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https://youtu.be/4q1dgn_C0AU https://youtu.be/4q1dgn_C0AU “The surprising science of happiness”, from Dan Gilbert, is one of the best TED talks of all time (ov

https://youtu.be/4q1dgn_C0AU https://youtu.be/4q1dgn_C0AU “The surprising science of happiness”, from Dan Gilbert, is one of the best TED talks of all time (over 4M views). In his amazing & funny 20’ presentation, he explains how our brains are wired and how it relates to happiness. The article reminded me of this great content

OnlineGladiator 3y ago
I found that video incredibly unconvincing. It just feels like pseudoscience telling people what they want to hear, and the data was underwhelming (assuming it's not flawed to begin with). I think a more plausible explanation is that people just lie to themselves to believe whatever they want. These people are only "happier" until they're forced to confront a reality that contradicts their beliefs. In other words it's willful ignorance masquerading as synthesized happiness. There's also data backing up what I'm saying. There's a study that's regurgitated constantly saying people aren't happier after making a certain amount of money ($75k), but almost nobody bothered to actually read the study. I think this contradictory study is a lot more convincing. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118
- smokel 3y ago
  Thank you for raising skepticism about old studies! The new one that you mention is slightly suspect as well though :) It is based on data gathered from trackyourhappiness.org. Why would someone install an app to track their happiness? I doubt that this is a representative group of people. Another interesting paper about this is "Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved", Kahneman and Mellers, 2022 https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2208661120 https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2208661120
- aston 3y ago
  You may be interested in this newer paper, reconciling the work of Killingsworth and Kahneman & Deaton. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120
  - gmac 3y ago
    I work in this area and I really dislike it when happiness is plotted against income only on a log scale, as is done here. The log scale effectively conceals the flattening-out of the relationship, which is the thing that shows you how progressive taxation + redistribution make the average person better off. Whether it's a straight line up to $75K followed by a flat line from there on, or a curved (log) relationship all the way up, seems to me to make rather little difference.
    - klft 3y ago
      Fig 2 of [1] shows high variance of happiness while income variation has only a small effect. There is roughly a 5 % (percent it is?) happiness delta for an income delta of about $ 500.000. However, the happiness delta between the different happiness levels is about 25 %. Would “Income and emotional well-being: It doesn’t really matter” be a better title for the study? Or do I miss something? [1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120#fig02 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120#fig02
- pawelmurias 3y ago
  Measuring happiness by asking people to rate if from 1-10 seems pretty questionable.
  - gmac 3y ago
    Do you have a better idea? (Happiness is a fully subjective thing, so subjective measures only, please).

OnlineGladiator 3y ago

I found that video incredibly unconvincing. It just feels like pseudoscience telling people what they want to hear, and the data was underwhelming (assuming it's not flawed to begin with). I think a more plausible explanation is that people just lie to themselves to believe whatever they want. These people are only "happier" until they're forced to confront a reality that contradicts their beliefs. In other words it's willful ignorance masquerading as synthesized happiness. There's also data backing up what I'm saying. There's a study that's regurgitated constantly saying people aren't happier after making a certain amount of money ($75k), but almost nobody bothered to actually read the study. I think this contradictory study is a lot more convincing. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2016976118

smokel 3y ago
Thank you for raising skepticism about old studies! The new one that you mention is slightly suspect as well though :) It is based on data gathered from trackyourhappiness.org. Why would someone install an app to track their happiness? I doubt that this is a representative group of people. Another interesting paper about this is "Income and emotional well-being: A conflict resolved", Kahneman and Mellers, 2022 https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2208661120 https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.2208661120
aston 3y ago
You may be interested in this newer paper, reconciling the work of Killingsworth and Kahneman & Deaton. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120
- gmac 3y ago
  I work in this area and I really dislike it when happiness is plotted against income only on a log scale, as is done here. The log scale effectively conceals the flattening-out of the relationship, which is the thing that shows you how progressive taxation + redistribution make the average person better off. Whether it's a straight line up to $75K followed by a flat line from there on, or a curved (log) relationship all the way up, seems to me to make rather little difference.
  - klft 3y ago
    Fig 2 of [1] shows high variance of happiness while income variation has only a small effect. There is roughly a 5 % (percent it is?) happiness delta for an income delta of about $ 500.000. However, the happiness delta between the different happiness levels is about 25 %. Would “Income and emotional well-being: It doesn’t really matter” be a better title for the study? Or do I miss something? [1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120#fig02 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208661120#fig02
pawelmurias 3y ago
Measuring happiness by asking people to rate if from 1-10 seems pretty questionable.
- gmac 3y ago
  Do you have a better idea? (Happiness is a fully subjective thing, so subjective measures only, please).