The Happiness Hypothesis

Quote from: http://phrack.org/issues.html?issue=68&id=7#article

Most of the ideas introduced by this article are borrowed from "The Happiness Hypothesis" by Jonathan Haidt, which I recommend if you'd like to dig deeper into the subject.

The first thing about happiness that you should know that research has proved is:

"People are very bad at predicting what will bring them happiness."

To expose this idea let me provide an example. Researchers took a look at 2 different groups of people that had been through completely opposite situations, the first group are lottery winners, and the second group are people that became paraplegics through some type of accident. Both groups were interviewed at 2 different times, once just after the event (winning the lottery or becoming paraplegic), and once more again several years later. The results of their interviews are quite astonishing.

The first group, the lottery winners, as you might expect, had very high happiness levels when interviewed shortly after they had won the lottery. The second group, those who were newly paralyzed had a very low level of happiness, some were even so unhappy that they regretted not dying during the accident. These findings are quite obvious and shouldn't be surprising to you; however what is astonishing are the results of the second interview.

Years later, the lottery winners were interviewed again, this time the results were quite surprising. As it turns out, their happiness level had dropped significantly to levels so low that most of the winners where more unhappy now than before winning the lottery. In contrast, the happiness of the group of paraplegics was very high, equal to or higher than before the accident. So what really happened?

To explain this, let me describe the circumstances of the lottery winners. Having won the lottery, they thought they had achieved everything they wanted, since popular culture equates happiness with material wealth, and so their short term happiness level grew quite high. After some time though, they started to realize that the money wasn't bringing them the happiness they once thought they would achieve when they would be rich. Frustrated at the possibility that they would never be able to achieve full happiness, their happiness level started dropping. To try to compensate for their decreasing happiness level, they started spending money on material things, but that was no longer a happiness source. Further exacerbating the problem, this new wealth brought new problems (to quote Notorious B.I.G. - "Mo money mo problems"). Now family, friends and colleagues were regarded as a threat, thinking that all they wanted is to take advantage of their new wealth. People around them started asking for loans and favors, which led them to distant themselves from their families and friends. Again, in order to compensate, they started trying to make new friends that had their own wealth status. But breaking the bonds with old friends and family that had been established for most of their lives and trying to establish new ones, brought a feeling of loneliness that directly correlates to their happiness levels significantly dropping.

On the other hand those who had become paraplegics relied heavily on their families and friends to help them through the rough times, thus strengthening the bonds between them. And just like the lottery winners, the new circumstances brought back old friends from the past. But unlike with lottery winners who's friends came back looking to take advantage of their new wealth, these old friends came back for the opposite; they sought to help. Another factor associated with the increased happiness was the fact that the group that was paralyzed had to learn to cope with being paraplegics. Learning to cope with being paraplegics brought an immense sense of achievement that made their happiness levels go up. After a few years their family relations were stronger than ever; friends were closer and their sense of achievement from having overcome their limitations had brought them an immense amount of happiness that, when compared to their happiness levels before the accident, was equal and most of the times higher.

If someone were to ask you whether you would choose to become paraplegic or win the lottery, it is obvious that everyone would choose to win the lottery; however this choice goes against research which has shown that by becoming a paraplegic you would ultimately be happier.

Obviously I am not saying this is the path you need to choose (if you are thinking of doing this, please stop!). I am merely trying to demonstrate that the actual road to happiness may force you to look at things in a very different and counter intuitive manner.