The new science of happiness needs some historical perspective - Scientific American

[applegrove]

February 18, 2007
(Can't Get No) Satisfaction
The new science of happiness needs some historical perspective
By Michael Shermer
The Scientific American


"Imagine you have a choice between earning $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000 or earning $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000. Prices of goods and services are the same. Which would you prefer? Surprisingly, studies show that the majority of people select the first option. As H. L. Mencken is said to have quipped, "A wealthy man is one who earns $100 a year more than his wife's sister's husband."
This seemingly illogical preference is just one of the puzzles that science is trying to solve about why happiness can be so elusive in today's world. Several recent books by researchers address the topic, but my skeptic's eye found a historian's long-view analysis to be ultimately the most enlightening.

Consider a paradox outlined by London School of Economics economist Richard Lay­ard in Happiness (Penguin, 2005), in which he shows that we are no happier even though average incomes have more than doubled since 1950 and "we have more food, more clothes, more cars, bigger houses, more central heating, more foreign holidays, a shorter working week, nicer work and, above all, better health." Once average annual income is above $20,000 a head, higher pay brings no greater happiness. Why? One, our genes account for roughly half of our predisposition to be happy or unhappy, and two, our wants are relative to what other people have, not to some absolute measure.

Happiness is better equated with satisfaction than pleasure, says Emory University psychiatrist Gregory Berns in Satisfaction (Henry Holt, 2005), because the pursuit of pleasure lands us on a never-ending hedonic treadmill that paradoxically leads to misery. "Satisfaction is an emotion that captures the uniquely human need to impart meaning to one's activities," Berns concludes. "While you might find pleasure by happenstance--winning the lottery, possessing the genes for a sunny temperament, or having the luck not to live in poverty--satisfaction can arise only by the conscious decision to do something. And this makes all the difference in the world, because it is only your own actions for which you may take responsibility and credit."

.......... SNIP"

http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=C73C7109-E7F2-99DF-31EB094AF750C3C3

[applegrove]

1. Dems are more worried about the future. And I guess the first paragraph

helps explain how some people (ones who enjoy huge tax cuts) could still like *. That must be his 30% base.

[mrcheerful]

2. That and those who don't understand luck vs action. They don't consider luck as a factor

in their success, they believe that it was their actions that lead to their success. When presented with the fact that others did everything exactly the same as they did and failed, they claim those people didn't try hard enough or some internal failure that made them fail. For some it's beyond their ability to admit luck plays a factor in ones life. It's the same when they run into a person thats happy with their lot in life, they believe that obtaining more and being paid more leads one on the road to happiness, so one can not be truely happy unless they are chasing the having more game, so these poor people are unable to be happy because they are not gaining material wants.

[applegrove]

3. Then there are the democrats who believe that working for the betterment

of all but especially those who are vulnerable is the only way to be happy. They do see "luck - no luck" in why some families are poor or some people get sick and need health care. We were happy under Clinton for the most part because the lot of many was improved.

[applegrove]

4. I think people are happiest when they feel small - like in their childhood.

Or connected to the world through good works and in other ways. When you feel little..you don't expect everything to always turn out for you..but are happy and content with working towards goals ahead. And happy to work for goals for those around you.