1 00:00:00,095 --> 00:00:02,460 The following content is provided under a Creative 2 00:00:02,460 --> 00:00:03,870 Commons license. 3 00:00:03,870 --> 00:00:06,910 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare continue to 4 00:00:06,910 --> 00:00:10,560 offer high-quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,460 To make a donation or view additional materials from 6 00:00:13,460 --> 00:00:17,390 hundreds of MIT courses, visit MIT OpenCourseWare at 7 00:00:17,390 --> 00:00:18,640 ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:29,670 --> 00:00:32,980 PROFESSOR: So we began just a few months ago with this goal 9 00:00:32,980 --> 00:00:35,250 of trying to understand the scientific study of human 10 00:00:35,250 --> 00:00:38,930 nature, how our mind operates, why we behave the way we do. 11 00:00:38,930 --> 00:00:42,410 From the brain basis, how we see and hear the world, how we 12 00:00:42,410 --> 00:00:45,680 think, how we feel, our predispositions to act in 13 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,870 certain ways, how we develop from infancy to adolescence to 14 00:00:49,870 --> 00:00:53,100 adulthood, through the middle ages and into 15 00:00:53,100 --> 00:00:55,880 old age, we all hope. 16 00:00:55,880 --> 00:00:59,590 The remarkably odd things about human social 17 00:00:59,590 --> 00:01:02,140 interactions, which are just amazing I think. 18 00:01:02,140 --> 00:01:05,180 And the challenges that so many people face, with a 19 00:01:05,180 --> 00:01:08,440 degree of vulnerability in these very kinds of abilities 20 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:10,010 and behaviors. 21 00:01:10,010 --> 00:01:12,480 And so it's hard to know what to conclude on. 22 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:14,360 So I thought I would touch on two things. 23 00:01:14,360 --> 00:01:18,580 One, sort of fun to think about, hard to know how to 24 00:01:18,580 --> 00:01:20,510 think about scientifically. 25 00:01:20,510 --> 00:01:24,170 And one, it probably matters to us all the time. 26 00:01:24,170 --> 00:01:26,250 So let me talk about this. 27 00:01:26,250 --> 00:01:29,190 So when we think about why we do things, how our brain is 28 00:01:29,190 --> 00:01:33,020 organized, mind is organized, we know that we've evolved 29 00:01:33,020 --> 00:01:35,770 over a long period of time, from other species. 30 00:01:35,770 --> 00:01:38,270 And that many things in us reflect this evolutionary 31 00:01:38,270 --> 00:01:42,630 history, cast into a modern, unimaginable world from the 32 00:01:42,630 --> 00:01:45,440 viewpoint of biology. 33 00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:48,600 But here we are, sort of creatures from the past living 34 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:52,620 in an incredibly accelerated, changing environment. 35 00:01:52,620 --> 00:01:55,240 And so evolutionary psychology, people say, let's 36 00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:58,500 try to identify why we have certain patterns of thoughts 37 00:01:58,500 --> 00:02:02,605 and feelings, given the evolutionary history of our 38 00:02:02,605 --> 00:02:04,240 minds and brains. 39 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:05,160 And I'll say a word about that. 40 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:08,690 It's tough in many ways though to have, as much as you 41 00:02:08,690 --> 00:02:11,630 believe that's true, it's got to be true, it's very tough to 42 00:02:11,630 --> 00:02:13,070 approach scientifically. 43 00:02:13,070 --> 00:02:15,590 Because often, it comes down to people telling fun, 44 00:02:15,590 --> 00:02:17,510 interesting, clever stories. 45 00:02:17,510 --> 00:02:19,090 Very hard to test. 46 00:02:19,090 --> 00:02:22,690 So we know it's a big part of who we are, in a deep sense 47 00:02:22,690 --> 00:02:24,120 where we came from. 48 00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:26,120 Very hard to test experimentally. 49 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:28,610 But I'll show you a couple examples where people have 50 00:02:28,610 --> 00:02:29,980 probed this a bit. 51 00:02:29,980 --> 00:02:32,495 And then another question is in the last decade, some 52 00:02:32,495 --> 00:02:34,960 people have said, well so much of psychology seems to focus 53 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,530 on the negative, the harm we're willing to do, the 54 00:02:37,530 --> 00:02:39,340 stereotypes we're willing to hold. 55 00:02:39,340 --> 00:02:40,690 How about positive psychology? 56 00:02:40,690 --> 00:02:43,050 How about thinking about what can we learn from psychology 57 00:02:43,050 --> 00:02:47,660 to lead a better, happier, more meaningful life. 58 00:02:47,660 --> 00:02:51,260 As I'm going to tell you about the core results about 59 00:02:51,260 --> 00:02:52,280 research about happiness. 60 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:54,730 And some of them I think will surprise you. 61 00:02:54,730 --> 00:02:56,910 Some of them, you'll tuck in the back of your mind maybe, 62 00:02:56,910 --> 00:02:58,900 as you think about what will make you happy. 63 00:02:58,900 --> 00:03:03,510 I mean we all want to be happy in a deep sense. 64 00:03:03,510 --> 00:03:06,620 We don't know what's on the other side of this life. 65 00:03:06,620 --> 00:03:09,460 But we know this is the one we have in our hands. 66 00:03:09,460 --> 00:03:13,210 And so what can psychology suggest that might make you 67 00:03:13,210 --> 00:03:16,600 think what's a path to happiness? 68 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:18,890 So we talked about throughout this course about the fragile 69 00:03:18,890 --> 00:03:20,350 power of the human brain. 70 00:03:20,350 --> 00:03:23,010 It endows us with an unbelievable capacity for 71 00:03:23,010 --> 00:03:26,410 thought, sight, behavior, vulnerabilities at every 72 00:03:26,410 --> 00:03:28,890 stage, from neurological injuries to 73 00:03:28,890 --> 00:03:30,890 neuropsychiatric disorders. 74 00:03:30,890 --> 00:03:34,020 And again, we know this all has grown through this Paul 75 00:03:34,020 --> 00:03:37,670 MacLean triune brain idea, that within us are kind of a 76 00:03:37,670 --> 00:03:41,020 version of reptilian brains, within us are simple mammalian 77 00:03:41,020 --> 00:03:44,030 brains, and then finally the primate and 78 00:03:44,030 --> 00:03:46,190 human expanded neocortex. 79 00:03:46,190 --> 00:03:49,110 And so within us, it's almost as if we represent in a 80 00:03:49,110 --> 00:03:52,280 certain sense, our species history, literally in your 81 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:55,160 brain, literally right now, in some complex way of 82 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:56,040 interactions. 83 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,090 With parts of the brain that have evolved modestly and 84 00:03:59,090 --> 00:04:01,650 parts that evolved spectacularly in humans. 85 00:04:06,210 --> 00:04:08,540 And the usual story, you're used to this in evolution, is 86 00:04:08,540 --> 00:04:10,640 that our brains and minds evolved in nature. 87 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:14,910 And natural selection was the dominating part of the story. 88 00:04:14,910 --> 00:04:17,399 Survival of the fittest for passing genes into the next 89 00:04:17,399 --> 00:04:22,100 generation, that sort of all stories boil down to that. 90 00:04:22,100 --> 00:04:26,150 And I'm going to tell you two specific examples. 91 00:04:26,150 --> 00:04:29,070 One that surprised me and then one that's just sort of fun I 92 00:04:29,070 --> 00:04:31,730 think in a silly way. 93 00:04:31,730 --> 00:04:34,340 So the first one is attitudes towards race and sex. 94 00:04:34,340 --> 00:04:35,000 And this can came up. 95 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:37,380 And then the second one is different attitudes in men and 96 00:04:37,380 --> 00:04:41,600 women, who might have in terms of sex and procreation. 97 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:45,040 So let me focus on this for a moment. 98 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:48,290 In the last election, you may remember that there was a 99 00:04:48,290 --> 00:04:53,410 long, grueling race across the primaries between Hillary 100 00:04:53,410 --> 00:04:56,070 Clinton and Barack Obama. 101 00:04:56,070 --> 00:04:59,160 And in many ways, this is a huge surprise in the United 102 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:02,870 States, because with such a history of racism and sexism, 103 00:05:02,870 --> 00:05:05,750 the idea that the two leading candidates are a woman and an 104 00:05:05,750 --> 00:05:08,660 African American, was just kind of an amazing thing. 105 00:05:11,810 --> 00:05:13,510 As much as we had distance to go, that we 106 00:05:13,510 --> 00:05:14,640 have come that far. 107 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:17,140 That these were the two candidates on the Democratic 108 00:05:17,140 --> 00:05:20,240 side, who are competing state to state across the country, 109 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:22,370 one of whom would become the Democratic 110 00:05:22,370 --> 00:05:24,890 nominee and the President. 111 00:05:24,890 --> 00:05:26,710 And I got call from a reporter from the Boston Globe. 112 00:05:26,710 --> 00:05:29,410 And he said, he was writing a story saying, which is the 113 00:05:29,410 --> 00:05:34,220 worst problem these candidates faced, sexism or racism? 114 00:05:34,220 --> 00:05:38,650 And many of us, and I'm no exception, our egos get turned 115 00:05:38,650 --> 00:05:40,120 up when somebody from the press calls. 116 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:41,740 Because our name will be in the newspaper. 117 00:05:41,740 --> 00:05:44,770 And we can show it to our friends and family. 118 00:05:44,770 --> 00:05:46,940 And then they know we have a real job and somebody thinks 119 00:05:46,940 --> 00:05:49,750 we know something. 120 00:05:49,750 --> 00:05:50,200 You laugh. 121 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:52,380 And the graduate students, like their parents never 122 00:05:52,380 --> 00:05:53,570 understand anything, except when their 123 00:05:53,570 --> 00:05:54,700 name gets in the newspaper. 124 00:05:54,700 --> 00:05:57,300 You know how that is, right? 125 00:05:57,300 --> 00:05:59,850 So I thought, well, I'm going to say something really clever 126 00:05:59,850 --> 00:06:02,510 and all the neuroscience and all the psychology I know, 127 00:06:02,510 --> 00:06:04,410 either from my own research or for teaching this course. 128 00:06:04,410 --> 00:06:05,080 I'll have something. 129 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:06,160 And I just had nothing to say. 130 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:07,820 I mean we can agree that racism is bad 131 00:06:07,820 --> 00:06:08,970 and sexism is bad. 132 00:06:08,970 --> 00:06:12,380 And it's kind of excellent that candidates are beating 133 00:06:12,380 --> 00:06:16,710 those glass ceilings in the national leadership. 134 00:06:16,710 --> 00:06:19,265 We know from research on things like the IAT test, that 135 00:06:19,265 --> 00:06:21,120 you heard about, that both remain a problem. 136 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:24,380 Negative stereotypes of certain kinds remain in our 137 00:06:24,380 --> 00:06:27,700 society to this day, across society. 138 00:06:27,700 --> 00:06:31,770 So I was like, which is worst, terrible thing A or 139 00:06:31,770 --> 00:06:32,800 terrible thing B? 140 00:06:32,800 --> 00:06:35,000 And I had nothing to say. 141 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,290 And then a newspaper article came out and said, oh, 142 00:06:38,290 --> 00:06:41,320 according to evolutionary psychologists, and I was not 143 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:42,580 included, because I nothing to say. 144 00:06:42,580 --> 00:06:44,530 This was very sad. 145 00:06:44,530 --> 00:06:48,370 They said well, really Hillary Clinton faces the harder path. 146 00:06:48,370 --> 00:06:51,740 Because in their mind, sexism is built into our species. 147 00:06:51,740 --> 00:06:54,310 Because the whole idea of how we procreate, how men and 148 00:06:54,310 --> 00:06:58,360 women relate in species and investments, that's deep in 149 00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:00,580 us, all through evolution. 150 00:07:00,580 --> 00:07:03,320 Whereas racism is culturally specific and malleable. 151 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:06,990 There's countries where one group is picked on. 152 00:07:06,990 --> 00:07:09,170 There's countries where another group is picked on. 153 00:07:09,170 --> 00:07:11,570 There's changes in societies. 154 00:07:11,570 --> 00:07:13,050 That's a changeable thing. 155 00:07:13,050 --> 00:07:15,260 This is a tougher thing to change, was their 156 00:07:15,260 --> 00:07:15,920 interpretation. 157 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:17,440 I thought well, that sounds good. 158 00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:18,490 And it might even be true. 159 00:07:18,490 --> 00:07:21,490 It's like a lot of evolutionary psychology, a 160 00:07:21,490 --> 00:07:24,510 good possibility, a better answer by infinitely far than 161 00:07:24,510 --> 00:07:25,640 I could give. 162 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:26,980 But who knows? 163 00:07:26,980 --> 00:07:30,980 And then this one study came out, that's kind of curious. 164 00:07:30,980 --> 00:07:35,320 So this is a study of children with Williams syndrome, a rare 165 00:07:35,320 --> 00:07:38,880 disorder, but very studied in both human genetics and human 166 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:40,770 psychology. 167 00:07:40,770 --> 00:07:41,950 And partly, it's interesting. 168 00:07:41,950 --> 00:07:43,690 These are the unusual facial features of 169 00:07:43,690 --> 00:07:45,060 these kinds of children. 170 00:07:45,060 --> 00:07:46,630 They're born this way. 171 00:07:46,630 --> 00:07:49,540 And it's caused by deletion of 26 genes from the long arm of 172 00:07:49,540 --> 00:07:50,410 chromosome 7. 173 00:07:50,410 --> 00:07:54,180 It's one of the most purely defined and specific genetic 174 00:07:54,180 --> 00:07:56,970 developmental disorders in humans. 175 00:07:56,970 --> 00:07:59,110 So it's really drawn the interest of geneticists. 176 00:07:59,110 --> 00:08:03,490 Because it's a disorder that's really very linked to a very 177 00:08:03,490 --> 00:08:08,790 specific part of the human genome always. 178 00:08:08,790 --> 00:08:11,760 Distinctive, what they call elfin facial features, 179 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:14,330 developmentally delayed language skills. 180 00:08:14,330 --> 00:08:19,570 And maybe the most curious and charming element is unusually 181 00:08:19,570 --> 00:08:21,800 cheerful demeanor and ease with strangers. 182 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:24,150 These are the children who will walk up to strangers and 183 00:08:24,150 --> 00:08:29,140 talk your ear off and not be afraid of anybody or anything. 184 00:08:29,140 --> 00:08:32,159 To an extent that's charming, can get you in trouble with 185 00:08:32,159 --> 00:08:35,740 the world being the way it is. 186 00:08:35,740 --> 00:08:37,429 It's sometimes contrasted with autism. 187 00:08:37,429 --> 00:08:39,700 Because individual with autism find social interactions 188 00:08:39,700 --> 00:08:42,880 sometimes laborious, difficult, mysterious. 189 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:45,320 These individuals find it delightful, nonstop. 190 00:08:45,320 --> 00:08:47,590 You get tired sometimes of talking to such children, 191 00:08:47,590 --> 00:08:50,570 because they're ready to go infinitely in terms of social 192 00:08:50,570 --> 00:08:52,070 interaction. 193 00:08:52,070 --> 00:08:53,680 And there's been some study that they have atypical 194 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:56,690 amygdala function and lack of fear response there. 195 00:08:56,690 --> 00:08:58,800 So that's the background about Williams syndrome. 196 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:01,370 And then somebody did a IAT study. 197 00:09:01,370 --> 00:09:02,270 This was in France. 198 00:09:02,270 --> 00:09:05,150 But its been replicated since. 199 00:09:05,150 --> 00:09:06,990 That shows that for these children with Williams 200 00:09:06,990 --> 00:09:11,100 syndrome, they still have a gender IAT effect. 201 00:09:11,100 --> 00:09:14,000 That is for example, they're willing to consider women less 202 00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:15,990 likely to be good at science and math, 203 00:09:15,990 --> 00:09:17,290 which we know is silly. 204 00:09:17,290 --> 00:09:20,270 But that's the stereotype. 205 00:09:20,270 --> 00:09:22,810 But they showed no racial IAT effect. 206 00:09:22,810 --> 00:09:25,660 And they had control participants who showed both. 207 00:09:25,660 --> 00:09:27,340 So now, there's still interpretation. 208 00:09:27,340 --> 00:09:31,920 But all of sudden, it's as if this is deeper in the brain. 209 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:33,650 And maybe this is learned. 210 00:09:33,650 --> 00:09:35,900 And these children aren't learning this one. 211 00:09:35,900 --> 00:09:39,000 But they can't stop this one. 212 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:42,090 So a suggestion that there is something true about this 213 00:09:42,090 --> 00:09:44,160 evolutionary psychology thing. 214 00:09:44,160 --> 00:09:46,390 And that maybe the hardest thing for us to change deep 215 00:09:46,390 --> 00:09:50,770 down, because of the fundamental sexual relations 216 00:09:50,770 --> 00:09:52,310 in procreation. 217 00:09:52,310 --> 00:09:55,340 That's a hard thing for us to work our head around, without 218 00:09:55,340 --> 00:09:58,160 being thoughtful and careful about it. 219 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:00,810 So here's an experiment that was used to demonstrate. 220 00:10:00,810 --> 00:10:03,610 So what's the usual story? 221 00:10:03,610 --> 00:10:06,440 The usual story in evolution is people on average, not 222 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:07,830 everybody of course, wants to have kids. 223 00:10:07,830 --> 00:10:09,870 Because that's how they pass their genes down. 224 00:10:09,870 --> 00:10:13,300 And who has a lot of investment per kid, in however 225 00:10:13,300 --> 00:10:14,710 way you look it? 226 00:10:14,710 --> 00:10:16,520 Women. 227 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:20,080 For women it's, just the first part is nine months. 228 00:10:20,080 --> 00:10:22,570 And then the immediate support. 229 00:10:22,570 --> 00:10:26,240 For men, how long is the minimal contribution? 230 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:26,970 15 seconds. 231 00:10:26,970 --> 00:10:29,170 OK, well 15 minutes. 232 00:10:29,170 --> 00:10:29,860 It varies. 233 00:10:29,860 --> 00:10:31,110 But you know. 234 00:10:33,260 --> 00:10:36,180 So there's a theory that if the thing you cared about was 235 00:10:36,180 --> 00:10:37,740 just getting us your genes down 236 00:10:37,740 --> 00:10:40,370 there as much as possible. 237 00:10:40,370 --> 00:10:42,230 Was it Wilt Chamberlain, the former basketball player, who 238 00:10:42,230 --> 00:10:43,850 said he had slept with 1,000 women. 239 00:10:43,850 --> 00:10:47,620 That he would be like the champion example in men. 240 00:10:47,620 --> 00:10:52,230 And with women, it's you can't do a 1,000 nine-month cycles. 241 00:10:52,230 --> 00:10:54,190 So that for men, if that was the only thing in 242 00:10:54,190 --> 00:10:55,120 life, and it's not. 243 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:57,260 But here's the experiment they did. 244 00:10:57,260 --> 00:10:59,200 We couldn't have an IRB approve this. 245 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:01,450 But this was done at a university. 246 00:11:01,450 --> 00:11:02,610 And they said, we're going to show you an 247 00:11:02,610 --> 00:11:03,450 experiment like this. 248 00:11:03,450 --> 00:11:05,680 And this is meant to be kind of silly. 249 00:11:05,680 --> 00:11:06,690 But this is how evolutionary 250 00:11:06,690 --> 00:11:07,850 psychology, things are expressed. 251 00:11:07,850 --> 00:11:09,450 And it's kind of funny, I think. 252 00:11:09,450 --> 00:11:10,870 We'll see. 253 00:11:10,870 --> 00:11:13,656 So what they would do is they pick take an attractive man 254 00:11:13,656 --> 00:11:14,520 and an attractive woman. 255 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:16,440 They were the confederates. 256 00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:18,880 And they would approach a student leaving the library, a 257 00:11:18,880 --> 00:11:21,090 random student. 258 00:11:21,090 --> 00:11:22,400 And here's the responder, who is a woman. 259 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:24,620 Imagine yourself as women now, for those of you who are 260 00:11:24,620 --> 00:11:27,560 woman, leaving a library, kind of late at night, not too 261 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:27,870 threatening. 262 00:11:27,870 --> 00:11:32,180 But somebody walks up to you and says, I've noticed you in 263 00:11:32,180 --> 00:11:33,540 the library a few times. 264 00:11:33,540 --> 00:11:35,260 You seem very nice. 265 00:11:35,260 --> 00:11:36,890 Do you think there's any chance we could get together 266 00:11:36,890 --> 00:11:40,000 for a date sometime? 267 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:44,090 What percentage of women said yes? 268 00:11:44,090 --> 00:11:48,155 In this study, 50%. 269 00:11:48,155 --> 00:11:50,680 Do you think that's high? 270 00:11:50,680 --> 00:11:53,800 Let's pretend it was a better approach 271 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:57,376 than what I just said. 272 00:11:57,376 --> 00:11:59,450 I tried to make it low key and nice, a 273 00:11:59,450 --> 00:12:00,700 low key, nice approach. 274 00:12:04,810 --> 00:12:07,230 For other women, the same male confederate walks up and says, 275 00:12:07,230 --> 00:12:08,050 I've noticed you in library. 276 00:12:08,050 --> 00:12:09,490 You seem very nice. 277 00:12:09,490 --> 00:12:12,570 What do you about going back to my apartment and having 278 00:12:12,570 --> 00:12:13,820 some coffee? 279 00:12:15,810 --> 00:12:16,510 We'll take turns then. 280 00:12:16,510 --> 00:12:19,160 Women, what do you think is the number? 281 00:12:19,160 --> 00:12:20,630 We start with 50. 282 00:12:20,630 --> 00:12:20,880 What? 283 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:22,130 20. 284 00:12:26,300 --> 00:12:27,540 I noticed you in the library. 285 00:12:27,540 --> 00:12:28,290 You seem very nice. 286 00:12:28,290 --> 00:12:31,010 I think there's something compatible between us. 287 00:12:31,010 --> 00:12:32,715 What do you think about going back to my apartment and 288 00:12:32,715 --> 00:12:33,965 having sex right now? 289 00:12:36,430 --> 00:12:38,820 See finally, the course gets super practical. 290 00:12:44,740 --> 00:12:45,400 I'm not saying it. 291 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:47,580 This is just one study. 292 00:12:47,580 --> 00:12:48,540 Now, we reverse the roles. 293 00:12:48,540 --> 00:12:51,040 Men, you get ready, all right? 294 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:53,040 An attractive woman walks up to you and says, I noticed in 295 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:53,450 the library. 296 00:12:53,450 --> 00:12:54,590 You seem very friendly. 297 00:12:54,590 --> 00:12:56,030 We seem to be compatible. 298 00:12:56,030 --> 00:12:58,574 Would you be willing to have a date with me some time? 299 00:12:58,574 --> 00:12:59,824 AUDIENCE: 100%. 300 00:13:02,660 --> 00:13:06,530 PROFESSOR: Would you be willing, the woman says to the 301 00:13:06,530 --> 00:13:10,230 man, to go back to my apartment with me right now? 302 00:13:18,780 --> 00:13:20,770 All right, you know where this going. 303 00:13:20,770 --> 00:13:22,210 An attractive woman walks up to the man. 304 00:13:22,210 --> 00:13:24,560 And she says, would you go back to my apartment to have 305 00:13:24,560 --> 00:13:25,990 sex with me this very minute? 306 00:13:32,290 --> 00:13:33,750 The guys got things to do. 307 00:13:33,750 --> 00:13:35,610 You now, he can't-- 308 00:13:35,610 --> 00:13:36,100 Yeah? 309 00:13:36,100 --> 00:13:38,410 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]? 310 00:13:38,410 --> 00:13:40,580 PROFESSOR: What is the citation for this? 311 00:13:40,580 --> 00:13:41,090 Let me get that. 312 00:13:41,090 --> 00:13:42,460 I heard it in a talk. 313 00:13:42,460 --> 00:13:42,520 And I saw the numbers. 314 00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:44,850 The numbers are correct. 315 00:13:44,850 --> 00:13:46,820 I have to say when this was presented, there was some 316 00:13:46,820 --> 00:13:49,360 murmuring, because maybe it wasn't quite IRB-approved. 317 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:50,540 I heard it from a good source. 318 00:13:50,540 --> 00:13:53,860 I'll get that for you. 319 00:13:53,860 --> 00:13:55,110 It's in your notes. 320 00:13:59,690 --> 00:14:02,560 So evolutionary psychology, whatever, it's kind of fun. 321 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:04,340 But it's hard to know where it gets you. 322 00:14:04,340 --> 00:14:06,360 But it's definitely fun to talk about. 323 00:14:06,360 --> 00:14:09,300 So happiness research. 324 00:14:09,300 --> 00:14:13,560 So for a long time, from ancient philosophy to the 325 00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:15,750 founding of the US and everything, people said, the 326 00:14:15,750 --> 00:14:17,960 objective of life, as we choose it, Aristotle, for 327 00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:20,180 itself, and never for any other reason. 328 00:14:20,180 --> 00:14:22,640 And one of the most amazing phrases in the Declaration of 329 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:24,290 independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, 330 00:14:24,290 --> 00:14:25,890 that all men are created equal, that they are endowed 331 00:14:25,890 --> 00:14:27,800 by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among 332 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:29,560 these are life and liberty." Well, that we would think 333 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:31,970 would be obvious things, now. 334 00:14:31,970 --> 00:14:35,220 But this amazing thing, "and the pursuit of Happiness." 335 00:14:35,220 --> 00:14:38,350 As important as life itself and liberty itself, the 336 00:14:38,350 --> 00:14:39,270 pursuit of happiness. 337 00:14:39,270 --> 00:14:42,320 And I think we know that in our own lives, as we relate to 338 00:14:42,320 --> 00:14:46,350 other people, as we pursue careers, as we do things, 339 00:14:46,350 --> 00:14:50,220 where we put our limited lifetime resources, time and 340 00:14:50,220 --> 00:14:53,390 effort, we all want to end up in a deep way to be happy and 341 00:14:53,390 --> 00:14:56,030 make the choices to get there. 342 00:14:56,030 --> 00:14:58,570 So we can think on average, you could think in your head 343 00:14:58,570 --> 00:15:00,720 what makes you happy, what makes you want unhappy? 344 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:03,430 And a standard list might be, people 345 00:15:03,430 --> 00:15:05,330 definitely want to be healthy. 346 00:15:05,330 --> 00:15:07,420 Nobody minds being wealthy. 347 00:15:07,420 --> 00:15:09,140 We'll talk about that. 348 00:15:09,140 --> 00:15:11,610 It never hurts to get a new car, a new TV, 349 00:15:11,610 --> 00:15:13,230 or new stuff, right? 350 00:15:13,230 --> 00:15:14,110 What makes you unhappy? 351 00:15:14,110 --> 00:15:16,390 Physical injury, emotional injury. 352 00:15:16,390 --> 00:15:20,080 I mean that would be kind of standard. 353 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,680 Now, how do you measure happiness? 354 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:24,590 And this is the part where you get us into the funniness of 355 00:15:24,590 --> 00:15:25,100 psychology. 356 00:15:25,100 --> 00:15:29,220 So you have with you a questionnaire, which is one of 357 00:15:29,220 --> 00:15:32,620 the most widely used measures of happiness. 358 00:15:32,620 --> 00:15:34,670 So I'll just give you a moment to look at it. 359 00:15:34,670 --> 00:15:35,740 You could fill it out for yourself. 360 00:15:35,740 --> 00:15:38,080 We're not going to collect it. 361 00:15:38,080 --> 00:15:39,580 And you may even want to or whatever. 362 00:15:39,580 --> 00:15:40,920 But just to get a feeling of this. 363 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:42,140 And you could say-- 364 00:15:42,140 --> 00:15:42,980 oh, sorry. 365 00:15:42,980 --> 00:15:44,190 Anybody else who didn't get it, that we 366 00:15:44,190 --> 00:15:45,440 could help you with? 367 00:15:48,100 --> 00:15:49,135 A few hands over here. 368 00:15:49,135 --> 00:15:50,385 Oh, thank you. 369 00:15:54,070 --> 00:15:56,570 Again, let me say whoever did this amazing display is maybe 370 00:15:56,570 --> 00:15:57,210 super happy. 371 00:15:57,210 --> 00:15:59,120 So you're ahead of me. 372 00:15:59,120 --> 00:16:00,370 Thank you. 373 00:16:03,560 --> 00:16:05,070 So it's measured in life value. 374 00:16:05,070 --> 00:16:07,830 You ask the person like basically, how happy are you? 375 00:16:07,830 --> 00:16:10,810 And we have a tendency to be suspicious of just asking 376 00:16:10,810 --> 00:16:11,670 people straight on. 377 00:16:11,670 --> 00:16:15,080 Because if we ask them straight on, would you say 378 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,160 this line is as big as this line, if three 379 00:16:17,160 --> 00:16:17,710 other people said that? 380 00:16:17,710 --> 00:16:19,190 You'd say, no, not me. 381 00:16:19,190 --> 00:16:22,660 If you say, would you zap somebody until you think 382 00:16:22,660 --> 00:16:24,340 they're dead in another room? 383 00:16:24,340 --> 00:16:25,890 You'd say no, not me. 384 00:16:25,890 --> 00:16:29,300 So we're very suspicious about what people say they will do 385 00:16:29,300 --> 00:16:30,830 and what they really do. 386 00:16:30,830 --> 00:16:34,440 But for happiness research, it's hard to beat that. 387 00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:35,040 Here's another one. 388 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:38,920 You can circle the happiness that represents you. 389 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:41,560 Because what's the better question, what's the more 390 00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:44,450 objective measure to decide that somebody's happy, a brain 391 00:16:44,450 --> 00:16:46,080 image, a blood test? 392 00:16:46,080 --> 00:16:49,290 We don't have a better thing than the person's own 393 00:16:49,290 --> 00:16:51,630 statement about their sense of happiness. 394 00:16:51,630 --> 00:16:53,790 All the way back to a Roman philosopher, "The happy man is 395 00:16:53,790 --> 00:16:57,170 not he who seems thus to others, but who seems thus to 396 00:16:57,170 --> 00:17:01,850 himself." We don't know of a better way to ask you if 397 00:17:01,850 --> 00:17:04,230 you're happy, than to ask if you're happy. 398 00:17:04,230 --> 00:17:07,050 So it's not the most satisfying kind of objective, 399 00:17:07,050 --> 00:17:08,660 scientific measure. 400 00:17:08,660 --> 00:17:10,349 But maybe it's the life we lead anywhere. 401 00:17:10,349 --> 00:17:13,770 We decide if we're happy or not, in some sense. 402 00:17:13,770 --> 00:17:18,359 So if you ask people on average how happy they are, 403 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:20,760 2/3 of the people will put themselves here, almost 404 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:22,099 everybody above average. 405 00:17:22,099 --> 00:17:25,764 A few people report that they're consistently unhappy. 406 00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:30,850 And I'm going to come back to this, but the thing that 407 00:17:30,850 --> 00:17:33,960 struck happiness researchers, surprisingly modest 408 00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:36,380 influences, and I'm going to touch this up a little bit 409 00:17:36,380 --> 00:17:40,970 with a research study, of social status, income, gender, 410 00:17:40,970 --> 00:17:41,600 or ethnicity. 411 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:44,200 A number of things that you could have thought would touch 412 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:49,690 that, surprisingly don't touch it, or in very limited ways. 413 00:17:49,690 --> 00:17:53,160 But I'll tell you a little bit about those limited ways. 414 00:17:53,160 --> 00:17:55,990 So on a seven-point scale, the average is 4 or a 5. 415 00:17:55,990 --> 00:17:58,010 College students, 4.9. 416 00:17:58,010 --> 00:18:00,050 Older people, happier. 417 00:18:00,050 --> 00:18:01,130 We've talk about that before. 418 00:18:01,130 --> 00:18:03,710 Ironically, even though older people probably face more 419 00:18:03,710 --> 00:18:07,930 challenges in various ways and limited life spans, they seem 420 00:18:07,930 --> 00:18:09,180 happier by self-report. 421 00:18:12,190 --> 00:18:16,910 One argument that income has little relationship is this 422 00:18:16,910 --> 00:18:19,410 kind of a graph, that looks at the average income in the US 423 00:18:19,410 --> 00:18:21,540 from 1930 to 1991. 424 00:18:21,540 --> 00:18:24,650 So here's this increase, that's not going up anymore. 425 00:18:24,650 --> 00:18:27,160 But it was in the last century. 426 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:28,980 And self-reported happiness. 427 00:18:28,980 --> 00:18:32,650 And you can see that at some point, it goes up, but then it 428 00:18:32,650 --> 00:18:34,750 flattens out. 429 00:18:34,750 --> 00:18:37,830 So the general thought analysis, I'll show you a 430 00:18:37,830 --> 00:18:44,020 little bit more detail, is, not much money or in current 431 00:18:44,020 --> 00:18:47,570 situations, poverty, does strike down 432 00:18:47,570 --> 00:18:49,200 people's sense of happiness. 433 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,660 But once you get above some threshold, and of course, what 434 00:18:51,660 --> 00:18:54,770 that threshold is varies in so many ways depending on who you 435 00:18:54,770 --> 00:18:57,310 are and what you expect, but once you get above some 436 00:18:57,310 --> 00:18:59,480 threshold, that's not the biggest part 437 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:01,020 of the story anymore. 438 00:19:01,020 --> 00:19:05,770 And that's pretty much a general finding. 439 00:19:05,770 --> 00:19:07,570 They've done all kinds of surveys about 440 00:19:07,570 --> 00:19:09,220 happiness across countries. 441 00:19:09,220 --> 00:19:11,410 It's a really interesting thing about happiness 442 00:19:11,410 --> 00:19:13,650 research, it's more powerful than you can imagine in 443 00:19:13,650 --> 00:19:16,900 grabbing hold of the minds of many people in public policy. 444 00:19:16,900 --> 00:19:19,380 Derek Bok, the former president of Harvard, has 445 00:19:19,380 --> 00:19:22,750 written a book suggesting that happiness research ought to be 446 00:19:22,750 --> 00:19:25,490 the basis of public policies by the government. 447 00:19:25,490 --> 00:19:30,210 That if know what makes people happy, short of giving 448 00:19:30,210 --> 00:19:33,070 everybody $1 million every year, why wouldn't you tweak 449 00:19:33,070 --> 00:19:36,610 every policy, even if people don't think it will make them 450 00:19:36,610 --> 00:19:39,510 happy, but you know from research it will? 451 00:19:39,510 --> 00:19:42,480 And then here's a world map, where they surveyed people all 452 00:19:42,480 --> 00:19:43,310 over the place. 453 00:19:43,310 --> 00:19:45,260 The darker the color, the more people 454 00:19:45,260 --> 00:19:46,810 reported themselves happy. 455 00:19:46,810 --> 00:19:50,090 Now, this is very tricky. 456 00:19:50,090 --> 00:19:53,320 Because now you're in full scale, there's things like 457 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:56,610 poverty, but there's also things like cultural emphases. 458 00:19:56,610 --> 00:19:59,470 In the US, we talk a lot about happiness. 459 00:19:59,470 --> 00:20:02,110 That concept is less prevalent in many other cultures, 460 00:20:02,110 --> 00:20:03,300 relatively speaking. 461 00:20:03,300 --> 00:20:05,320 So it's hard to know how much is the culture, how much is 462 00:20:05,320 --> 00:20:10,040 the actual per capita income relevant. 463 00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:12,240 But people are pursuing these things. 464 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:14,530 And they are finding roughly-- 465 00:20:14,530 --> 00:20:17,060 the most recent one, that again in countries where 466 00:20:17,060 --> 00:20:21,040 there's a lot of poverty, it's less than in countries where 467 00:20:21,040 --> 00:20:22,980 you start to have higher incomes. 468 00:20:22,980 --> 00:20:27,270 So poverty is still associated with less happiness. 469 00:20:27,270 --> 00:20:31,250 And you can guess that is reasonable. 470 00:20:31,250 --> 00:20:33,530 And then more studies like this, 471 00:20:33,530 --> 00:20:35,580 again about that direction. 472 00:20:35,580 --> 00:20:41,730 So early on, people said that income has 473 00:20:41,730 --> 00:20:43,130 nothing to do with happiness. 474 00:20:43,130 --> 00:20:45,500 And that seems not quite right, especially at the lower 475 00:20:45,500 --> 00:20:46,380 end of poverty. 476 00:20:46,380 --> 00:20:50,280 Now, Dan Kahneman, the Nobel Laureate, a psychologist at 477 00:20:50,280 --> 00:20:52,910 Princeton, has spent the last few years talking about what 478 00:20:52,910 --> 00:20:54,440 he calls the focusing illusion. 479 00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:55,505 And let me tell you what that is. 480 00:20:55,505 --> 00:20:59,080 It's basically this, when thinking about one topic, it 481 00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:02,070 could be income, could be graduate school admissions. 482 00:21:02,070 --> 00:21:05,280 Like whatever the topic is, fairness, whatever the topic 483 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:07,950 is, when you're thinking about that one topic, people tend to 484 00:21:07,950 --> 00:21:10,850 attribute more importance to that topic than it really has. 485 00:21:10,850 --> 00:21:13,400 They think it accounts for more of what goes in the world 486 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:14,730 when they're focused on it. 487 00:21:14,730 --> 00:21:16,950 And you see this all the time in political discussions. 488 00:21:16,950 --> 00:21:18,350 Like it's all the deficit. 489 00:21:18,350 --> 00:21:20,440 If we just fix the deficit, everything works. 490 00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:21,520 It's all raising taxes. 491 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:22,670 If we just do this. 492 00:21:22,670 --> 00:21:24,220 People fixate on one thing. 493 00:21:24,220 --> 00:21:26,240 And then that's the answer to the whole problem. 494 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:29,960 That all the time, never mind political debates where things 495 00:21:29,960 --> 00:21:31,380 might be staged, but even in one's own 496 00:21:31,380 --> 00:21:32,920 personal life, that happens. 497 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:34,170 Let me give you an example of how they 498 00:21:34,170 --> 00:21:35,700 showed that to be true. 499 00:21:35,700 --> 00:21:38,800 They have people rate their happiness, just like you have. 500 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,880 And then they ask them, and these were, how many dates for 501 00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:44,070 the single people, how many dates in the last month? 502 00:21:44,070 --> 00:21:46,890 And they get no correlation between self-rated happiness 503 00:21:46,890 --> 00:21:49,720 and how many dates you've had in the last month. 504 00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:51,140 Now they were reverse for some people, 505 00:21:51,140 --> 00:21:52,590 the order of questions. 506 00:21:52,590 --> 00:21:55,785 How many dates have you had in the last month and now rate 507 00:21:55,785 --> 00:21:56,490 your happiness. 508 00:21:56,490 --> 00:21:57,990 And they get a positive correlation. 509 00:21:57,990 --> 00:22:01,800 The more dates you had, the happier your report yourself. 510 00:22:01,800 --> 00:22:05,710 Well, for people who are dating, on average, that's a 511 00:22:05,710 --> 00:22:07,970 measure, like getting out there and meeting people. 512 00:22:07,970 --> 00:22:10,190 It's an average of succeeding in some path 513 00:22:10,190 --> 00:22:11,360 you want to be on. 514 00:22:11,360 --> 00:22:14,220 So when you just thought about this, you said, whoa, if I had 515 00:22:14,220 --> 00:22:18,280 no dates this past month, I must be pretty miserable. 516 00:22:18,280 --> 00:22:19,090 I'm pretty unhappy. 517 00:22:19,090 --> 00:22:20,240 I'm thinking about that. 518 00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:22,980 And all the other elements of your life that contribute to 519 00:22:22,980 --> 00:22:25,360 happiness, because you just focused on that. 520 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:26,980 You just focused on that because the question was 521 00:22:26,980 --> 00:22:29,520 asked, recede disproportionately, compared 522 00:22:29,520 --> 00:22:30,620 to the actual importance. 523 00:22:30,620 --> 00:22:32,440 If you go the other way around, how happy you are, and 524 00:22:32,440 --> 00:22:34,980 you ask this, there's no correlation, because you're 525 00:22:34,980 --> 00:22:38,370 not thinking about this one thing and weighting your 526 00:22:38,370 --> 00:22:41,470 overall happiness by this one question or dimension. 527 00:22:41,470 --> 00:22:42,610 Does that make sense? 528 00:22:42,610 --> 00:22:46,350 So the order is the whole story. 529 00:22:46,350 --> 00:22:49,030 That people, when they think about a topic and then think 530 00:22:49,030 --> 00:22:52,650 of how happy or meaningful it is, they overvalue that topic, 531 00:22:52,650 --> 00:22:54,650 because they just focused in their 532 00:22:54,650 --> 00:22:58,190 minds on this one dimension. 533 00:22:58,190 --> 00:23:02,110 So getting back to this issue of income and how that goes 534 00:23:02,110 --> 00:23:04,980 with happiness, here's what they did, the same thing 535 00:23:04,980 --> 00:23:08,040 again, by asking a specific question and then asking your 536 00:23:08,040 --> 00:23:10,020 general impression, the same idea. 537 00:23:10,020 --> 00:23:14,040 So they said, how bad was your mood the previous day? 538 00:23:14,040 --> 00:23:16,350 So there's a specific question about mood. 539 00:23:16,350 --> 00:23:18,740 Now, how much time do you think people with various 540 00:23:18,740 --> 00:23:21,770 income levels are in a bad mood? 541 00:23:21,770 --> 00:23:23,690 And they picked for example, people making less than 542 00:23:23,690 --> 00:23:28,580 $20,000 or people making more than $100,000. 543 00:23:28,580 --> 00:23:30,900 These people who just answered this question said, gee-- 544 00:23:30,900 --> 00:23:32,150 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]. 545 00:23:35,590 --> 00:23:36,930 PROFESSOR: I don't see anything. 546 00:23:36,930 --> 00:23:38,180 That's right. 547 00:23:40,910 --> 00:23:42,160 Thank you very much. 548 00:24:02,750 --> 00:24:04,180 The cool thing is now that they're making 549 00:24:04,180 --> 00:24:05,300 videos of these lectures. 550 00:24:05,300 --> 00:24:08,030 We have so many applicants to be your peers in 551 00:24:08,030 --> 00:24:08,710 the years to come. 552 00:24:08,710 --> 00:24:11,510 It's going to be unbelievable. 553 00:24:11,510 --> 00:24:13,880 So you guys are great. 554 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:18,260 So they said it was about 32% more bad mood, if you were 555 00:24:18,260 --> 00:24:19,530 making less or more. 556 00:24:19,530 --> 00:24:22,060 If you asked people making how much, it's only a 12% 557 00:24:22,060 --> 00:24:22,400 difference. 558 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:25,030 It matters, but only a third as much. 559 00:24:25,030 --> 00:24:26,540 Because you just got them thinking about 560 00:24:26,540 --> 00:24:27,570 being in a bad mood. 561 00:24:27,570 --> 00:24:33,830 So now they over attribute income for daily happiness. 562 00:24:33,830 --> 00:24:35,120 And here's a kind of interesting thing. 563 00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:35,880 And it's a trade-off. 564 00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:37,440 And it gets us to what is it in your life 565 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:38,740 that makes you happy. 566 00:24:38,740 --> 00:24:45,140 So people making over $100,000 spend about 20% more time on-- 567 00:24:47,670 --> 00:24:48,920 I've got this reversed. 568 00:24:53,100 --> 00:24:56,430 So people making over $100,000 spend more time-- 569 00:24:56,430 --> 00:24:57,210 I'll fix the slide up. 570 00:24:57,210 --> 00:24:57,830 Sorry. 571 00:24:57,830 --> 00:25:00,780 Spend more time on doing things that they report as 572 00:25:00,780 --> 00:25:05,320 being kind of stressful, work, pressure shopping for the 573 00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:08,180 family, pressured childcare situations, what they call 574 00:25:08,180 --> 00:25:09,950 obligatory tasks. 575 00:25:09,950 --> 00:25:12,690 And people who make less money, spend considerably more 576 00:25:12,690 --> 00:25:16,240 time doing things that everybody considers fun when 577 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:19,480 they're doing it, socializing, or watching TV that you like. 578 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:20,760 So you can see it's kind of weird. 579 00:25:20,760 --> 00:25:24,630 It's a little bit of where you put your time and what counts 580 00:25:24,630 --> 00:25:27,035 for you to feel happy about something. 581 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:31,640 Everybody's in pretty much agreement, like you've heard 582 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:34,670 about almost everything, twin studies suggest, the set point 583 00:25:34,670 --> 00:25:36,400 of happiness, where you rate yourself as always 584 00:25:36,400 --> 00:25:40,300 super-happy, moderately happy, or somewhat grumpy, seems to 585 00:25:40,300 --> 00:25:44,650 be about between 15% and 80% heritable. 586 00:25:44,650 --> 00:25:49,630 It's as if a piece of us is born to be super-happy, medium 587 00:25:49,630 --> 00:25:53,160 happy, or chronically grumpy. 588 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:56,150 There's not a better or worse way to be, right? 589 00:25:56,150 --> 00:25:57,730 So that people will call this a set point. 590 00:25:57,730 --> 00:26:00,570 So of course things happen on a day-to-day basis, on a 591 00:26:00,570 --> 00:26:02,950 moment-to-moment basis, that push you up or down in 592 00:26:02,950 --> 00:26:04,440 happiness, of course. 593 00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,480 You'll get good news, you get bad new, you have fearful 594 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:08,750 things, joyful things coming up. 595 00:26:08,750 --> 00:26:11,690 But the idea is that people tend to get back pretty fast 596 00:26:11,690 --> 00:26:16,220 to the set point, their level, whatever that is, of chronic, 597 00:26:16,220 --> 00:26:17,450 constant happiness. 598 00:26:17,450 --> 00:26:20,610 And this is kind of an amazing finding. 599 00:26:20,610 --> 00:26:23,630 So let's take a look at that and add one more point. 600 00:26:23,630 --> 00:26:27,440 So here's extroverts by personality measures and 601 00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:27,750 introverts. 602 00:26:27,750 --> 00:26:30,840 And extroverts report themselves as being happier. 603 00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:34,310 That's a set point example, a personality thing that seems 604 00:26:34,310 --> 00:26:35,720 to go over time. 605 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:39,650 But they share the bumpiness of the week. 606 00:26:39,650 --> 00:26:42,080 Here's how happy they are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 607 00:26:42,080 --> 00:26:45,970 whoa, weekend approaching, and the misery of Sunday, when the 608 00:26:45,970 --> 00:26:48,050 weekend is over. 609 00:26:48,050 --> 00:26:51,000 So you can see in both things, of course they're responding 610 00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:56,000 to the work week cycle of heavy work, anticipation of 611 00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:58,290 the weekend, the weekend itself, and anticipation of 612 00:26:58,290 --> 00:26:59,970 the work day. 613 00:26:59,970 --> 00:27:00,990 Both groups do. 614 00:27:00,990 --> 00:27:04,040 But the set points seem to be a little bit different, the 615 00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:07,700 chronic, constant level. 616 00:27:07,700 --> 00:27:13,960 Now, there's been a bunch of ideas about a question about 617 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:15,630 whether people can be too happy. 618 00:27:15,630 --> 00:27:18,360 Can a person be too happy? 619 00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:20,220 And here's what they find. 620 00:27:20,220 --> 00:27:22,600 That if they had take people who say, I'm super, super, 621 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,630 super happy, and you ask them what's going on their life 622 00:27:25,630 --> 00:27:27,750 that makes some super, super happy? 623 00:27:27,750 --> 00:27:31,140 Those people often report that it's close relations to other 624 00:27:31,140 --> 00:27:34,200 people and often, good deeds or volunteer work, is the 625 00:27:34,200 --> 00:27:37,680 thing that's making them super, super happy. 626 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:40,420 A little less happy on average, but still pretty 627 00:27:40,420 --> 00:27:44,360 happy, are people who have higher incomes, higher 628 00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:48,240 education, and more political participation. 629 00:27:48,240 --> 00:27:49,190 So look at these two things. 630 00:27:49,190 --> 00:27:52,600 And you could say in your own life, but all these things 631 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:53,370 will matter. 632 00:27:53,370 --> 00:27:57,360 But which is the model of success for you in your heart, 633 00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:02,360 the human relations and doing good or the sort of income, 634 00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:04,990 education, active in your world thing? 635 00:28:04,990 --> 00:28:06,200 And it's not one is better than other. 636 00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,530 It's not you have to choose one or the other. 637 00:28:08,530 --> 00:28:10,930 But it seems like people will tend to focus more 638 00:28:10,930 --> 00:28:11,280 on one or the other. 639 00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:12,810 All these things are matter. 640 00:28:12,810 --> 00:28:16,110 But, where you put your heart. 641 00:28:16,110 --> 00:28:16,810 It's easier. 642 00:28:16,810 --> 00:28:18,900 Or you end up doing this, if you're on the 643 00:28:18,900 --> 00:28:21,380 most extensive happy. 644 00:28:21,380 --> 00:28:24,610 So maybe if you want somebody to do a certain thing for you, 645 00:28:24,610 --> 00:28:26,345 you don't want them to be so happy. they have to a little 646 00:28:26,345 --> 00:28:28,010 bit grumbling about stuff. 647 00:28:28,010 --> 00:28:29,830 If you think the world is perfect, you're not going to 648 00:28:29,830 --> 00:28:31,080 fight for political change. 649 00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:35,800 So what makes us happy? 650 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,410 And it turns out in interesting ways, it's more 651 00:28:38,410 --> 00:28:40,010 complicated than you think. 652 00:28:40,010 --> 00:28:42,660 And so it's worth thinking about, because your first 653 00:28:42,660 --> 00:28:45,750 intuitions might not pan out. 654 00:28:45,750 --> 00:28:46,500 So here's an example. 655 00:28:46,500 --> 00:28:48,640 But I want to tell you this, I'll remind you of this again. 656 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:50,620 And then switch to every day one. 657 00:28:50,620 --> 00:28:54,050 So one part of happiness is that when we reconstruct what 658 00:28:54,050 --> 00:28:56,710 made us happy, what made us happy growing up as a child; 659 00:28:56,710 --> 00:28:58,920 what made as happy as an adolescent in high school; 660 00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:02,810 what made us happy last year, last month, last week, that's 661 00:29:02,810 --> 00:29:03,790 all out of memory. 662 00:29:03,790 --> 00:29:07,590 That's not the current moment of joy or frustration. 663 00:29:07,590 --> 00:29:09,800 That's your sense of what was it all about. 664 00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:11,850 Where was I in terms of happiness? 665 00:29:11,850 --> 00:29:17,200 And so Kahneman again did this work looking at pain ratings 666 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:19,450 during a dental procedure. 667 00:29:19,450 --> 00:29:21,550 And he said, what determines your memory for 668 00:29:21,550 --> 00:29:23,490 how painful it was? 669 00:29:23,490 --> 00:29:28,600 And the two values were the peak of the pain and the 670 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:30,370 ending intensity. 671 00:29:30,370 --> 00:29:34,540 So that if you added a little extra pain at the end, people 672 00:29:34,540 --> 00:29:35,950 actually rated the whole session in 673 00:29:35,950 --> 00:29:37,710 memory as less painful. 674 00:29:37,710 --> 00:29:42,950 You add some mild pain at the end, rate it as painful, but 675 00:29:42,950 --> 00:29:45,400 because it was mild, because the last number that goes in 676 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:49,050 their algorithm in their mind is the strength at the end, 677 00:29:49,050 --> 00:29:51,310 and the other number seems to be the peak, he could predict 678 00:29:51,310 --> 00:29:54,010 pretty well how you would rate the painfulness 679 00:29:54,010 --> 00:29:55,300 of the entire session. 680 00:29:55,300 --> 00:29:58,910 So this shows you that in many ways, our minds construct our 681 00:29:58,910 --> 00:30:00,060 definitions of happiness. 682 00:30:00,060 --> 00:30:01,870 They're not simply our sensory experience. 683 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:09,370 And here is a thing you could think about for a moment. 684 00:30:09,370 --> 00:30:10,860 Many of have had jobs or something. 685 00:30:10,860 --> 00:30:14,120 You haven't had, most of you, a long work period on a 686 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:16,540 consistent basis, most of you I'm guessing. 687 00:30:16,540 --> 00:30:20,460 But think about are you happier at work or vacation? 688 00:30:20,460 --> 00:30:23,680 So if you ask most people are you happier at work or 689 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:26,980 vacation, most people will say vacation. 690 00:30:26,980 --> 00:30:30,350 That's why I work 50 or 51 weeks of the year to have that 691 00:30:30,350 --> 00:30:31,600 awesome vacation. 692 00:30:34,370 --> 00:30:38,360 If they do a study where you carry a beeper on you and they 693 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:41,580 beep you every once in a while, unexpectedly, and say, 694 00:30:41,580 --> 00:30:43,920 OK, one to seven, how happy are you? 695 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:46,120 And some days you're at the office and some days you're on 696 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,250 your vacation, what happens? 697 00:30:48,250 --> 00:30:54,670 You report yourself happier at work, on average. 698 00:30:54,670 --> 00:30:56,150 So that's amazing. 699 00:30:56,150 --> 00:30:57,280 Why do we have vacations at all? 700 00:30:57,280 --> 00:30:59,830 Not to be miserable. 701 00:30:59,830 --> 00:31:03,560 I mean could you imagine an ad that said come to our hotel, 702 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:05,970 you'll be less miserable than another 703 00:31:05,970 --> 00:31:07,190 hotel on your vacation. 704 00:31:07,190 --> 00:31:09,100 That wouldn't work. 705 00:31:09,100 --> 00:31:10,370 What do think is going on here? 706 00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:15,910 This is the finding. 707 00:31:15,910 --> 00:31:18,130 What's going on here in the interpretation is, when we 708 00:31:18,130 --> 00:31:20,920 think ahead about a vacation or when we reconstruct in our 709 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,270 mind, there's some things about it that make 710 00:31:23,270 --> 00:31:26,310 us like it a lot. 711 00:31:26,310 --> 00:31:28,620 When we're on the vacation, and you may know this, and I 712 00:31:28,620 --> 00:31:30,620 think part of it is the anticipation of vacation 713 00:31:30,620 --> 00:31:32,860 sometimes, what happens? 714 00:31:32,860 --> 00:31:34,840 The hotel wasn't so good. 715 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,920 You got that food poisoning that ruined the whole trip. 716 00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:39,980 Your brother or sister were really a nuisance. 717 00:31:39,980 --> 00:31:41,610 Your parents were a drag. 718 00:31:41,610 --> 00:31:44,530 Your parents can't understand why you were so sulky. 719 00:31:44,530 --> 00:31:47,660 It's was like you didn't have the space to separate out and 720 00:31:47,660 --> 00:31:51,710 get yourself all sorted out. 721 00:31:51,710 --> 00:31:52,900 I had that too as a kid. 722 00:31:52,900 --> 00:31:55,760 I mean sometimes whatever little conflicts you had at 723 00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:58,520 home seem to get exaggerated when you're jammed in 724 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,070 together, for long periods in cars or 725 00:32:00,070 --> 00:32:01,990 rooms or tents or whatever. 726 00:32:01,990 --> 00:32:04,800 And then you go that home and in a couple weeks you go man, 727 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:06,650 that was an awesome vacation. 728 00:32:06,650 --> 00:32:07,450 I'll never forget it. 729 00:32:07,450 --> 00:32:08,690 It means so much to me. 730 00:32:08,690 --> 00:32:10,700 And it's not that you're faking it. 731 00:32:10,700 --> 00:32:11,820 You really feel that. 732 00:32:11,820 --> 00:32:13,930 Otherwise, you wouldn't get ready for the next vacation, 733 00:32:13,930 --> 00:32:15,390 the next year. 734 00:32:15,390 --> 00:32:18,320 So what this suggests is, in ourselves, really there's at 735 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:23,270 least two ways, or two minds, thinking about happiness. 736 00:32:23,270 --> 00:32:25,490 One is a moment to moment happiness. 737 00:32:25,490 --> 00:32:26,700 That's real. 738 00:32:26,700 --> 00:32:29,110 And one is a sort of big picture, 739 00:32:29,110 --> 00:32:31,700 what is my life about. 740 00:32:31,700 --> 00:32:35,180 And I feel like my life about is going to interesting places 741 00:32:35,180 --> 00:32:36,480 with people I care about. 742 00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:37,730 That's a vacation. 743 00:32:39,630 --> 00:32:41,040 It's not that people are hypocritical. 744 00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:43,390 It's that in them there's these different dimensions of 745 00:32:43,390 --> 00:32:46,750 happiness that are tapped by different moments of thought. 746 00:32:49,670 --> 00:32:52,790 Happiness researchers, their most controversial topic, 747 00:32:52,790 --> 00:32:54,840 because they can explain almost everything in the story 748 00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:58,370 I just told you, is children. 749 00:32:58,370 --> 00:33:02,180 So you talk to parents. 750 00:33:02,180 --> 00:33:08,100 And over 33% will say the single biggest thing that's 751 00:33:08,100 --> 00:33:11,190 the joy in their life is having children or 752 00:33:11,190 --> 00:33:12,020 grandchildren. 753 00:33:12,020 --> 00:33:12,930 That's a very common thing. 754 00:33:12,930 --> 00:33:14,900 You could say you're surprised it's not more. 755 00:33:14,900 --> 00:33:15,800 But still, it's a lot. 756 00:33:15,800 --> 00:33:17,140 It's the single biggest thing. 757 00:33:17,140 --> 00:33:19,820 And I think people really mostly believe that 758 00:33:19,820 --> 00:33:21,970 when they say that. 759 00:33:21,970 --> 00:33:25,270 If you have people keep a day-to-day diary, the 760 00:33:25,270 --> 00:33:28,930 moment-to-moment source of happiness, and they rate one 761 00:33:28,930 --> 00:33:32,237 to seven, everything they just did, so it's kind of fresh in 762 00:33:32,237 --> 00:33:39,830 their memory, childcare is rated just over housework, 763 00:33:39,830 --> 00:33:42,965 below sex, socializing with friends, watching TV, praying, 764 00:33:42,965 --> 00:33:46,160 eating, and cooking. 765 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:50,300 Because again, it's this weirdness of like, oh, he's 766 00:33:50,300 --> 00:33:52,110 not doing his homework or we're afraid she's doing 767 00:33:52,110 --> 00:33:55,820 something or little kids are just running around, not doing 768 00:33:55,820 --> 00:33:56,900 what you ask them to do. 769 00:33:56,900 --> 00:34:00,445 And it's so frustrating because you can't get them. 770 00:34:00,445 --> 00:34:02,520 So happiness researchers don't understand why people have 771 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:03,070 children at all. 772 00:34:03,070 --> 00:34:04,020 They can't explain it. 773 00:34:04,020 --> 00:34:05,240 There's a lot of effort going on to come 774 00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:07,030 up with some formula. 775 00:34:07,030 --> 00:34:09,320 And again, it's not that people will tell you oh, we 776 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:10,310 can't believe we had kids. 777 00:34:10,310 --> 00:34:12,900 How stupid was that? 778 00:34:12,900 --> 00:34:16,610 They say and they feel, it is a phenomenal source of 779 00:34:16,610 --> 00:34:17,440 happiness for them. 780 00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:19,860 It's just when you ask them, how about five minutes ago? 781 00:34:19,860 --> 00:34:22,469 They go, no. 782 00:34:22,469 --> 00:34:23,510 Why did he talk that way? 783 00:34:23,510 --> 00:34:25,010 Why doesn't he or she listen to me? 784 00:34:25,010 --> 00:34:26,659 Why don't they clean the room ever? 785 00:34:26,659 --> 00:34:27,929 They're 25 years old. 786 00:34:27,929 --> 00:34:30,020 They could make their bed. 787 00:34:30,020 --> 00:34:32,919 Or whatever. 788 00:34:32,919 --> 00:34:35,370 So it's really interesting, these two different dimensions 789 00:34:35,370 --> 00:34:36,150 of happiness. 790 00:34:36,150 --> 00:34:39,120 So this idea that within us there's multiple selves, the 791 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:41,280 moment to moment self, that's real. 792 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:43,310 The big picture, what is my life about? 793 00:34:43,310 --> 00:34:44,090 That's real. 794 00:34:44,090 --> 00:34:45,440 They're not always perfectly aligned. 795 00:34:49,179 --> 00:34:51,830 In the US, the moment to moment happiness, in a recent 796 00:34:51,830 --> 00:34:55,310 study, increases until about $75,000. 797 00:34:55,310 --> 00:34:56,080 Of course, it's an average. 798 00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:58,860 Depending on what you need to buy, that number will move. 799 00:34:58,860 --> 00:35:00,990 But then it tops out on average. 800 00:35:00,990 --> 00:35:05,280 But the big picture, emotional well-being, but overall 801 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:06,860 satisfaction keeps going up with income. 802 00:35:06,860 --> 00:35:09,880 Now, you have to be very careful on these. 803 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:11,420 These are all correlations. 804 00:35:11,420 --> 00:35:14,120 Everything I've told you just about is a correlation. 805 00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,380 So when you say overall satisfaction, sort of big 806 00:35:16,380 --> 00:35:18,920 picture sense of life goes up with income, is 807 00:35:18,920 --> 00:35:20,560 it really the income? 808 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:21,810 What else could it be? 809 00:35:26,910 --> 00:35:31,650 Is it literally the size of your paycheck? 810 00:35:31,650 --> 00:35:32,700 Does it have to be that? 811 00:35:32,700 --> 00:35:34,276 Yeah? 812 00:35:34,276 --> 00:35:34,680 AUDIENCE: Do you think it might be what kind of job 813 00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:35,235 you're doing? 814 00:35:35,235 --> 00:35:36,160 PROFESSOR: It might be the kind of job 815 00:35:36,160 --> 00:35:37,380 you're doing, on average. 816 00:35:37,380 --> 00:35:39,910 And we know there's phenomenally important jobs 817 00:35:39,910 --> 00:35:41,500 that are underpaid in this country. 818 00:35:41,500 --> 00:35:43,020 We know that. 819 00:35:43,020 --> 00:35:45,030 But there's a lot of jobs that are kind of fun to have, that 820 00:35:45,030 --> 00:35:47,610 are decently paid. 821 00:35:47,610 --> 00:35:50,650 Doctors, lawyers, scientists, a lot of people find those 822 00:35:50,650 --> 00:35:53,290 jobs to be pretty fulfilling and pretty decently paid. 823 00:35:53,290 --> 00:35:55,110 And there's other ones as well. 824 00:35:55,110 --> 00:35:58,010 All kinds of jobs are decently paid, that can be fulfilling. 825 00:35:58,010 --> 00:36:01,570 So it's not necessarily that it's just about literally 826 00:36:01,570 --> 00:36:04,560 three more dollars and you're three more dollars happy. 827 00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:06,530 So these correlations are very tricky. 828 00:36:06,530 --> 00:36:10,040 But again, the sense that moment to moment tops out at 829 00:36:10,040 --> 00:36:12,760 somewhere here, well above poverty. 830 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:16,610 But then, big picture keeps going up somewhere. 831 00:36:16,610 --> 00:36:19,620 So think for a moment if you can, just for a moment think 832 00:36:19,620 --> 00:36:24,230 about yourselves five or 10 years from now. 833 00:36:24,230 --> 00:36:26,070 And when you think, if you can, just for one moment 834 00:36:26,070 --> 00:36:28,790 specifically imagine in your mind what you might be doing 835 00:36:28,790 --> 00:36:31,840 five or 10 years from now. 836 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:33,260 And put your hand up if you thought of 837 00:36:33,260 --> 00:36:36,210 something pretty positive. 838 00:36:36,210 --> 00:36:38,600 A hope. 839 00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:40,170 Put your hand up now if you thought of 840 00:36:40,170 --> 00:36:42,290 something kind of negative. 841 00:36:42,290 --> 00:36:43,808 Some of you, oh boy. 842 00:36:47,160 --> 00:36:50,960 Most people, our roots claim, they think about positive 843 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:54,600 things in the future, other than fumbling or failing. 844 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:56,890 So how good are people at predicting what 845 00:36:56,890 --> 00:36:57,850 will make them happy? 846 00:36:57,850 --> 00:36:59,130 How good are people at predicting 847 00:36:59,130 --> 00:36:59,790 will make them happy? 848 00:36:59,790 --> 00:37:01,830 What people call affective forecasting. 849 00:37:01,830 --> 00:37:03,400 So I'll give you two examples. 850 00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:05,170 One that's closer to my life and one 851 00:37:05,170 --> 00:37:07,850 might apply to everybody. 852 00:37:07,850 --> 00:37:09,430 Actually, I'll tell you a word about this. 853 00:37:09,430 --> 00:37:12,090 This is a funny story. 854 00:37:12,090 --> 00:37:14,650 If I don't get tenure, I will be sad. 855 00:37:14,650 --> 00:37:15,930 If I get tenure, I will be happy. 856 00:37:15,930 --> 00:37:17,390 So you know what tenure basically is. 857 00:37:17,390 --> 00:37:19,400 You're given a position, a faculty position, for a 858 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:22,010 lifetime, unless you do something really horrible. 859 00:37:22,010 --> 00:37:26,390 So you can't be fired no matter what you do almost. 860 00:37:26,390 --> 00:37:28,600 You get a lot of freedom from that. 861 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:30,380 So on the other hand, what happens if you don't get 862 00:37:30,380 --> 00:37:31,990 tenure somewhere? 863 00:37:31,990 --> 00:37:33,630 Do you know what happens? 864 00:37:33,630 --> 00:37:35,230 It's not so pleasant, I could tell you. 865 00:37:35,230 --> 00:37:37,610 It's not the end of the world at all. 866 00:37:37,610 --> 00:37:39,310 But let me just tell you what know going in. 867 00:37:39,310 --> 00:37:42,410 What you know going in is your colleagues are going to meet, 868 00:37:42,410 --> 00:37:43,640 they're going vote. 869 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:44,730 They're going to say no. 870 00:37:44,730 --> 00:37:45,290 Which kind of hurts because you've been 871 00:37:45,290 --> 00:37:48,720 there five or six years. 872 00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:50,860 And then you have to leave town. 873 00:37:50,860 --> 00:37:51,840 OK, you don't have to leave town. 874 00:37:51,840 --> 00:37:53,430 There could be another university nearby. 875 00:37:53,430 --> 00:37:55,290 But usually because we're so super specialized in our 876 00:37:55,290 --> 00:37:58,480 fields, you have to leave town and go somewhere else. 877 00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,180 And you have to tell your parents, I didn't get tenure. 878 00:38:00,180 --> 00:38:01,610 And you have to tell your friends, I didn't get tenure. 879 00:38:01,610 --> 00:38:03,445 And all your friends who you know from work, will go, oh, 880 00:38:03,445 --> 00:38:04,330 I'm sorry you didn't get tenure. 881 00:38:04,330 --> 00:38:06,750 For a year, everybody you meet with goes, I'm sorry you 882 00:38:06,750 --> 00:38:07,780 didn't get tenure. 883 00:38:07,780 --> 00:38:10,390 So you just don't want that. 884 00:38:10,390 --> 00:38:13,140 Well, it's a moment I mean. 885 00:38:13,140 --> 00:38:14,140 None of us want it. 886 00:38:14,140 --> 00:38:17,570 So everybody says, I'd rather get tenure than not. 887 00:38:17,570 --> 00:38:20,280 Would you rather win the lottery, than not? 888 00:38:20,280 --> 00:38:22,450 Sure 889 00:38:22,450 --> 00:38:24,710 Happiness researchers love these things. 890 00:38:24,710 --> 00:38:28,030 So it turns out for a couple of years after you don't get 891 00:38:28,030 --> 00:38:30,600 tenure, and all the negativity, and leaving town, 892 00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:32,430 and getting another job, and by the way, some people have 893 00:38:32,430 --> 00:38:36,260 not gotten tenure and become amazing superstars, so the 894 00:38:36,260 --> 00:38:38,540 tenure process is often incorrect in its evaluation. 895 00:38:38,540 --> 00:38:40,460 But two years later, no difference in 896 00:38:40,460 --> 00:38:42,720 happiness at all. 897 00:38:42,720 --> 00:38:45,780 It doesn't really matter in the long run. 898 00:38:45,780 --> 00:38:48,160 Winning the lottery, a year or two later, 899 00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:49,550 no difference either. 900 00:38:49,550 --> 00:38:51,490 There's a whole research field that runs out the minute 901 00:38:51,490 --> 00:38:53,600 somebody wins a big lottery. 902 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:57,460 And I had a bit of experience on this, [INAUDIBLE] 903 00:38:57,460 --> 00:39:01,470 somebody working in my brother's house won the single 904 00:39:01,470 --> 00:39:06,910 largest lottery, at that time, prize ever, for an individual 905 00:39:06,910 --> 00:39:07,900 lottery winner in the United States. 906 00:39:07,900 --> 00:39:09,230 It's been exceeded since. 907 00:39:09,230 --> 00:39:11,090 It was something like $187 million. 908 00:39:11,090 --> 00:39:13,010 And she was definitely pretty happy. 909 00:39:16,390 --> 00:39:21,690 And she's been I have to say remarkably wise since then, in 910 00:39:21,690 --> 00:39:25,040 how she's used the money. 911 00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:27,240 And been a very stable person, kind of. 912 00:39:27,240 --> 00:39:29,870 But there's equal number of stories of people who get into 913 00:39:29,870 --> 00:39:31,120 huge trouble. 914 00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:35,610 Actually, the most amazing story, it's sort of silly to 915 00:39:35,610 --> 00:39:39,330 share, but I have a relatively short lecture. 916 00:39:39,330 --> 00:39:40,650 This was in the news. 917 00:39:40,650 --> 00:39:42,630 Because you know with the lottery they say, whoever wins 918 00:39:42,630 --> 00:39:44,390 this will win the single largest-- 919 00:39:44,390 --> 00:39:46,010 there's a huge number of tickets sold. 920 00:39:46,010 --> 00:39:50,310 And some guy, a taxi driver at the airport, because all the 921 00:39:50,310 --> 00:39:52,270 news outlets wanted to cover this. 922 00:39:52,270 --> 00:39:53,010 And they were trying. 923 00:39:53,010 --> 00:39:53,690 Who won? 924 00:39:53,690 --> 00:39:53,832 Who won? 925 00:39:53,832 --> 00:39:54,260 Who won? 926 00:39:54,260 --> 00:39:55,540 They knew that there was a winner. 927 00:39:55,540 --> 00:39:57,290 They didn't know who it was. 928 00:39:57,290 --> 00:40:00,490 And a taxi driver at the airport supposedly said, I won 929 00:40:00,490 --> 00:40:00,900 the lottery. 930 00:40:00,900 --> 00:40:01,560 I won the lottery. 931 00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:04,380 Now, we knew he didn't, because we knew this person 932 00:40:04,380 --> 00:40:05,510 had won it. 933 00:40:05,510 --> 00:40:07,810 But all the news channels were running after this person, 934 00:40:07,810 --> 00:40:10,490 because other cabdrivers thought he said that. 935 00:40:10,490 --> 00:40:13,560 And then apparently, all the people he owed money were 936 00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:15,410 hunting him down. 937 00:40:15,410 --> 00:40:19,420 And he had to hire a lawyer to sort of fight off people. 938 00:40:19,420 --> 00:40:21,370 And so he was really miserable. 939 00:40:21,370 --> 00:40:25,190 And it was really sad, weird thing to be the lottery winner 940 00:40:25,190 --> 00:40:27,480 who didn't get the lottery, but everybody thought you did. 941 00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:29,400 And there's other stories in towns, these are amazing 942 00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:31,960 stories if you follow it, where they know somebody won 943 00:40:31,960 --> 00:40:32,820 the lottery in the town. 944 00:40:32,820 --> 00:40:34,850 But the person doesn't have to come forward. 945 00:40:34,850 --> 00:40:36,810 And then you get all this weird stuff, because other 946 00:40:36,810 --> 00:40:39,470 people start to guess who really has a ton of money 947 00:40:39,470 --> 00:40:40,590 amongst them. 948 00:40:40,590 --> 00:40:41,920 And they have wrong guesses. 949 00:40:41,920 --> 00:40:44,100 And they go and say like, my mother needs medical surgery. 950 00:40:44,100 --> 00:40:44,670 Won't you help me? 951 00:40:44,670 --> 00:40:47,200 And the person doesn't have the money or maybe that one 952 00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:48,340 does, but most don't. 953 00:40:48,340 --> 00:40:49,340 There's only one. 954 00:40:49,340 --> 00:40:52,760 And so the whole town gets into huge fights and misery 955 00:40:52,760 --> 00:40:54,900 because they are assuming that somebody could do amazing 956 00:40:54,900 --> 00:40:56,510 things for everybody, but they're just being mean 957 00:40:56,510 --> 00:40:57,780 in not doing it. 958 00:40:57,780 --> 00:41:00,830 And 90% of their guesses of who that is are wrong. 959 00:41:00,830 --> 00:41:01,890 More than you want to know about lotteries. 960 00:41:01,890 --> 00:41:04,010 But I can tell you that on average, a year or two later, 961 00:41:04,010 --> 00:41:04,660 no difference. 962 00:41:04,660 --> 00:41:05,660 So it's amazing. 963 00:41:05,660 --> 00:41:07,290 You would think that would make my life, 964 00:41:07,290 --> 00:41:08,600 if I won the lottery. 965 00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:10,970 And probably it does in terms of plasma TVs. 966 00:41:10,970 --> 00:41:15,650 But in terms of self-rated happiness, no difference. 967 00:41:15,650 --> 00:41:18,500 And here's a more amazing thing in certain way, although 968 00:41:18,500 --> 00:41:22,450 if you talk to patients, not as amazing. 969 00:41:22,450 --> 00:41:24,850 If you have a unexpected accident leading to 970 00:41:24,850 --> 00:41:28,840 quadriplegia or paraplegia, so you really can't get around, 971 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:32,870 return to typical ratings of happiness in three months. 972 00:41:32,870 --> 00:41:37,380 So we're incredibly unable to predict, because we would have 973 00:41:37,380 --> 00:41:40,540 all kinds of ideas about how long these would brutalize our 974 00:41:40,540 --> 00:41:41,870 sense of happiness. 975 00:41:41,870 --> 00:41:43,680 And we're wrong, wrong, wrong. 976 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:46,950 We don't know how to predict what will make us happy. 977 00:41:51,180 --> 00:41:52,660 And some people call this hedonic 978 00:41:52,660 --> 00:41:54,470 adaptation or a set point. 979 00:41:54,470 --> 00:41:55,980 That you go back to your set point over 980 00:41:55,980 --> 00:41:57,880 an incredible range. 981 00:41:57,880 --> 00:41:58,640 You do respond. 982 00:41:58,640 --> 00:42:00,180 But you go back to it over an incredible 983 00:42:00,180 --> 00:42:01,850 range of life outcomes. 984 00:42:01,850 --> 00:42:03,950 So there's a small experiment compared to these things, but 985 00:42:03,950 --> 00:42:05,970 a controlled experiment. 986 00:42:05,970 --> 00:42:08,220 Dan Gilbert at Harvard, who's done amazing work in this 987 00:42:08,220 --> 00:42:11,100 area, he had Harvard students in a photography class choose 988 00:42:11,100 --> 00:42:14,350 their two favorite pictures from the entire class. 989 00:42:14,350 --> 00:42:16,860 And they were told they have to give one to their teacher 990 00:42:16,860 --> 00:42:18,510 and they can keep one. 991 00:42:18,510 --> 00:42:19,560 And there were two conditions. 992 00:42:19,560 --> 00:42:21,950 In one condition, once they gave that picture to their 993 00:42:21,950 --> 00:42:23,900 teacher, that was it. 994 00:42:23,900 --> 00:42:27,490 In the other condition, they could change the 995 00:42:27,490 --> 00:42:29,490 picture in a few days. 996 00:42:29,490 --> 00:42:31,750 Now, you know in all this course, every time you think 997 00:42:31,750 --> 00:42:34,560 A, go opposite B, right? 998 00:42:34,560 --> 00:42:37,770 But if you weren't an amazingly sophisticated 999 00:42:37,770 --> 00:42:40,650 psychologist at this point, if you were just a person on the 1000 00:42:40,650 --> 00:42:43,660 street, which do you think would sound better, having no 1001 00:42:43,660 --> 00:42:45,580 choice or having the possibility of exchanging the 1002 00:42:45,580 --> 00:42:47,460 picture, if you want to, in a couple of days? 1003 00:42:47,460 --> 00:42:48,110 It's a choice. 1004 00:42:48,110 --> 00:42:49,850 We like choice, right? 1005 00:42:49,850 --> 00:42:50,240 No. 1006 00:42:50,240 --> 00:42:53,315 The people who are happier are the people who say once hand 1007 00:42:53,315 --> 00:42:54,950 me the picture, that's to me. 1008 00:42:54,950 --> 00:42:56,220 These people are standing around going, I don't know. 1009 00:42:56,220 --> 00:42:56,630 I don't know. 1010 00:42:56,630 --> 00:42:57,450 Where am I going to be happier, this 1011 00:42:57,450 --> 00:42:58,310 picture or that picture? 1012 00:42:58,310 --> 00:42:58,600 I don't know. 1013 00:42:58,600 --> 00:42:58,645 I don't know. 1014 00:42:58,645 --> 00:43:00,110 I can't tell. 1015 00:43:00,110 --> 00:43:03,730 Also once it's an irrevocable choice, what amazing human 1016 00:43:03,730 --> 00:43:05,580 thing comes into play that helps us feel 1017 00:43:05,580 --> 00:43:07,600 good about our lives? 1018 00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:09,610 Cognitive dissonance. 1019 00:43:09,610 --> 00:43:11,220 Did I pick the right picture? 1020 00:43:11,220 --> 00:43:12,580 That teachers is a sucker. 1021 00:43:12,580 --> 00:43:13,940 I thought they were the two best. 1022 00:43:13,940 --> 00:43:17,050 But the one that teacher took, oh, that was pretty bad. 1023 00:43:17,050 --> 00:43:20,850 I can't believe how lucky I am that irrevocably I ended up 1024 00:43:20,850 --> 00:43:22,180 with this picture. 1025 00:43:22,180 --> 00:43:25,590 The person who has days to do this, they can't let cognitive 1026 00:43:25,590 --> 00:43:28,390 dissonance come in and fix up their choice. 1027 00:43:31,006 --> 00:43:34,470 The paradox of choice, why choices can be painful. 1028 00:43:34,470 --> 00:43:35,480 So again, we like choice. 1029 00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:36,860 I like choice. 1030 00:43:36,860 --> 00:43:38,120 There's an experiment. 1031 00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:42,170 People say, you go into a typical big grocery store, 285 1032 00:43:42,170 --> 00:43:45,390 cookie choices, 13 sports drinks, 75 ice teas, 200 1033 00:43:45,390 --> 00:43:47,160 channels and more, on cable. 1034 00:43:50,030 --> 00:43:52,850 So they did an experiment in Palo Alto, Stanford's group, 1035 00:43:52,850 --> 00:43:54,120 in a gourmet food store. 1036 00:43:54,120 --> 00:43:55,900 They had exotic, high-quality jams. 1037 00:43:55,900 --> 00:43:57,420 And you could taste some jams. 1038 00:43:57,420 --> 00:44:00,620 And then get a coupon for $1 off if you buy the jam. 1039 00:44:00,620 --> 00:44:02,530 So a typical kind of thing you might see 1040 00:44:02,530 --> 00:44:04,500 sometimes in grocery stores. 1041 00:44:04,500 --> 00:44:10,030 And they would have you taste either six jams or up to 24. 1042 00:44:10,030 --> 00:44:12,490 Now, most people didn't do 24 jams. 1043 00:44:12,490 --> 00:44:14,850 Because you wouldn't want to have that many, even single 1044 00:44:14,850 --> 00:44:15,680 tastes of a jam. 1045 00:44:15,680 --> 00:44:19,200 But you'll try a few, at a table like this. 1046 00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:21,420 So first of all, here's the two tables. 1047 00:44:21,420 --> 00:44:22,580 Six jams or 24. 1048 00:44:22,580 --> 00:44:24,540 More shoppers came to the table of 24. 1049 00:44:24,540 --> 00:44:25,985 Well, you see 24 jams out there. 1050 00:44:25,985 --> 00:44:27,370 It's kind of impressive. 1051 00:44:27,370 --> 00:44:28,950 Like there's got be something I like there. 1052 00:44:28,950 --> 00:44:29,770 What's going on? 1053 00:44:29,770 --> 00:44:33,300 So more people are drawn to the big choice department. 1054 00:44:33,300 --> 00:44:35,590 Now when they get there, they only have about five jams. 1055 00:44:35,590 --> 00:44:36,680 These people have about six. 1056 00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:39,260 So it's about the same number of jams that you taste. 1057 00:44:39,260 --> 00:44:41,500 Big display, lots of choice. 1058 00:44:41,500 --> 00:44:42,880 Limited choice. 1059 00:44:42,880 --> 00:44:45,130 What happens in your actual behavior? 1060 00:44:45,130 --> 00:44:48,020 Well, at the six-jam table, 30% of the people 1061 00:44:48,020 --> 00:44:50,290 purchased the jam. 1062 00:44:50,290 --> 00:44:54,280 If there's a 24-jam table, only 3% made the purchases. 1063 00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:55,760 So what do you think happened? 1064 00:44:55,760 --> 00:44:56,650 We don't know for sure. 1065 00:44:56,650 --> 00:44:57,790 This is the actual behavior. 1066 00:44:57,790 --> 00:45:02,860 Exactly the opposite, more choices among jams led to less 1067 00:45:02,860 --> 00:45:04,860 purchases of jams. 1068 00:45:04,860 --> 00:45:06,270 What's your guess as to what happened? 1069 00:45:06,270 --> 00:45:07,074 Yeah? 1070 00:45:07,074 --> 00:45:08,702 AUDIENCE: They people who liked [INAUDIBLE] with 24 1071 00:45:08,702 --> 00:45:09,740 jams, were in a jam. 1072 00:45:09,740 --> 00:45:10,320 PROFESSOR: Were what? 1073 00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:11,510 AUDIENCE: They're in a jam. 1074 00:45:11,510 --> 00:45:12,320 PROFESSOR: They're in a jam. 1075 00:45:12,320 --> 00:45:12,790 That's pretty good. 1076 00:45:12,790 --> 00:45:13,490 They were in a jam. 1077 00:45:13,490 --> 00:45:13,820 Yes. 1078 00:45:13,820 --> 00:45:16,070 And because what? 1079 00:45:16,070 --> 00:45:18,010 Because I tried five or six, it's all I could try. 1080 00:45:18,010 --> 00:45:19,560 But there's another 20 out there. 1081 00:45:19,560 --> 00:45:21,690 And they could be awesome beyond belief. 1082 00:45:21,690 --> 00:45:23,950 And I'm not going to commit. 1083 00:45:23,950 --> 00:45:26,250 Because there could be some awesome jam around the corner. 1084 00:45:26,250 --> 00:45:27,820 And I've only tried five or six. 1085 00:45:27,820 --> 00:45:29,420 So they're overwhelmed. 1086 00:45:29,420 --> 00:45:31,270 Instead of happily getting a jam, they're 1087 00:45:31,270 --> 00:45:32,410 jammed up as you said. 1088 00:45:32,410 --> 00:45:33,350 Ah, ah. 1089 00:45:33,350 --> 00:45:35,790 And they go, um, who can begin to figure out what's the right 1090 00:45:35,790 --> 00:45:36,430 jam for me. 1091 00:45:36,430 --> 00:45:38,320 It's just a way too big. 1092 00:45:38,320 --> 00:45:41,160 So all those choices make them less likely to make a 1093 00:45:41,160 --> 00:45:42,140 purchase than this. 1094 00:45:42,140 --> 00:45:44,210 Exactly the opposite of what might intuitively-- too many 1095 00:45:44,210 --> 00:45:45,460 choices are burdensome. 1096 00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:50,180 Calling plans. 1097 00:45:50,180 --> 00:45:51,920 I don't know if you've ever tried to compare calling plans 1098 00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:55,170 across phone services. 1099 00:45:55,170 --> 00:45:57,210 You sit down for a few moments and you just give up. 1100 00:45:57,210 --> 00:45:59,960 Maybe you don't. 1101 00:45:59,960 --> 00:46:01,870 Health insurance things, retirement plans. 1102 00:46:01,870 --> 00:46:03,520 You just get all these complicated menus. 1103 00:46:03,520 --> 00:46:04,890 And a lot of people just give up. 1104 00:46:04,890 --> 00:46:06,870 And they just go like, what's the cheapest? 1105 00:46:06,870 --> 00:46:08,910 What do most people do? 1106 00:46:08,910 --> 00:46:12,470 Because it's just too hard to figure out. 1107 00:46:12,470 --> 00:46:17,340 So when they do surveys of asking people what people 1108 00:46:17,340 --> 00:46:19,440 think will make them happy, these are 1109 00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:21,340 the most common answers. 1110 00:46:21,340 --> 00:46:24,230 If I get into a relationship or a marriage that I like. 1111 00:46:24,230 --> 00:46:25,750 If I have more flexibility at work. 1112 00:46:25,750 --> 00:46:27,810 Getting a baby, if that's what you want. 1113 00:46:27,810 --> 00:46:30,140 Losing weight, cure of a chronic disease, making more 1114 00:46:30,140 --> 00:46:32,890 money, having more time, advancing in beauty. 1115 00:46:32,890 --> 00:46:34,170 OK, this is the list. 1116 00:46:37,190 --> 00:46:38,820 It's not surprising list, right? 1117 00:46:38,820 --> 00:46:41,910 What would make you more happy? 1118 00:46:41,910 --> 00:46:45,800 And again, we know that happiness set 1119 00:46:45,800 --> 00:46:47,130 points are about 50%. 1120 00:46:47,130 --> 00:46:51,260 10% estimated the circumstances, like poverty. 1121 00:46:51,260 --> 00:46:52,550 Things that you can't help in your life. 1122 00:46:52,550 --> 00:46:53,670 Just can't help. 1123 00:46:53,670 --> 00:46:56,870 But happiness researchers are trying to make the case that 1124 00:46:56,870 --> 00:46:59,760 about 40% of our happiness depends on what 1125 00:46:59,760 --> 00:47:01,450 we choose to do. 1126 00:47:01,450 --> 00:47:03,120 So that's a big piece. 1127 00:47:03,120 --> 00:47:05,640 It's a big piece. 1128 00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:09,050 We can't help some things, in our genes or in our global 1129 00:47:09,050 --> 00:47:09,600 environment. 1130 00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:11,240 But it's almost half. 1131 00:47:11,240 --> 00:47:12,070 And these are estimates. 1132 00:47:12,070 --> 00:47:12,880 Maybe it's more. 1133 00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:14,400 But this is the current estimate. 1134 00:47:14,400 --> 00:47:19,340 And research, over and over again, shows that it's wrong 1135 00:47:19,340 --> 00:47:21,850 to think that happiness is found. 1136 00:47:21,850 --> 00:47:22,510 Like you get there. 1137 00:47:22,510 --> 00:47:24,820 And here I am, happy. 1138 00:47:24,820 --> 00:47:26,190 That it's changing in your circumstances. 1139 00:47:26,190 --> 00:47:27,170 I move in a city. 1140 00:47:27,170 --> 00:47:28,140 I get a promotion. 1141 00:47:28,140 --> 00:47:29,140 I meet another person. 1142 00:47:29,140 --> 00:47:30,690 That's the happiness. 1143 00:47:30,690 --> 00:47:32,730 And that you either have it or you don't. 1144 00:47:32,730 --> 00:47:34,640 I'm just a person who's not happy. 1145 00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:39,090 All these things, the objective evidence is against. 1146 00:47:39,090 --> 00:47:43,540 And here's what researchers find goes with, in experiments 1147 00:47:43,540 --> 00:47:45,010 and in correlations. 1148 00:47:45,010 --> 00:47:48,240 Here's their list, from an objective evidence as they can 1149 00:47:48,240 --> 00:47:50,040 get, in this kind of work. 1150 00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:52,230 Time nurturing relations with family and friends comes out 1151 00:47:52,230 --> 00:47:55,980 as the number one thing that plays out. 1152 00:47:55,980 --> 00:47:58,950 Expressing gratitude and helping others. 1153 00:47:58,950 --> 00:48:01,470 Whole experiments were if you just did something nice, 1154 00:48:01,470 --> 00:48:02,835 people feel awesome. 1155 00:48:02,835 --> 00:48:06,050 I heard a Berkeley psychologist say, just try to 1156 00:48:06,050 --> 00:48:08,910 feel unhappy after you just expressed 1157 00:48:08,910 --> 00:48:10,770 gratitude or helped somebody. 1158 00:48:10,770 --> 00:48:12,650 And you can't even do it. 1159 00:48:12,650 --> 00:48:14,260 I don't know if that's quite true. 1160 00:48:14,260 --> 00:48:16,680 But experiments have shown that when you have people 1161 00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:19,090 express gratitude or do something to help others, 1162 00:48:19,090 --> 00:48:21,760 their happiness ratings will zoom right up. 1163 00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:24,550 Practicing optimism about the future, savoring life in the 1164 00:48:24,550 --> 00:48:28,360 present, physical exercise, commitment to lifelong goals 1165 00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:29,160 and ambitions. 1166 00:48:29,160 --> 00:48:32,900 A sense that you have a path that make sense to you, as 1167 00:48:32,900 --> 00:48:35,620 opposed to sort of bumping around from opportunity and 1168 00:48:35,620 --> 00:48:36,770 opportunity. 1169 00:48:36,770 --> 00:48:40,420 And something about, having an approach to coping or 1170 00:48:40,420 --> 00:48:43,800 resilience when bad things happen. 1171 00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:45,990 I'm sure in some of your lives, heartbreaking, bad 1172 00:48:45,990 --> 00:48:47,490 things have happened. 1173 00:48:47,490 --> 00:48:49,440 Most of us get some of them. 1174 00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:53,420 Many of us get every day things that we struggle with. 1175 00:48:53,420 --> 00:48:57,520 And the path by which we deal with adversity, huge influence 1176 00:48:57,520 --> 00:49:00,770 on self-reported happiness. 1177 00:49:00,770 --> 00:49:05,380 So again, so this is my final slide. 1178 00:49:05,380 --> 00:49:09,930 And I hope that this course, you guys have made me happy 1179 00:49:09,930 --> 00:49:10,580 throughout this course. 1180 00:49:10,580 --> 00:49:13,240 I've have incredibly pleasurable lunches and 1181 00:49:13,240 --> 00:49:18,090 dinners and brunches with students from the course. 1182 00:49:18,090 --> 00:49:19,890 This is just stunning for me. 1183 00:49:19,890 --> 00:49:22,420 And it's really moving. 1184 00:49:22,420 --> 00:49:25,560 And I'm just very grateful to have had the chance to 1185 00:49:25,560 --> 00:49:27,370 introduce you to these ideas. 1186 00:49:27,370 --> 00:49:29,120 Have a OK exam period. 1187 00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:30,480 You have to get through that. 1188 00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:31,630 Bounce back and cope. 1189 00:49:31,630 --> 00:49:32,090 And have a great summer. 1190 00:49:32,090 --> 00:49:33,340 Thanks very much.