem very friendly. 00:12:54.590 --> 00:12:56.030 We seem to be compatible. 00:12:56.030 --> 00:12:58.574 Would you be willing to have a date with me some time? 00:12:58.574 --> 00:12:59.824 AUDIENCE: 100%. 00:13:02.660 --> 00:13:06.530 PROFESSOR: Would you be willing, the woman says to the 00:13:06.530 --> 00:13:10.230 man, to go back to my apartment with me right now? 00:13:18.780 --> 00:13:20.770 All right, you know where this going. 00:13:20.770 --> 00:13:22.210 An attractive woman walks up to the man. 00:13:22.210 --> 00:13:24.560 And she says, would you go back to my apartment to have 00:13:24.560 --> 00:13:25.990 sex with me this very minute? 00:13:32.290 --> 00:13:33.750 The guys got things to do. 00:13:33.750 --> 00:13:35.610 You now, he can't-- 00:13:35.610 --> 00:13:36.100 Yeah? 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:38.410 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]? 00:13:38.410 --> 00:13:40.580 PROFESSOR: What is the citation for this? 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:41.090 Let me get that. 00:13:41.090 --> 00:13:42.460 I heard it in a talk. 00:13:42.460 --> 00:13:42.520 And I saw the numbers. 00:13:42.520 --> 00:13:44.850 The numbers are correct. 00:13:44.850 --> 00:13:46.820 I have to say when this was presented, there was some 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:49.360 murmuring, because maybe it wasn't quite IRB-approved. 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:50.540 I heard it from a good source. 00:13:50.540 --> 00:13:53.860 I'll get that for you. 00:13:53.860 --> 00:13:55.110 It's in your notes. 00:13:59.690 --> 00:14:02.560 So evolutionary psychology, whatever, it's kind of fun. 00:14:02.560 --> 00:14:04.340 But it's hard to know where it gets you. 00:14:04.340 --> 00:14:06.360 But it's definitely fun to talk about. 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:09.300 So happiness research. 00:14:09.300 --> 00:14:13.560 So for a long time, from ancient philosophy to the 00:14:13.560 --> 00:14:15.750 founding of the US and everything, people said, the 00:14:15.750 --> 00:14:17.960 objective of life, as we choose it, Aristotle, for 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:20.180 itself, and never for any other reason. 00:14:20.180 --> 00:14:22.640 And one of the most amazing phrases in the Declaration of 00:14:22.640 --> 00:14:24.290 independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, 00:14:24.290 --> 00:14:25.890 that all men are created equal, that they are endowed 00:14:25.890 --> 00:14:27.800 by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among 00:14:27.800 --> 00:14:29.560 these are life and liberty." Well, that we would think 00:14:29.560 --> 00:14:31.970 would be obvious things, now. 00:14:31.970 --> 00:14:35.220 But this amazing thing, "and the pursuit of Happiness." 00:14:35.220 --> 00:14:38.350 As important as life itself and liberty itself, the 00:14:38.350 --> 00:14:39.270 pursuit of happiness. 00:14:39.270 --> 00:14:42.320 And I think we know that in our own lives, as we relate to 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:46.350 other people, as we pursue careers, as we do things, 00:14:46.350 --> 00:14:50.220 where we put our limited lifetime resources, time and 00:14:50.220 --> 00:14:53.390 effort, we all want to end up in a deep way to be happy and 00:14:53.390 --> 00:14:56.030 make the choices to get there. 00:14:56.030 --> 00:14:58.570 So we can think on average, you could think in your head 00:14:58.570 --> 00:15:00.720 what makes you happy, what makes you want unhappy? 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:03.430 And a standard list might be, people 00:15:03.430 --> 00:15:05.330 definitely want to be healthy. 00:15:05.330 --> 00:15:07.420 Nobody minds being wealthy. 00:15:07.420 --> 00:15:09.140 We'll talk about that. 00:15:09.140 --> 00:15:11.610 It never hurts to get a new car, a new TV, 00:15:11.610 --> 00:15:13.230 or new stuff, right? 00:15:13.230 --> 00:15:14.110 What makes you unhappy? 00:15:14.110 --> 00:15:16.390 Physical injury, emotional injury. 00:15:16.390 --> 00:15:20.080 I mean that would be kind of standard. 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:22.680 Now, how do you measure happiness? 00:15:22.680 --> 00:15:24.590 And this is the part where you get us into the funniness of 00:15:24.590 --> 00:15:25.100 psychology. 00:15:25.100 --> 00:15:29.220 So you have with you a questionnaire, which is one of 00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:32.620 the most widely used measures of happiness. 00:15:32.620 --> 00:15:34.670 So I'll just give you a moment to look at it. 00:15:34.670 --> 00:15:35.740 You could fill it out for yourself. 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:38.080 We're not going to collect it. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:39.580 And you may even want to or whatever. 00:15:39.580 --> 00:15:40.920 But just to get a feeling of this. 00:15:40.920 --> 00:15:42.140 And you could say-- 00:15:42.140 --> 00:15:42.980 oh, sorry. 00:15:42.980 --> 00:15:44.190 Anybody else who didn't get it, that we 00:15:44.190 --> 00:15:45.440 could help you with? 00:15:48.100 --> 00:15:49.135 A few hands over here. 00:15:49.135 --> 00:15:50.385 Oh, thank you. 00:15:54.070 --> 00:15:56.570 Again, let me say whoever did this amazing display is maybe 00:15:56.570 --> 00:15:57.210 super happy. 00:15:57.210 --> 00:15:59.120 So you're ahead of me. 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:00.370 Thank you. 00:16:03.560 --> 00:16:05.070 So it's measured in life value. 00:16:05.070 --> 00:16:07.830 You ask the person like basically, how happy are you? 00:16:07.830 --> 00:16:10.810 And we have a tendency to be suspicious of just asking 00:16:10.810 --> 00:16:11.670 people straight on. 00:16:11.670 --> 00:16:15.080 Because if we ask them straight on, would you say 00:16:15.080 --> 00:16:17.160 this line is as big as this line, if three 00:16:17.160 --> 00:16:17.710 other people said that? 00:16:17.710 --> 00:16:19.190 You'd say, no, not me. 00:16:19.190 --> 00:16:22.660 If you say, would you zap somebody until you think 00:16:22.660 --> 00:16:24.340 they're dead in another room? 00:16:24.340 --> 00:16:25.890 You'd say no, not me. 00:16:25.890 --> 00:16:29.300 So we're very suspicious about what people say they will do 00:16:29.300 --> 00:16:30.830 and what they really do. 00:16:30.830 --> 00:16:34.440 But for happiness research, it's hard to beat that. 00:16:34.440 --> 00:16:35.040 Here's another one. 00:16:35.040 --> 00:16:38.920 You can circle the happiness that represents you. 00:16:38.920 --> 00:16:41.560 Because what's the better question, what's the more 00:16:41.560 --> 00:16:44.450 objective measure to decide that somebody's happy, a brain 00:16:44.450 --> 00:16:46.080 image, a blood test? 00:16:46.080 --> 00:16:49.290 We don't have a better thing than the person's own 00:16:49.290 --> 00:16:51.630 statement about their sense of happiness. 00:16:51.630 --> 00:16:53.790 All the way back to a Roman philosopher, "The happy man is 00:16:53.790 --> 00:16:57.170 not he who seems thus to others, but who seems thus to 00:16:57.170 --> 00:17:01.850 himself." We don't know of a better way to ask you if 00:17:01.850 --> 00:17:04.230 you're happy, than to ask if you're happy. 00:17:04.230 --> 00:17:07.050 So it's not the most satisfying kind of objective, 00:17:07.050 --> 00:17:08.660 scientific measure. 00:17:08.660 --> 00:17:10.349 But maybe it's the life we lead anywhere. 00:17:10.349 --> 00:17:13.770 We decide if we're happy or not, in some sense. 00:17:13.770 --> 00:17:18.359 So if you ask people on average how happy they are, 00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:20.760 2/3 of the people will put themselves here, almost 00:17:20.760 --> 00:17:22.099 everybody above average. 00:17:22.099 --> 00:17:25.764 A few people report that they're consistently unhappy. 00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:30.850 And I'm going to come back to this, but the thing that 00:17:30.850 --> 00:17:33.960 struck happiness researchers, surprisingly modest 00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:36.380 influences, and I'm going to touch this up a little bit 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:40.970 with a research study, of social status, income, gender, 00:17:40.970 --> 00:17:41.600 or ethnicity. 00:17:41.600 --> 00:17:44.200 A number of things that you could have thought would touch 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:49.690 that, surprisingly don't touch it, or in very limited ways. 00:17:49.690 --> 00:17:53.160 But I'll tell you a little bit about those limited ways. 00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:55.990 So on a seven-point scale, the average is 4 or a 5. 00:17:55.990 --> 00:17:58.010 College students, 4.9. 00:17:58.010 --> 00:18:00.050 Older people, happier. 00:18:00.050 --> 00:18:01.130 We've talk about that before. 00:18:01.130 --> 00:18:03.710 Ironically, even though older people probably face more 00:18:03.710 --> 00:18:07.930 challenges in various ways and limited life spans, they seem 00:18:07.930 --> 00:18:09.180 happier by self-report. 00:18:12.190 --> 00:18:16.910 One argument that income has little relationship is this 00:18:16.910 --> 00:18:19.410 kind of a graph, that looks at the average income in the US 00:18:19.410 --> 00:18:21.540 from 1930 to 1991. 00:18:21.540 --> 00:18:24.650 So here's this increase, that's not going up anymore. 00:18:24.650 --> 00:18:27.160 But it was in the last century. 00:18:27.160 --> 00:18:28.980 And self-reported happiness. 00:18:28.980 --> 00:18:32.650 And you can see that at some point, it goes up, but then it 00:18:32.650 --> 00:18:34.750 flattens out. 00:18:34.750 --> 00:18:37.830 So the general thought analysis, I'll show you a 00:18:37.830 --> 00:18:44.020 little bit more detail, is, not much money or in current 00:18:44.020 --> 00:18:47.570 situations, poverty, does strike down 00:18:47.570 --> 00:18:49.200 people's sense of happiness. 00:18:49.200 --> 00:18:51.660 But once you get above some threshold, and of course, what 00:18:51.660 --> 00:18:54.770 that threshold is varies in so many ways depending on who you 00:18:54.770 --> 00:18:57.310 are and what you expect, but once you get above some 00:18:57.310 --> 00:18:59.480 threshold, that's not the biggest part 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:01.020 of the story anymore. 00:19:01.020 --> 00:19:05.770 And that's pretty much a general finding. 00:19:05.770 --> 00:19:07.570 They've done all kinds of surveys about 00:19:07.570 --> 00:19:09.220 happiness across countries. 00:19:09.220 --> 00:19:11.410 It's a really interesting thing about happiness 00:19:11.410 --> 00:19:13.650 research, it's more powerful than you can imagine in 00:19:13.650 --> 00:19:16.900 grabbing hold of the minds of many people in public policy. 00:19:16.900 --> 00:19:19.380 Derek Bok, the former president of Harvard, has 00:19:19.380 --> 00:19:22.750 written a book suggesting that happiness research ought to be 00:19:22.750 --> 00:19:25.490 the basis of public policies by the government. 00:19:25.490 --> 00:19:30.210 That if know what makes people happy, short of giving 00:19:30.210 --> 00:19:33.070 everybody $1 million every year, why wouldn't you tweak 00:19:33.070 --> 00:19:36.610 every policy, even if people don't think it will make them 00:19:36.610 --> 00:19:39.510 happy, but you know from research it will? 00:19:39.510 --> 00:19:42.480 And then here's a world map, where they surveyed people all 00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:43.310 over the place. 00:19:43.310 --> 00:19:45.260 The darker the color, the more people 00:19:45.260 --> 00:19:46.810 reported themselves happy. 00:19:46.810 --> 00:19:50.090 Now, this is very tricky. 00:19:50.090 --> 00:19:53.320 Because now you're in full scale, there's things like 00:19:53.320 --> 00:19:56.610 poverty, but there's also things like cultural emphases. 00:19:56.610 --> 00:19:59.470 In the US, we talk a lot about happiness. 00:19:59.470 --> 00:20:02.110 That concept is less prevalent in many other cultures, 00:20:02.110 --> 00:20:03.300 relatively speaking. 00:20:03.300 --> 00:20:05.320 So it's hard to know how much is the culture, how much is 00:20:05.320 --> 00:20:10.040 the actual per capita income relevant. 00:20:10.040 --> 00:20:12.240 But people are pursuing these things. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:14.530 And they are finding roughly-- 00:20:14.530 --> 00:20:17.060 the most recent one, that again in countries where 00:20:17.060 --> 00:20:21.040 there's a lot of poverty, it's less than in countries where 00:20:21.040 --> 00:20:22.980 you start to have higher incomes. 00:20:22.980 --> 00:20:27.270 So poverty is still associated with less happiness. 00:20:27.270 --> 00:20:31.250 And you can guess that is reasonable. 00:20:31.250 --> 00:20:33.530 And then more studies like this, 00:20:33.530 --> 00:20:35.580 again about that direction. 00:20:35.580 --> 00:20:41.730 So early on, people said that income has 00:20:41.730 --> 00:20:43.130 nothing to do with happiness. 00:20:43.130 --> 00:20:45.500 And that seems not quite right, especially at the lower 00:20:45.500 --> 00:20:46.380 end of poverty. 00:20:46.380 --> 00:20:50.280 Now, Dan Kahneman, the Nobel Laureate, a psychologist at 00:20:50.280 --> 00:20:52.910 Princeton, has spent the last few years talking about what 00:20:52.910 --> 00:20:54.440 he calls the focusing illusion. 00:20:54.440 --> 00:20:55.505 And let me tell you what that is. 00:20:55.505 --> 00:20:59.080 It's basically this, when thinking about one topic, it 00:20:59.080 --> 00:21:02.070 could be income, could be graduate school admissions. 00:21:02.070 --> 00:21:05.280 Like whatever the topic is, fairness, whatever the topic 00:21:05.280 --> 00:21:07.950 is, when you're thinking about that one topic, people tend to 00:21:07.950 --> 00:21:10.850 attribute more importance to that topic than it really has. 00:21:10.850 --> 00:21:13.400 They think it accounts for more of what goes in the world 00:21:13.400 --> 00:21:14.730 when they're focused on it. 00:21:14.730 --> 00:21:16.950 And you see this all the time in political discussions. 00:21:16.950 --> 00:21:18.350 Like it's all the deficit. 00:21:18.350 --> 00:21:20.440 If we just fix the deficit, everything works. 00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:21.520 It's all raising taxes. 00:21:21.520 --> 00:21:22.670 If we just do this. 00:21:22.670 --> 00:21:24.220 People fixate on one thing. 00:21:24.220 --> 00:21:26.240 And then that's the answer to the whole problem. 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:29.960 That all the time, never mind political debates where things 00:21:29.960 --> 00:21:31.380 might be staged, but even in one's own 00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:32.920 personal life, that happens. 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:34.170 Let me give you an example of how they 00:21:34.170 --> 00:21:35.700 showed that to be true. 00:21:35.700 --> 00:21:38.800 They have people rate their happiness, just like you have. 00:21:38.800 --> 00:21:41.880 And then they ask them, and these were, how many dates for 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:44.070 the single people, how many dates in the last month? 00:21:44.070 --> 00:21:46.890 And they get no correlation between self-rated happiness 00:21:46.890 --> 00:21:49.720 and how many dates you've had in the last month. 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:51.140 Now they were reverse for some people, 00:21:51.140 --> 00:21:52.590 the order of questions. 00:21:52.590 --> 00:21:55.785 How many dates have you had in the last month and now rate 00:21:55.785 --> 00:21:56.490 your happiness. 00:21:56.490 --> 00:21:57.990 And they get a positive correlation. 00:21:57.990 --> 00:22:01.800 The more dates you had, the happier your report yourself. 00:22:01.800 --> 00:22:05.710 Well, for people who are dating, on average, that's a 00:22:05.710 --> 00:22:07.970 measure, like getting out there and meeting people. 00:22:07.970 --> 00:22:10.190 It's an average of succeeding in some path 00:22:10.190 --> 00:22:11.360 you want to be on. 00:22:11.360 --> 00:22:14.220 So when you just thought about this, you said, whoa, if I had 00:22:14.220 --> 00:22:18.280 no dates this past month, I must be pretty miserable. 00:22:18.280 --> 00:22:19.090 I'm pretty unhappy. 00:22:19.090 --> 00:22:20.240 I'm thinking about that. 00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:22.980 And all the other elements of your life that contribute to 00:22:22.980 --> 00:22:25.360 happiness, because you just focused on that. 00:22:25.360 --> 00:22:26.980 You just focused on that because the question was 00:22:26.980 --> 00:22:29.520 asked, recede disproportionately, compared 00:22:29.520 --> 00:22:30.620 to the actual importance. 00:22:30.620 --> 00:22:32.440 If you go the other way around, how happy you are, and 00:22:32.440 --> 00:22:34.980 you ask this, there's no correlation, because you're 00:22:34.980 --> 00:22:38.370 not thinking about this one thing and weighting your 00:22:38.370 --> 00:22:41.470 overall happiness by this one question or dimension. 00:22:41.470 --> 00:22:42.610 Does that make sense? 00:22:42.610 --> 00:22:46.350 So the order is the whole story. 00:22:46.350 --> 00:22:49.030 That people, when they think about a topic and then think 00:22:49.030 --> 00:22:52.650 of how happy or meaningful it is, they overvalue that topic, 00:22:52.650 --> 00:22:54.650 because they just focused in their 00:22:54.650 --> 00:22:58.190 minds on this one dimension. 00:22:58.190 --> 00:23:02.110 So getting back to this issue of income and how that goes 00:23:02.110 --> 00:23:04.980 with happiness, here's what they did, the same thing 00:23:04.980 --> 00:23:08.040 again, by asking a specific question and then asking your 00:23:08.040 --> 00:23:10.020 general impression, the same idea. 00:23:10.020 --> 00:23:14.040 So they said, how bad was your mood the previous day? 00:23:14.040 --> 00:23:16.350 So there's a specific question about mood. 00:23:16.350 --> 00:23:18.740 Now, how much time do you think people with various 00:23:18.740 --> 00:23:21.770 income levels are in a bad mood? 00:23:21.770 --> 00:23:23.690 And they picked for example, people making less than 00:23:23.690 --> 00:23:28.580 $20,000 or people making more than $100,000. 00:23:28.580 --> 00:23:30.900 These people who just answered this question said, gee-- 00:23:30.900 --> 00:23:32.150 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 00:23:35.590 --> 00:23:36.930 PROFESSOR: I don't see anything. 00:23:36.930 --> 00:23:38.180 That's right. 00:23:40.910 --> 00:23:42.160 Thank you very much. 00:24:02.750 --> 00:24:04.180 The cool thing is now that they're making 00:24:04.180 --> 00:24:05.300 videos of these lectures. 00:24:05.300 --> 00:24:08.030 We have so many applicants to be your peers in 00:24:08.030 --> 00:24:08.710 the years to come. 00:24:08.710 --> 00:24:11.510 It's going to be unbelievable. 00:24:11.510 --> 00:24:13.880 So you guys are great. 00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:18.260 So they said it was about 32% more bad mood, if you were 00:24:18.260 --> 00:24:19.530 making less or more. 00:24:19.530 --> 00:24:22.060 If you asked people making how much, it's only a 12% 00:24:22.060 --> 00:24:22.400 difference. 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:25.030 It matters, but only a third as much. 00:24:25.030 --> 00:24:26.540 Because you just got them thinking about 00:24:26.540 --> 00:24:27.570 being in a bad mood. 00:24:27.570 --> 00:24:33.830 So now they over attribute income for daily happiness. 00:24:33.830 --> 00:24:35.120 And here's a kind of interesting thing. 00:24:35.120 --> 00:24:35.880 And it's a trade-off. 00:24:35.880 --> 00:24:37.440 And it gets us to what is it in your life 00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:38.740 that makes you happy. 00:24:38.740 --> 00:24:45.140 So people making over $100,000 spend about 20% more time on-- 00:24:47.670 --> 00:24:48.920 I've got this reversed. 00:24:53.100 --> 00:24:56.430 So people making over $100,000 spend more time-- 00:24:56.430 --> 00:24:57.210 I'll fix the slide up. 00:24:57.210 --> 00:24:57.830 Sorry. 00:24:57.830 --> 00:25:00.780 Spend more time on doing things that they report as 00:25:00.780 --> 00:25:05.320 being kind of stressful, work, pressure shopping for the 00:25:05.320 --> 00:25:08.180 family, pressured childcare situations, what they call 00:25:08.180 --> 00:25:09.950 obligatory tasks. 00:25:09.950 --> 00:25:12.690 And people who make less money, spend considerably more 00:25:12.690 --> 00:25:16.240 time doing things that everybody considers fun when 00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:19.480 they're doing it, socializing, or watching TV that you like. 00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:20.760 So you can see it's kind of weird. 00:25:20.760 --> 00:25:24.630 It's a little bit of where you put your time and what counts 00:25:24.630 --> 00:25:27.035 for you to feel happy about something. 00:25:29.720 --> 00:25:31.640 Everybody's in pretty much agreement, like you've heard 00:25:31.640 --> 00:25:34.670 about almost everything, twin studies suggest, the set point 00:25:34.670 --> 00:25:36.400 of happiness, where you rate yourself as always 00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:40.300 super-happy, moderately happy, or somewhat grumpy, seems to 00:25:40.300 --> 00:25:44.650 be about between 15% and 80% heritable. 00:25:44.650 --> 00:25:49.630 It's as if a piece of us is born to be super-happy, medium 00:25:49.630 --> 00:25:53.160 happy, or chronically grumpy. 00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:56.150 There's not a better or worse way to be, right? 00:25:56.150 --> 00:25:57.730 So that people will call this a set point. 00:25:57.730 --> 00:26:00.570 So of course things happen on a day-to-day basis, on a 00:26:00.570 --> 00:26:02.950 moment-to-moment basis, that push you up or down in 00:26:02.950 --> 00:26:04.440 happiness, of course. 00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:06.480 You'll get good news, you get bad new, you have fearful 00:26:06.480 --> 00:26:08.750 things, joyful things coming up. 00:26:08.750 --> 00:26:11.690 But the idea is that people tend to get back pretty fast 00:26:11.690 --> 00:26:16.220 to the set point, their level, whatever that is, of chronic, 00:26:16.220 --> 00:26:17.450 constant happiness. 00:26:17.450 --> 00:26:20.610 And this is kind of an amazing finding. 00:26:20.610 --> 00:26:23.630 So let's take a look at that and add one more point. 00:26:23.630 --> 00:26:27.440 So here's extroverts by personality measures and 00:26:27.440 --> 00:26:27.750 introverts. 00:26:27.750 --> 00:26:30.840 And extroverts report themselves as being happier. 00:26:30.840 --> 00:26:34.310 That's a set point example, a personality thing that seems 00:26:34.310 --> 00:26:35.720 to go over time. 00:26:35.720 --> 00:26:39.650 But they share the bumpiness of the week. 00:26:39.650 --> 00:26:42.080 Here's how happy they are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 00:26:42.080 --> 00:26:45.970 whoa, weekend approaching, and the misery of Sunday, when the 00:26:45.970 --> 00:26:48.050 weekend is over. 00:26:48.050 --> 00:26:51.000 So you can see in both things, of course they're responding 00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:56.000 to the work week cycle of heavy work, anticipation of 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:58.290 the weekend, the weekend itself, and anticipation of 00:26:58.290 --> 00:26:59.970 the work day. 00:26:59.970 --> 00:27:00.990 Both groups do. 00:27:00.990 --> 00:27:04.040 But the set points seem to be a little bit different, the 00:27:04.040 --> 00:27:07.700 chronic, constant level. 00:27:07.700 --> 00:27:13.960 Now, there's been a bunch of ideas about a question about 00:27:13.960 --> 00:27:15.630 whether people can be too happy. 00:27:15.630 --> 00:27:18.360 Can a person be too happy? 00:27:18.360 --> 00:27:20.220 And here's what they find. 00:27:20.220 --> 00:27:22.600 That if they had take people who say, I'm super, super, 00:27:22.600 --> 00:27:25.630 super happy, and you ask them what's going on their life 00:27:25.630 --> 00:27:27.750 that makes some super, super happy? 00:27:27.750 --> 00:27:31.140 Those people often report that it's close relations to other 00:27:31.140 --> 00:27:34.200 people and often, good deeds or volunteer work, is the 00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:37.680 thing that's making them super, super happy. 00:27:37.680 --> 00:27:40.420 A little less happy on average, but still pretty 00:27:40.420 --> 00:27:44.360 happy, are people who have higher incomes, higher 00:27:44.360 --> 00:27:48.240 education, and more political participation. 00:27:48.240 --> 00:27:49.190 So look at these two things. 00:27:49.190 --> 00:27:52.600 And you could say in your own life, but all these things 00:27:52.600 --> 00:27:53.370 will matter. 00:27:53.370 --> 00:27:57.360 But which is the model of success for you in your heart, 00:27:57.360 --> 00:28:02.360 the human relations and doing good or the sort of income, 00:28:02.360 --> 00:28:04.990 education, active in your world thing? 00:28:04.990 --> 00:28:06.200 And it's not one is better than other. 00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:08.530 It's not you have to choose one or the other. 00:28:08.530 --> 00:28:10.930 But it seems like people will tend to focus more 00:28:10.930 --> 00:28:11.280 on one or the other. 00:28:11.280 --> 00:28:12.810 All these things are matter. 00:28:12.810 --> 00:28:16.110 But, where you put your heart. 00:28:16.110 --> 00:28:16.810 It's easier. 00:28:16.810 --> 00:28:18.900 Or you end up doing this, if you're on the 00:28:18.900 --> 00:28:21.380 most extensive happy. 00:28:21.380 --> 00:28:24.610 So maybe if you want somebody to do a certain thing for you, 00:28:24.610 --> 00:28:26.345 you don't want them to be so happy. they have to a little 00:28:26.345 --> 00:28:28.010 bit grumbling about stuff. 00:28:28.010 --> 00:28:29.830 If you think the world is perfect, you're not going to 00:28:29.830 --> 00:28:31.080 fight for political change. 00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:35.800 So what makes us happy? 00:28:35.800 --> 00:28:38.410 And it turns out in interesting ways, it's more 00:28:38.410 --> 00:28:40.010 complicated than you think. 00:28:40.010 --> 00:28:42.660 And so it's worth thinking about, because your first 00:28:42.660 --> 00:28:45.750 intuitions might not pan out. 00:28:45.750 --> 00:28:46.500 So here's an example. 00:28:46.500 --> 00:28:48.640 But I want to tell you this, I'll remind you of this again. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:50.620 And then switch to every day one. 00:28:50.620 --> 00:28:54.050 So one part of happiness is that when we reconstruct what 00:28:54.050 --> 00:28:56.710 made us happy, what made us happy growing up as a child; 00:28:56.710 --> 00:28:58.920 what made as happy as an adolescent in high school; 00:28:58.920 --> 00:29:02.810 what made us happy last year, last month, last week, that's 00:29:02.810 --> 00:29:03.790 all out of memory. 00:29:03.790 --> 00:29:07.590 That's not the current moment of joy or frustration. 00:29:07.590 --> 00:29:09.800 That's your sense of what was it all about. 00:29:09.800 --> 00:29:11.850 Where was I in terms of happiness? 00:29:11.850 --> 00:29:17.200 And so Kahneman again did this work looking at pain ratings 00:29:17.200 --> 00:29:19.450 during a dental procedure. 00:29:19.450 --> 00:29:21.550 And he said, what determines your memory for 00:29:21.550 --> 00:29:23.490 how painful it was? 00:29:23.490 --> 00:29:28.600 And the two values were the peak of the pain and the 00:29:28.600 --> 00:29:30.370 ending intensity. 00:29:30.370 --> 00:29:34.540 So that if you added a little extra pain at the end, people 00:29:34.540 --> 00:29:35.950 actually rated the whole session in 00:29:35.950 --> 00:29:37.710 memory as less painful. 00:29:37.710 --> 00:29:42.950 You add some mild pain at the end, rate it as painful, but 00:29:42.950 --> 00:29:45.400 because it was mild, because the last number that goes in 00:29:45.400 --> 00:29:49.050 their algorithm in their mind is the strength at the end, 00:29:49.050 --> 00:29:51.310 and the other number seems to be the peak, he could predict 00:29:51.310 --> 00:29:54.010 pretty well how you would rate the painfulness 00:29:54.010 --> 00:29:55.300 of the entire session. 00:29:55.300 --> 00:29:58.910 So this shows you that in many ways, our minds construct our 00:29:58.910 --> 00:30:00.060 definitions of happiness. 00:30:00.060 --> 00:30:01.870 They're not simply our sensory experience. 00:30:05.400 --> 00:30:09.370 And here is a thing you could think about for a moment. 00:30:09.370 --> 00:30:10.860 Many of have had jobs or something. 00:30:10.860 --> 00:30:14.120 You haven't had, most of you, a long work period on a 00:30:14.120 --> 00:30:16.540 consistent basis, most of you I'm guessing. 00:30:16.540 --> 00:30:20.460 But think about are you happier at work or vacation? 00:30:20.460 --> 00:30:23.680 So if you ask most people are you happier at work or 00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:26.980 vacation, most people will say vacation. 00:30:26.980 --> 00:30:30.350 That's why I work 50 or 51 weeks of the year to have that 00:30:30.350 --> 00:30:31.600 awesome vacation. 00:30:34.370 --> 00:30:38.360 If they do a study where you carry a beeper on you and they 00:30:38.360 --> 00:30:41.580 beep you every once in a while, unexpectedly, and say, 00:30:41.580 --> 00:30:43.920 OK, one to seven, how happy are you? 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.120 And some days you're at the office and some days you're on 00:30:46.120 --> 00:30:48.250 your vacation, what happens? 00:30:48.250 --> 00:30:54.670 You report yourself happier at work, on average. 00:30:54.670 --> 00:30:56.150 So that's amazing. 00:30:56.150 --> 00:30:57.280 Why do we have vacations at all? 00:30:57.280 --> 00:30:59.830 Not to be miserable. 00:30:59.830 --> 00:31:03.560 I mean could you imagine an ad that said come to our hotel, 00:31:03.560 --> 00:31:05.970 you'll be less miserable than another 00:31:05.970 --> 00:31:07.190 hotel on your vacation. 00:31:07.190 --> 00:31:09.100 That wouldn't work. 00:31:09.100 --> 00:31:10.370 What do think is going on here? 00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:15.910 This is the finding. 00:31:15.910 --> 00:31:18.130 What's going on here in the interpretation is, when we 00:31:18.130 --> 00:31:20.920 think ahead about a vacation or when we reconstruct in our 00:31:20.920 --> 00:31:23.270 mind, there's some things about it that make 00:31:23.270 --> 00:31:26.310 us like it a lot. 00:31:26.310 --> 00:31:28.620 When we're on the vacation, and you may know this, and I 00:31:28.620 --> 00:31:30.620 think part of it is the anticipation of vacation 00:31:30.620 --> 00:31:32.860 sometimes, what happens? 00:31:32.860 --> 00:31:34.840 The hotel wasn't so good. 00:31:34.840 --> 00:31:37.920 You got that food poisoning that ruined the whole trip. 00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:39.980 Your brother or sister were really a nuisance. 00:31:39.980 --> 00:31:41.610 Your parents were a drag. 00:31:41.610 --> 00:31:44.530 Your parents can't understand why you were so sulky. 00:31:44.530 --> 00:31:47.660 It's was like you didn't have the space to separate out and 00:31:47.660 --> 00:31:51.710 get yourself all sorted out. 00:31:51.710 --> 00:31:52.900 I had that too as a kid. 00:31:52.900 --> 00:31:55.760 I mean sometimes whatever little conflicts you had at 00:31:55.760 --> 00:31:58.520 home seem to get exaggerated when you're jammed in 00:31:58.520 --> 00:32:00.070 together, for long periods in cars or 00:32:00.070 --> 00:32:01.990 rooms or tents or whatever. 00:32:01.990 --> 00:32:04.800 And then you go that home and in a couple weeks you go man, 00:32:04.800 --> 00:32:06.650 that was an awesome vacation. 00:32:06.650 --> 00:32:07.450 I'll never forget it. 00:32:07.450 --> 00:32:08.690 It means so much to me. 00:32:08.690 --> 00:32:10.700 And it's not that you're faking it. 00:32:10.700 --> 00:32:11.820 You really feel that. 00:32:11.820 --> 00:32:13.930 Otherwise, you wouldn't get ready for the next vacation, 00:32:13.930 --> 00:32:15.390 the next year. 00:32:15.390 --> 00:32:18.320 So what this suggests is, in ourselves, really there's at 00:32:18.320 --> 00:32:23.270 least two ways, or two minds, thinking about happiness. 00:32:23.270 --> 00:32:25.490 One is a moment to moment happiness. 00:32:25.490 --> 00:32:26.700 That's real. 00:32:26.700 --> 00:32:29.110 And one is a sort of big picture, 00:32:29.110 --> 00:32:31.700 what is my life about. 00:32:31.700 --> 00:32:35.180 And I feel like my life about is going to interesting places 00:32:35.180 --> 00:32:36.480 with people I care about. 00:32:36.480 --> 00:32:37.730 That's a vacation. 00:32:39.630 --> 00:32:41.040 It's not that people are hypocritical. 00:32:41.040 --> 00:32:43.390 It's that in them there's these different dimensions of 00:32:43.390 --> 00:32:46.750 happiness that are tapped by different moments of thought. 00:32:49.670 --> 00:32:52.790 Happiness researchers, their most controversial topic, 00:32:52.790 --> 00:32:54.840 because they can explain almost everything in the story 00:32:54.840 --> 00:32:58.370 I just told you, is children. 00:32:58.370 --> 00:33:02.180 So you talk to parents. 00:33:02.180 --> 00:33:08.100 And over 33% will say the single biggest thing that's 00:33:08.100 --> 00:33:11.190 the joy in their life is having children or 00:33:11.190 --> 00:33:12.020 grandchildren. 00:33:12.020 --> 00:33:12.930 That's a very common thing. 00:33:12.930 --> 00:33:14.900 You could say you're surprised it's not more. 00:33:14.900 --> 00:33:15.800 But still, it's a lot. 00:33:15.800 --> 00:33:17.140 It's the single biggest thing. 00:33:17.140 --> 00:33:19.820 And I think people really mostly believe that 00:33:19.820 --> 00:33:21.970 when they say that. 00:33:21.970 --> 00:33:25.270 If you have people keep a day-to-day diary, the 00:33:25.270 --> 00:33:28.930 moment-to-moment source of happiness, and they rate one 00:33:28.930 --> 00:33:32.237 to seven, everything they just did, so it's kind of fresh in 00:33:32.237 --> 00:33:39.830 their memory, childcare is rated just over housework, 00:33:39.830 --> 00:33:42.965 below sex, socializing with friends, watching TV, praying, 00:33:42.965 --> 00:33:46.160 eating, and cooking. 00:33:46.160 --> 00:33:50.300 Because again, it's this weirdness of like, oh, he's 00:33:50.300 --> 00:33:52.110 not doing his homework or we're afraid she's doing 00:33:52.110 --> 00:33:55.820 something or little kids are just running around, not doing 00:33:55.820 --> 00:33:56.900 what you ask them to do. 00:33:56.900 --> 00:34:00.445 And it's so frustrating because you can't get them. 00:34:00.445 --> 00:34:02.520 So happiness researchers don't understand why people have 00:34:02.520 --> 00:34:03.070 children at all. 00:34:03.070 --> 00:34:04.020 They can't explain it. 00:34:04.020 --> 00:34:05.240 There's a lot of effort going on to come 00:34:05.240 --> 00:34:07.030 up with some formula. 00:34:07.030 --> 00:34:09.320 And again, it's not that people will tell you oh, we 00:34:09.320 --> 00:34:10.310 can't believe we had kids. 00:34:10.310 --> 00:34:12.900 How stupid was that? 00:34:12.900 --> 00:34:16.610 They say and they feel, it is a phenomenal source of 00:34:16.610 --> 00:34:17.440 happiness for them. 00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:19.860 It's just when you ask them, how about five minutes ago? 00:34:19.860 --> 00:34:22.469 They go, no. 00:34:22.469 --> 00:34:23.510 Why did he talk that way? 00:34:23.510 --> 00:34:25.010 Why doesn't he or she listen to me? 00:34:25.010 --> 00:34:26.659 Why don't they clean the room ever? 00:34:26.659 --> 00:34:27.929 They're 25 years old. 00:34:27.929 --> 00:34:30.020 They could make their bed. 00:34:30.020 --> 00:34:32.919 Or whatever. 00:34:32.919 --> 00:34:35.370 So it's really interesting, these two different dimensions 00:34:35.370 --> 00:34:36.150 of happiness. 00:34:36.150 --> 00:34:39.120 So this idea that within us there's multiple selves, the 00:34:39.120 --> 00:34:41.280 moment to moment self, that's real. 00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:43.310 The big picture, what is my life about? 00:34:43.310 --> 00:34:44.090 That's real. 00:34:44.090 --> 00:34:45.440 They're not always perfectly aligned. 00:34:49.179 --> 00:34:51.830 In the US, the moment to moment happiness, in a recent 00:34:51.830 --> 00:34:55.310 study, increases until about $75,000. 00:34:55.310 --> 00:34:56.080 Of course, it's an average. 00:34:56.080 --> 00:34:58.860 Depending on what you need to buy, that number will move. 00:34:58.860 --> 00:35:00.990 But then it tops out on average. 00:35:00.990 --> 00:35:05.280 But the big picture, emotional well-being, but overall 00:35:05.280 --> 00:35:06.860 satisfaction keeps going up with income. 00:35:06.860 --> 00:35:09.880 Now, you have to be very careful on these. 00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:11.420 These are all correlations. 00:35:11.420 --> 00:35:14.120 Everything I've told you just about is a correlation. 00:35:14.120 --> 00:35:16.380 So when you say overall satisfaction, sort of big 00:35:16.380 --> 00:35:18.920 picture sense of life goes up with income, is 00:35:18.920 --> 00:35:20.560 it really the income? 00:35:20.560 --> 00:35:21.810 What else could it be? 00:35:26.910 --> 00:35:31.650 Is it literally the size of your paycheck? 00:35:31.650 --> 00:35:32.700 Does it have to be that? 00:35:32.700 --> 00:35:34.276 Yeah? 00:35:34.276 --> 00:35:34.680 AUDIENCE: Do you think it might be what kind of job 00:35:34.680 --> 00:35:35.235 you're doing? 00:35:35.235 --> 00:35:36.160 PROFESSOR: It might be the kind of job 00:35:36.160 --> 00:35:37.380 you're doing, on average. 00:35:37.380 --> 00:35:39.910 And we know there's phenomenally important jobs 00:35:39.910 --> 00:35:41.500 that are underpaid in this country. 00:35:41.500 --> 00:35:43.020 We know that. 00:35:43.020 --> 00:35:45.030 But there's a lot of jobs that are kind of fun to have, that 00:35:45.030 --> 00:35:47.610 are decently paid. 00:35:47.610 --> 00:35:50.650 Doctors, lawyers, scientists, a lot of people find those 00:35:50.650 --> 00:35:53.290 jobs to be pretty fulfilling and pretty decently paid. 00:35:53.290 --> 00:35:55.110 And there's other ones as well. 00:35:55.110 --> 00:35:58.010 All kinds of jobs are decently paid, that can be fulfilling. 00:35:58.010 --> 00:36:01.570 So it's not necessarily that it's just about literally 00:36:01.570 --> 00:36:04.560 three more dollars and you're three more dollars happy. 00:36:04.560 --> 00:36:06.530 So these correlations are very tricky. 00:36:06.530 --> 00:36:10.040 But again, the sense that moment to moment tops out at 00:36:10.040 --> 00:36:12.760 somewhere here, well above poverty. 00:36:12.760 --> 00:36:16.610 But then, big picture keeps going up somewhere. 00:36:16.610 --> 00:36:19.620 So think for a moment if you can, just for a moment think 00:36:19.620 --> 00:36:24.230 about yourselves five or 10 years from now. 00:36:24.230 --> 00:36:26.070 And when you think, if you can, just for one moment 00:36:26.070 --> 00:36:28.790 specifically imagine in your mind what you might be doing 00:36:28.790 --> 00:36:31.840 five or 10 years from now. 00:36:31.840 --> 00:36:33.260 And put your hand up if you thought of 00:36:33.260 --> 00:36:36.210 something pretty positive. 00:36:36.210 --> 00:36:38.600 A hope. 00:36:38.600 --> 00:36:40.170 Put your hand up now if you thought of 00:36:40.170 --> 00:36:42.290 something kind of negative. 00:36:42.290 --> 00:36:43.808 Some of you, oh boy. 00:36:47.160 --> 00:36:50.960 Most people, our roots claim, they think about positive 00:36:50.960 --> 00:36:54.600 things in the future, other than fumbling or failing. 00:36:54.600 --> 00:36:56.890 So how good are people at predicting what 00:36:56.890 --> 00:36:57.850 will make them happy? 00:36:57.850 --> 00:36:59.130 How good are people at predicting 00:36:59.130 --> 00:36:59.790 will make them happy? 00:36:59.790 --> 00:37:01.830 What people call affective forecasting. 00:37:01.830 --> 00:37:03.400 So I'll give you two examples. 00:37:03.400 --> 00:37:05.170 One that's closer to my life and one 00:37:05.170 --> 00:37:07.850 might apply to everybody. 00:37:07.850 --> 00:37:09.430 Actually, I'll tell you a word about this. 00:37:09.430 --> 00:37:12.090 This is a funny story. 00:37:12.090 --> 00:37:14.650 If I don't get tenure, I will be sad. 00:37:14.650 --> 00:37:15.930 If I get tenure, I will be happy. 00:37:15.930 --> 00:37:17.390 So you know what tenure basically is. 00:37:17.390 --> 00:37:19.400 You're given a position, a faculty position, for a 00:37:19.400 --> 00:37:22.010 lifetime, unless you do something really horrible. 00:37:22.010 --> 00:37:26.390 So you can't be fired no matter what you do almost. 00:37:26.390 --> 00:37:28.600 You get a lot of freedom from that. 00:37:28.600 --> 00:37:30.380 So on the other hand, what happens if you don't get 00:37:30.380 --> 00:37:31.990 tenure somewhere? 00:37:31.990 --> 00:37:33.630 Do you know what happens? 00:37:33.630 --> 00:37:35.230 It's not so pleasant, I could tell you. 00:37:35.230 --> 00:37:37.610 It's not the end of the world at all. 00:37:37.610 --> 00:37:39.310 But let me just tell you what know going in. 00:37:39.310 --> 00:37:42.410 What you know going in is your colleagues are going to meet, 00:37:42.410 --> 00:37:43.640 they're going vote. 00:37:43.640 --> 00:37:44.730 They're going to say no. 00:37:44.730 --> 00:37:45.290 Which kind of hurts because you've been 00:37:45.290 --> 00:37:48.720 there five or six years. 00:37:48.720 --> 00:37:50.860 And then you have to leave town. 00:37:50.860 --> 00:37:51.840 OK, you don't have to leave town. 00:37:51.840 --> 00:37:53.430 There could be another university nearby. 00:37:53.430 --> 00:37:55.290 But usually because we're so super specialized in our 00:37:55.290 --> 00:37:58.480 fields, you have to leave town and go somewhere else. 00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:00.180 And you have to tell your parents, I didn't get tenure. 00:38:00.180 --> 00:38:01.610 And you have to tell your friends, I didn't get tenure. 00:38:01.610 --> 00:38:03.445 And all your friends who you know from work, will go, oh, 00:38:03.445 --> 00:38:04.330 I'm sorry you didn't get tenure. 00:38:04.330 --> 00:38:06.750 For a year, everybody you meet with goes, I'm sorry you 00:38:06.750 --> 00:38:07.780 didn't get tenure. 00:38:07.780 --> 00:38:10.390 So you just don't want that. 00:38:10.390 --> 00:38:13.140 Well, it's a moment I mean. 00:38:13.140 --> 00:38:14.140 None of us want it. 00:38:14.140 --> 00:38:17.570 So everybody says, I'd rather get tenure than not. 00:38:17.570 --> 00:38:20.280 Would you rather win the lottery, than not? 00:38:20.280 --> 00:38:22.450 Sure 00:38:22.450 --> 00:38:24.710 Happiness researchers love these things. 00:38:24.710 --> 00:38:28.030 So it turns out for a couple of years after you don't get 00:38:28.030 --> 00:38:30.600 tenure, and all the negativity, and leaving town, 00:38:30.600 --> 00:38:32.430 and getting another job, and by the way, some people have 00:38:32.430 --> 00:38:36.260 not gotten tenure and become amazing superstars, so the 00:38:36.260 --> 00:38:38.540 tenure process is often incorrect in its evaluation. 00:38:38.540 --> 00:38:40.460 But two years later, no difference in 00:38:40.460 --> 00:38:42.720 happiness at all. 00:38:42.720 --> 00:38:45.780 It doesn't really matter in the long run. 00:38:45.780 --> 00:38:48.160 Winning the lottery, a year or two later, 00:38:48.160 --> 00:38:49.550 no difference either. 00:38:49.550 --> 00:38:51.490 There's a whole research field that runs out the minute 00:38:51.490 --> 00:38:53.600 somebody wins a big lottery. 00:38:53.600 --> 00:38:57.460 And I had a bit of experience on this, [INAUDIBLE] 00:38:57.460 --> 00:39:01.470 somebody working in my brother's house won the single 00:39:01.470 --> 00:39:06.910 largest lottery, at that time, prize ever, for an individual 00:39:06.910 --> 00:39:07.900 lottery winner in the United States. 00:39:07.900 --> 00:39:09.230 It's been exceeded since. 00:39:09.230 --> 00:39:11.090 It was something like $187 million. 00:39:11.090 --> 00:39:13.010 And she was definitely pretty happy. 00:39:16.390 --> 00:39:21.690 And she's been I have to say remarkably wise since then, in 00:39:21.690 --> 00:39:25.040 how she's used the money. 00:39:25.040 --> 00:39:27.240 And been a very stable person, kind of. 00:39:27.240 --> 00:39:29.870 But there's equal number of stories of people who get into 00:39:29.870 --> 00:39:31.120 huge trouble. 00:39:33.320 --> 00:39:35.610 Actually, the most amazing story, it's sort of silly to 00:39:35.610 --> 00:39:39.330 share, but I have a relatively short lecture. 00:39:39.330 --> 00:39:40.650 This was in the news. 00:39:40.650 --> 00:39:42.630 Because you know with the lottery they say, whoever wins 00:39:42.630 --> 00:39:44.390 this will win the single largest-- 00:39:44.390 --> 00:39:46.010 there's a huge number of tickets sold. 00:39:46.010 --> 00:39:50.310 And some guy, a taxi driver at the airport, because all the 00:39:50.310 --> 00:39:52.270 news outlets wanted to cover this. 00:39:52.270 --> 00:39:53.010 And they were trying. 00:39:53.010 --> 00:39:53.690 Who won? 00:39:53.690 --> 00:39:53.832 Who won? 00:39:53.832 --> 00:39:54.260 Who won? 00:39:54.260 --> 00:39:55.540 They knew that there was a winner. 00:39:55.540 --> 00:39:57.290 They didn't know who it was. 00:39:57.290 --> 00:40:00.490 And a taxi driver at the airport supposedly said, I won 00:40:00.490 --> 00:40:00.900 the lottery. 00:40:00.900 --> 00:40:01.560 I won the lottery. 00:40:01.560 --> 00:40:04.380 Now, we knew he didn't, because we knew this person 00:40:04.380 --> 00:40:05.510 had won it. 00:40:05.510 --> 00:40:07.810 But all the news channels were running after this person, 00:40:07.810 --> 00:40:10.490 because other cabdrivers thought he said that. 00:40:10.490 --> 00:40:13.560 And then apparently, all the people he owed money were 00:40:13.560 --> 00:40:15.410 hunting him down. 00:40:15.410 --> 00:40:19.420 And he had to hire a lawyer to sort of fight off people. 00:40:19.420 --> 00:40:21.370 And so he was really miserable. 00:40:21.370 --> 00:40:25.190 And it was really sad, weird thing to be the lottery winner 00:40:25.190 --> 00:40:27.480 who didn't get the lottery, but everybody thought you did. 00:40:27.480 --> 00:40:29.400 And there's other stories in towns, these are amazing 00:40:29.400 --> 00:40:31.960 stories if you follow it, where they know somebody won 00:40:31.960 --> 00:40:32.820 the lottery in the town. 00:40:32.820 --> 00:40:34.850 But the person doesn't have to come forward. 00:40:34.850 --> 00:40:36.810 And then you get all this weird stuff, because other 00:40:36.810 --> 00:40:39.470 people start to guess who really has a ton of money 00:40:39.470 --> 00:40:40.590 amongst them. 00:40:40.590 --> 00:40:41.920 And they have wrong guesses. 00:40:41.920 --> 00:40:44.100 And they go and say like, my mother needs medical surgery. 00:40:44.100 --> 00:40:44.670 Won't you help me? 00:40:44.670 --> 00:40:47.200 And the person doesn't have the money or maybe that one 00:40:47.200 --> 00:40:48.340 does, but most don't. 00:40:48.340 --> 00:40:49.340 There's only one. 00:40:49.340 --> 00:40:52.760 And so the whole town gets into huge fights and misery 00:40:52.760 --> 00:40:54.900 because they are assuming that somebody could do amazing 00:40:54.900 --> 00:40:56.510 things for everybody, but they're just being mean 00:40:56.510 --> 00:40:57.780 in not doing it. 00:40:57.780 --> 00:41:00.830 And 90% of their guesses of who that is are wrong. 00:41:00.830 --> 00:41:01.890 More than you want to know about lotteries. 00:41:01.890 --> 00:41:04.010 But I can tell you that on average, a year or two later, 00:41:04.010 --> 00:41:04.660 no difference. 00:41:04.660 --> 00:41:05.660 So it's amazing. 00:41:05.660 --> 00:41:07.290 You would think that would make my life, 00:41:07.290 --> 00:41:08.600 if I won the lottery. 00:41:08.600 --> 00:41:10.970 And probably it does in terms of plasma TVs. 00:41:10.970 --> 00:41:15.650 But in terms of self-rated happiness, no difference. 00:41:15.650 --> 00:41:18.500 And here's a more amazing thing in certain way, although 00:41:18.500 --> 00:41:22.450 if you talk to patients, not as amazing. 00:41:22.450 --> 00:41:24.850 If you have a unexpected accident leading to 00:41:24.850 --> 00:41:28.840 quadriplegia or paraplegia, so you really can't get around, 00:41:28.840 --> 00:41:32.870 return to typical ratings of happiness in three months. 00:41:32.870 --> 00:41:37.380 So we're incredibly unable to predict, because we would have 00:41:37.380 --> 00:41:40.540 all kinds of ideas about how long these would brutalize our 00:41:40.540 --> 00:41:41.870 sense of happiness. 00:41:41.870 --> 00:41:43.680 And we're wrong, wrong, wrong. 00:41:43.680 --> 00:41:46.950 We don't know how to predict what will make us happy. 00:41:51.180 --> 00:41:52.660 And some people call this hedonic 00:41:52.660 --> 00:41:54.470 adaptation or a set point. 00:41:54.470 --> 00:41:55.980 That you go back to your set point over 00:41:55.980 --> 00:41:57.880 an incredible range. 00:41:57.880 --> 00:41:58.640 You do respond. 00:41:58.640 --> 00:42:00.180 But you go back to it over an incredible 00:42:00.180 --> 00:42:01.850 range of life outcomes. 00:42:01.850 --> 00:42:03.950 So there's a small experiment compared to these things, but 00:42:03.950 --> 00:42:05.970 a controlled experiment. 00:42:05.970 --> 00:42:08.220 Dan Gilbert at Harvard, who's done amazing work in this 00:42:08.220 --> 00:42:11.100 area, he had Harvard students in a photography class choose 00:42:11.100 --> 00:42:14.350 their two favorite pictures from the entire class. 00:42:14.350 --> 00:42:16.860 And they were told they have to give one to their teacher 00:42:16.860 --> 00:42:18.510 and they can keep one. 00:42:18.510 --> 00:42:19.560 And there were two conditions. 00:42:19.560 --> 00:42:21.950 In one condition, once they gave that picture to their 00:42:21.950 --> 00:42:23.900 teacher, that was it. 00:42:23.900 --> 00:42:27.490 In the other condition, they could change the 00:42:27.490 --> 00:42:29.490 picture in a few days. 00:42:29.490 --> 00:42:31.750 Now, you know in all this course, every time you think 00:42:31.750 --> 00:42:34.560 A, go opposite B, right? 00:42:34.560 --> 00:42:37.770 But if you weren't an amazingly sophisticated 00:42:37.770 --> 00:42:40.650 psychologist at this point, if you were just a person on the 00:42:40.650 --> 00:42:43.660 street, which do you think would sound better, having no 00:42:43.660 --> 00:42:45.580 choice or having the possibility of exchanging the 00:42:45.580 --> 00:42:47.460 picture, if you want to, in a couple of days? 00:42:47.460 --> 00:42:48.110 It's a choice. 00:42:48.110 --> 00:42:49.850 We like choice, right? 00:42:49.850 --> 00:42:50.240 No. 00:42:50.240 --> 00:42:53.315 The people who are happier are the people who say once hand 00:42:53.315 --> 00:42:54.950 me the picture, that's to me. 00:42:54.950 --> 00:42:56.220 These people are standing around going, I don't know. 00:42:56.220 --> 00:42:56.630 I don't know. 00:42:56.630 --> 00:42:57.450 Where am I going to be happier, this 00:42:57.450 --> 00:42:58.310 picture or that picture? 00:42:58.310 --> 00:42:58.600 I don't know. 00:42:58.600 --> 00:42:58.645 I don't know. 00:42:58.645 --> 00:43:00.110 I can't tell. 00:43:00.110 --> 00:43:03.730 Also once it's an irrevocable choice, what amazing human 00:43:03.730 --> 00:43:05.580 thing comes into play that helps us feel 00:43:05.580 --> 00:43:07.600 good about our lives? 00:43:07.600 --> 00:43:09.610 Cognitive dissonance. 00:43:09.610 --> 00:43:11.220 Did I pick the right picture? 00:43:11.220 --> 00:43:12.580 That teachers is a sucker. 00:43:12.580 --> 00:43:13.940 I thought they were the two best. 00:43:13.940 --> 00:43:17.050 But the one that teacher took, oh, that was pretty bad. 00:43:17.050 --> 00:43:20.850 I can't believe how lucky I am that irrevocably I ended up 00:43:20.850 --> 00:43:22.180 with this picture. 00:43:22.180 --> 00:43:25.590 The person who has days to do this, they can't let cognitive 00:43:25.590 --> 00:43:28.390 dissonance come in and fix up their choice. 00:43:31.006 --> 00:43:34.470 The paradox of choice, why choices can be painful. 00:43:34.470 --> 00:43:35.480 So again, we like choice. 00:43:35.480 --> 00:43:36.860 I like choice. 00:43:36.860 --> 00:43:38.120 There's an experiment. 00:43:38.120 --> 00:43:42.170 People say, you go into a typical big grocery store, 285 00:43:42.170 --> 00:43:45.390 cookie choices, 13 sports drinks, 75 ice teas, 200 00:43:45.390 --> 00:43:47.160 channels and more, on cable. 00:43:50.030 --> 00:43:52.850 So they did an experiment in Palo Alto, Stanford's group, 00:43:52.850 --> 00:43:54.120 in a gourmet food store. 00:43:54.120 --> 00:43:55.900 They had exotic, high-quality jams. 00:43:55.900 --> 00:43:57.420 And you could taste some jams. 00:43:57.420 --> 00:44:00.620 And then get a coupon for $1 off if you buy the jam. 00:44:00.620 --> 00:44:02.530 So a typical kind of thing you might see 00:44:02.530 --> 00:44:04.500 sometimes in grocery stores. 00:44:04.500 --> 00:44:10.030 And they would have you taste either six jams or up to 24. 00:44:10.030 --> 00:44:12.490 Now, most people didn't do 24 jams. 00:44:12.490 --> 00:44:14.850 Because you wouldn't want to have that many, even single 00:44:14.850 --> 00:44:15.680 tastes of a jam. 00:44:15.680 --> 00:44:19.200 But you'll try a few, at a table like this. 00:44:19.200 --> 00:44:21.420 So first of all, here's the two tables. 00:44:21.420 --> 00:44:22.580 Six jams or 24. 00:44:22.580 --> 00:44:24.540 More shoppers came to the table of 24. 00:44:24.540 --> 00:44:25.985 Well, you see 24 jams out there. 00:44:25.985 --> 00:44:27.370 It's kind of impressive. 00:44:27.370 --> 00:44:28.950 Like there's got be something I like there. 00:44:28.950 --> 00:44:29.770 What's going on? 00:44:29.770 --> 00:44:33.300 So more people are drawn to the big choice department. 00:44:33.300 --> 00:44:35.590 Now when they get there, they only have about five jams. 00:44:35.590 --> 00:44:36.680 These people have about six. 00:44:36.680 --> 00:44:39.260 So it's about the same number of jams that you taste. 00:44:39.260 --> 00:44:41.500 Big display, lots of choice. 00:44:41.500 --> 00:44:42.880 Limited choice. 00:44:42.880 --> 00:44:45.130 What happens in your actual behavior? 00:44:45.130 --> 00:44:48.020 Well, at the six-jam table, 30% of the people 00:44:48.020 --> 00:44:50.290 purchased the jam. 00:44:50.290 --> 00:44:54.280 If there's a 24-jam table, only 3% made the purchases. 00:44:54.280 --> 00:44:55.760 So what do you think happened? 00:44:55.760 --> 00:44:56.650 We don't know for sure. 00:44:56.650 --> 00:44:57.790 This is the actual behavior. 00:44:57.790 --> 00:45:02.860 Exactly the opposite, more choices among jams led to less 00:45:02.860 --> 00:45:04.860 purchases of jams. 00:45:04.860 --> 00:45:06.270 What's your guess as to what happened? 00:45:06.270 --> 00:45:07.074 Yeah? 00:45:07.074 --> 00:45:08.702 AUDIENCE: They people who liked [INAUDIBLE] with 24 00:45:08.702 --> 00:45:09.740 jams, were in a jam. 00:45:09.740 --> 00:45:10.320 PROFESSOR: Were what? 00:45:10.320 --> 00:45:11.510 AUDIENCE: They're in a jam. 00:45:11.510 --> 00:45:12.320 PROFESSOR: They're in a jam. 00:45:12.320 --> 00:45:12.790 That's pretty good. 00:45:12.790 --> 00:45:13.490 They were in a jam. 00:45:13.490 --> 00:45:13.820 Yes. 00:45:13.820 --> 00:45:16.070 And because what? 00:45:16.070 --> 00:45:18.010 Because I tried five or six, it's all I could try. 00:45:18.010 --> 00:45:19.560 But there's another 20 out there. 00:45:19.560 --> 00:45:21.690 And they could be awesome beyond belief. 00:45:21.690 --> 00:45:23.950 And I'm not going to commit. 00:45:23.950 --> 00:45:26.250 Because there could be some awesome jam around the corner. 00:45:26.250 --> 00:45:27.820 And I've only tried five or six. 00:45:27.820 --> 00:45:29.420 So they're overwhelmed. 00:45:29.420 --> 00:45:31.270 Instead of happily getting a jam, they're 00:45:31.270 --> 00:45:32.410 jammed up as you said. 00:45:32.410 --> 00:45:33.350 Ah, ah. 00:45:33.350 --> 00:45:35.790 And they go, um, who can begin to figure out what's the right 00:45:35.790 --> 00:45:36.430 jam for me. 00:45:36.430 --> 00:45:38.320 It's just a way too big. 00:45:38.320 --> 00:45:41.160 So all those choices make them less likely to make a 00:45:41.160 --> 00:45:42.140 purchase than this. 00:45:42.140 --> 00:45:44.210 Exactly the opposite of what might intuitively-- too many 00:45:44.210 --> 00:45:45.460 choices are burdensome. 00:45:49.280 --> 00:45:50.180 Calling plans. 00:45:50.180 --> 00:45:51.920 I don't know if you've ever tried to compare calling plans 00:45:51.920 --> 00:45:55.170 across phone services. 00:45:55.170 --> 00:45:57.210 You sit down for a few moments and you just give up. 00:45:57.210 --> 00:45:59.960 Maybe you don't. 00:45:59.960 --> 00:46:01.870 Health insurance things, retirement plans. 00:46:01.870 --> 00:46:03.520 You just get all these complicated menus. 00:46:03.520 --> 00:46:04.890 And a lot of people just give up. 00:46:04.890 --> 00:46:06.870 And they just go like, what's the cheapest? 00:46:06.870 --> 00:46:08.910 What do most people do? 00:46:08.910 --> 00:46:12.470 Because it's just too hard to figure out. 00:46:12.470 --> 00:46:17.340 So when they do surveys of asking people what people 00:46:17.340 --> 00:46:19.440 think will make them happy, these are 00:46:19.440 --> 00:46:21.340 the most common answers. 00:46:21.340 --> 00:46:24.230 If I get into a relationship or a marriage that I like. 00:46:24.230 --> 00:46:25.750 If I have more flexibility at work. 00:46:25.750 --> 00:46:27.810 Getting a baby, if that's what you want. 00:46:27.810 --> 00:46:30.140 Losing weight, cure of a chronic disease, making more 00:46:30.140 --> 00:46:32.890 money, having more time, advancing in beauty. 00:46:32.890 --> 00:46:34.170 OK, this is the list. 00:46:37.190 --> 00:46:38.820 It's not surprising list, right? 00:46:38.820 --> 00:46:41.910 What would make you more happy? 00:46:41.910 --> 00:46:45.800 And again, we know that happiness set 00:46:45.800 --> 00:46:47.130 points are about 50%. 00:46:47.130 --> 00:46:51.260 10% estimated the circumstances, like poverty. 00:46:51.260 --> 00:46:52.550 Things that you can't help in your life. 00:46:52.550 --> 00:46:53.670 Just can't help. 00:46:53.670 --> 00:46:56.870 But happiness researchers are trying to make the case that 00:46:56.870 --> 00:46:59.760 about 40% of our happiness depends on what 00:46:59.760 --> 00:47:01.450 we choose to do. 00:47:01.450 --> 00:47:03.120 So that's a big piece. 00:47:03.120 --> 00:47:05.640 It's a big piece. 00:47:05.640 --> 00:47:09.050 We can't help some things, in our genes or in our global 00:47:09.050 --> 00:47:09.600 environment. 00:47:09.600 --> 00:47:11.240 But it's almost half. 00:47:11.240 --> 00:47:12.070 And these are estimates. 00:47:12.070 --> 00:47:12.880 Maybe it's more. 00:47:12.880 --> 00:47:14.400 But this is the current estimate. 00:47:14.400 --> 00:47:19.340 And research, over and over again, shows that it's wrong 00:47:19.340 --> 00:47:21.850 to think that happiness is found. 00:47:21.850 --> 00:47:22.510 Like you get there. 00:47:22.510 --> 00:47:24.820 And here I am, happy. 00:47:24.820 --> 00:47:26.190 That it's changing in your circumstances. 00:47:26.190 --> 00:47:27.170 I move in a city. 00:47:27.170 --> 00:47:28.140 I get a promotion. 00:47:28.140 --> 00:47:29.140 I meet another person. 00:47:29.140 --> 00:47:30.690 That's the happiness. 00:47:30.690 --> 00:47:32.730 And that you either have it or you don't. 00:47:32.730 --> 00:47:34.640 I'm just a person who's not happy. 00:47:34.640 --> 00:47:39.090 All these things, the objective evidence is against. 00:47:39.090 --> 00:47:43.540 And here's what researchers find goes with, in experiments 00:47:43.540 --> 00:47:45.010 and in correlations. 00:47:45.010 --> 00:47:48.240 Here's their list, from an objective evidence as they can 00:47:48.240 --> 00:47:50.040 get, in this kind of work. 00:47:50.040 --> 00:47:52.230 Time nurturing relations with family and friends comes out 00:47:52.230 --> 00:47:55.980 as the number one thing that plays out. 00:47:55.980 --> 00:47:58.950 Expressing gratitude and helping others. 00:47:58.950 --> 00:48:01.470 Whole experiments were if you just did something nice, 00:48:01.470 --> 00:48:02.835 people feel awesome. 00:48:02.835 --> 00:48:06.050 I heard a Berkeley psychologist say, just try to 00:48:06.050 --> 00:48:08.910 feel unhappy after you just expressed 00:48:08.910 --> 00:48:10.770 gratitude or helped somebody. 00:48:10.770 --> 00:48:12.650 And you can't even do it. 00:48:12.650 --> 00:48:14.260 I don't know if that's quite true. 00:48:14.260 --> 00:48:16.680 But experiments have shown that when you have people 00:48:16.680 --> 00:48:19.090 express gratitude or do something to help others, 00:48:19.090 --> 00:48:21.760 their happiness ratings will zoom right up. 00:48:21.760 --> 00:48:24.550 Practicing optimism about the future, savoring life in the 00:48:24.550 --> 00:48:28.360 present, physical exercise, commitment to lifelong goals 00:48:28.360 --> 00:48:29.160 and ambitions. 00:48:29.160 --> 00:48:32.900 A sense that you have a path that make sense to you, as 00:48:32.900 --> 00:48:35.620 opposed to sort of bumping around from opportunity and 00:48:35.620 --> 00:48:36.770 opportunity. 00:48:36.770 --> 00:48:40.420 And something about, having an approach to coping or 00:48:40.420 --> 00:48:43.800 resilience when bad things happen. 00:48:43.800 --> 00:48:45.990 I'm sure in some of your lives, heartbreaking, bad 00:48:45.990 --> 00:48:47.490 things have happened. 00:48:47.490 --> 00:48:49.440 Most of us get some of them. 00:48:49.440 --> 00:48:53.420 Many of us get every day things that we struggle with. 00:48:53.420 --> 00:48:57.520 And the path by which we deal with adversity, huge influence 00:48:57.520 --> 00:49:00.770 on self-reported happiness. 00:49:00.770 --> 00:49:05.380 So again, so this is my final slide. 00:49:05.380 --> 00:49:09.930 And I hope that this course, you guys have made me happy 00:49:09.930 --> 00:49:10.580 throughout this course. 00:49:10.580 --> 00:49:13.240 I've have incredibly pleasurable lunches and 00:49:13.240 --> 00:49:18.090 dinners and brunches with students from the course. 00:49:18.090 --> 00:49:19.890 This is just stunning for me. 00:49:19.890 --> 00:49:22.420 And it's really moving. 00:49:22.420 --> 00:49:25.560 And I'm just very grateful to have had the chance to 00:49:25.560 --> 00:49:27.370 introduce you to these ideas. 00:49:27.370 --> 00:49:29.120 Have a OK exam period. 00:49:29.120 --> 00:49:30.480 You have to get through that. 00:49:30.480 --> 00:49:31.630 Bounce back and cope. 00:49:31.630 --> 00:49:32.090 And have a great summer. 00:49:32.090 --> 00:49:33.340 Thanks very much.