I'm confused by your quotation marks around 'think'. Are you suggesting that, in the case of a personal emotional state, people don't know whether they themselv

I'm confused by your quotation marks around 'think'. Are you suggesting that, in the case of a personal emotional state, people don't know whether they themselves are happy or not? It reminds me of a joke in L.A. STORY (paraphrased): "Which is to say: I was deeply unhappy but didn't know it, because I was so happy all the time". Generally, studies involving happiness sidestep the minefield of trying to quantify or even qualify happiness. They simply ask people whether they are happy and then search for statistical correlations between those who report being 'happy' vs those who report being 'sad'. I can only imagine that this study was conducted similarly.