Lecture 1 What makes us happy?
Happiness
· provides energy
· leads to lower blood pressure after a stressful event
· leads to a better immune system
· leads to more tolerance for pain
The longevity of the nuns
· very happy nuns live the longest & unhappy nuns the shortest
But can we influence our own happiness?
· by genes: especially unhappiness through
clinical problems → very likely that
monozygotic twin sibling have same illness
· intelligence & attractiveness correlates with
happiness
· circumstance money, wealth etc e.g. Scandinavian countries are the most happy (small
population, western demographics, …)
What about circumstances?
Why do we think they are so important? e.g. buying a car/shoes
1. Immediate reward/punishment → happiness is only short-term
2. Focusing illusion
3. Correlation vs causation
1) Predicting emotion
→ we are bad as predicting future emotions
· kind of emotion: it’s easy for us to predict which emotion we will feel
· intensity of emotion: harder to predict, but still doable
· duration: very hard to predict → we predict we will be longer unhappy/happy than we
actually will
e.g. we think that we will suffer from a break-up much longer than we actually do
→ people recover quickly from pos. & neg. experience (most times)
· weather has only a short-term effect on happiness
2) Focusing illusion we think circumstances are important for our happiness, but this is
wrong
· Where are people happier? Michigan/California have either neg./pos. associations
· research found that people are similarly happy in both states
3) Correlation vs causation
· people mistake these two relationships
· people think that if you are in a relationship, you are happier
1
,· but actually, it’s a reversed causation: happier people are in longer relationships & they are
more attractive for the other person & easier to fall in love with
happiness formula
· 40% genes + 10-20% circumstances + 40-50% own choice (statistically)
· but this formula is not in an individual level, it is about explained variance
· only stable western democracies
· effect of circumstances e.g. corona crisis: some people deal better with same circumstance
than others
they interact: if you are rich you can do other choices· moods can be correlated with
biomarkers, temporary measured (unstable factor)
· happiness is a stable factor
exam:
- 6 essay questions, each for every lecture
What is the relation between money & happiness?
· there are things that you cannot buy with money, like friends, love, dreams…
· poor city → 3 groups → slum people are most satisfied with life, then sex-worker & then
homeless
· compared to students/westerners, their satisfaction with life is similar
→ yes, poverty can lead to unhappiness, but it is not so bad as we think
· study that measured an increasing relationship with happiness & income, but at certain
income you don’t become happier → study led to confusion
→ another study found that life satisfaction doesn’t stop at a certain income
· current state of affairs (Belgian study): happiness increases with income, there is an
optimum level at 4.000-5.000€ income per person in family; relationship is still quite strong
with high incomes
· happiness level of superrich: 8.24 vs control group: 6.76
· it’s nice to believe that there is no relationship between money & happiness
· ‘health, relationships & work are more important for happiness than money’ (study)
→ there is still a relationship between higher income within one income group & happiness
→ 25% of dutch people with lowest income are equally happy as people with no partner
→ richest 25% are equally happy as people with a partner
→ relationships are not related to happiness as much as income
How happy are you?
· after you’ve won between 50.000 & 1 million dollars in a lottery?
· after you’ve had a car accident & learned that you have to spend the rest of your life in a
wheelchair?
→ people think they are slightly happy than the control group & least happy in wheelchair
condition
→ results: after 6 months later people are similarly happy in all cases, but study has low
power (not enough participants)
2
,But what about after 2 years?
· if you win a million dollars in lottery, your immediate effects cancel each other
· after 2 years (in long-run) you feel less stress & a higher sense of security, real friends have
stayed
→ after winning in lottery, there is more of a pos. long-term effect than a short-term effect
Motivation to want more happiness
· your goal shouldn’t be to want to make money, but rather to make the money come to you
· depends on what we do with our money
how to ‘buy’ happiness:
· stop buying materialistic things, they have only short-term impact
· use money to spend less time on unpleasant things e.g. chores
· spend your money on experiences (good meals, traveling, especially doing things with other
people)
· invest in other people’s happiness!
· it’s better to first buy something & then experience it compared to first experience it & pay
it later (credit card)
→ the relationship btw income & happiness depends on how you spend your money
Happiness tip
· happiness & optimism
· happiness is usually 7.4 on a 10-point scale
e.g. early april was 6.3 & late may 7.6 → it was higher than usually because bars &
restaurants were opening again
→ slightly higher happiness due to optimism
· optimism is a strong correlate of happiness
set goals projects, hobbies, plan fun things in the future (even if you cancel them later on),
online courses
→ makes you happier
· you can practice optimism
e.g. every day (evening) take 5-10 minutes to think about & list 3 things that went well that
day
1. Things you are proud of
2. Things you were worried about & turned out not so bad
3. Things you are grateful for
3
, Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change (Lyubomirsky etc, 2005)
· person’s long-term happiness level depend on:
1. genetically determined set point for happiness
2. circumstances
3. activities and practices
· adaptation & dynamic processes show why happiness-relevant activities best to increase
happiness
sources of pessimism:
1. In the long-run, people always return to baseline level of happiness (set point)
2. Personality traits are stable & affect stability of setpoint
3. Any gains in happiness are only temporary (hedonic treadmill)
sources of optimism:
1. Interventions to increase happiness (limited, short-term) with virtues e.g. gratitude, self-
reflection
2. Motivational (successful pursuit of life goals that are intrinsic in content) & attitudinal
factors (e.g. optimistic perspective on life situation)
3. Older people happier than younger people (emotional selection theory: select more
enjoyable & self-appropriate goals)
4. Genes influence happiness only indirectly & unwanted effects of genes can be minimized
by active effort to avoid maladaptive behavior & unhappy situations
architecture of sustainable happiness
happiness = frequent positive affect, high life satisfaction & infrequent negative affect
· 40% genes + 10-20% circumstances + 40-50% own choice → 40% for intentional activity
(happiness boosting potential, larger than changing one’s circumstances)
1. Setpoint is stable & genetically determined
2. Circumstances national, geographical, cultural region; demographic factors; personal
history e.g. trauma; life status variables (marital, occupational status, job security, income,
health, religion)
→ small effect (8-15%) because people hedonically adapt rapidly to new circumstances & life
events
· life status variables increase chronic happiness only for short-term
3. Intentional activity individual chooses activity & has to put effort into it
· behavioral activity → exercising
· cognitive activity → reframing situations as more positive, gratitude
· volitional activity → striving important personal goals
→ only category with long-term effects, less hedonic adaptation
→ counteract adaptation: optimal timing, frequency of engagement so activity remain fresh,
meaningful & positive, variety; using all 3 activity types
4
Happiness
· provides energy
· leads to lower blood pressure after a stressful event
· leads to a better immune system
· leads to more tolerance for pain
The longevity of the nuns
· very happy nuns live the longest & unhappy nuns the shortest
But can we influence our own happiness?
· by genes: especially unhappiness through
clinical problems → very likely that
monozygotic twin sibling have same illness
· intelligence & attractiveness correlates with
happiness
· circumstance money, wealth etc e.g. Scandinavian countries are the most happy (small
population, western demographics, …)
What about circumstances?
Why do we think they are so important? e.g. buying a car/shoes
1. Immediate reward/punishment → happiness is only short-term
2. Focusing illusion
3. Correlation vs causation
1) Predicting emotion
→ we are bad as predicting future emotions
· kind of emotion: it’s easy for us to predict which emotion we will feel
· intensity of emotion: harder to predict, but still doable
· duration: very hard to predict → we predict we will be longer unhappy/happy than we
actually will
e.g. we think that we will suffer from a break-up much longer than we actually do
→ people recover quickly from pos. & neg. experience (most times)
· weather has only a short-term effect on happiness
2) Focusing illusion we think circumstances are important for our happiness, but this is
wrong
· Where are people happier? Michigan/California have either neg./pos. associations
· research found that people are similarly happy in both states
3) Correlation vs causation
· people mistake these two relationships
· people think that if you are in a relationship, you are happier
1
,· but actually, it’s a reversed causation: happier people are in longer relationships & they are
more attractive for the other person & easier to fall in love with
happiness formula
· 40% genes + 10-20% circumstances + 40-50% own choice (statistically)
· but this formula is not in an individual level, it is about explained variance
· only stable western democracies
· effect of circumstances e.g. corona crisis: some people deal better with same circumstance
than others
they interact: if you are rich you can do other choices· moods can be correlated with
biomarkers, temporary measured (unstable factor)
· happiness is a stable factor
exam:
- 6 essay questions, each for every lecture
What is the relation between money & happiness?
· there are things that you cannot buy with money, like friends, love, dreams…
· poor city → 3 groups → slum people are most satisfied with life, then sex-worker & then
homeless
· compared to students/westerners, their satisfaction with life is similar
→ yes, poverty can lead to unhappiness, but it is not so bad as we think
· study that measured an increasing relationship with happiness & income, but at certain
income you don’t become happier → study led to confusion
→ another study found that life satisfaction doesn’t stop at a certain income
· current state of affairs (Belgian study): happiness increases with income, there is an
optimum level at 4.000-5.000€ income per person in family; relationship is still quite strong
with high incomes
· happiness level of superrich: 8.24 vs control group: 6.76
· it’s nice to believe that there is no relationship between money & happiness
· ‘health, relationships & work are more important for happiness than money’ (study)
→ there is still a relationship between higher income within one income group & happiness
→ 25% of dutch people with lowest income are equally happy as people with no partner
→ richest 25% are equally happy as people with a partner
→ relationships are not related to happiness as much as income
How happy are you?
· after you’ve won between 50.000 & 1 million dollars in a lottery?
· after you’ve had a car accident & learned that you have to spend the rest of your life in a
wheelchair?
→ people think they are slightly happy than the control group & least happy in wheelchair
condition
→ results: after 6 months later people are similarly happy in all cases, but study has low
power (not enough participants)
2
,But what about after 2 years?
· if you win a million dollars in lottery, your immediate effects cancel each other
· after 2 years (in long-run) you feel less stress & a higher sense of security, real friends have
stayed
→ after winning in lottery, there is more of a pos. long-term effect than a short-term effect
Motivation to want more happiness
· your goal shouldn’t be to want to make money, but rather to make the money come to you
· depends on what we do with our money
how to ‘buy’ happiness:
· stop buying materialistic things, they have only short-term impact
· use money to spend less time on unpleasant things e.g. chores
· spend your money on experiences (good meals, traveling, especially doing things with other
people)
· invest in other people’s happiness!
· it’s better to first buy something & then experience it compared to first experience it & pay
it later (credit card)
→ the relationship btw income & happiness depends on how you spend your money
Happiness tip
· happiness & optimism
· happiness is usually 7.4 on a 10-point scale
e.g. early april was 6.3 & late may 7.6 → it was higher than usually because bars &
restaurants were opening again
→ slightly higher happiness due to optimism
· optimism is a strong correlate of happiness
set goals projects, hobbies, plan fun things in the future (even if you cancel them later on),
online courses
→ makes you happier
· you can practice optimism
e.g. every day (evening) take 5-10 minutes to think about & list 3 things that went well that
day
1. Things you are proud of
2. Things you were worried about & turned out not so bad
3. Things you are grateful for
3
, Pursuing Happiness: The Architecture of Sustainable Change (Lyubomirsky etc, 2005)
· person’s long-term happiness level depend on:
1. genetically determined set point for happiness
2. circumstances
3. activities and practices
· adaptation & dynamic processes show why happiness-relevant activities best to increase
happiness
sources of pessimism:
1. In the long-run, people always return to baseline level of happiness (set point)
2. Personality traits are stable & affect stability of setpoint
3. Any gains in happiness are only temporary (hedonic treadmill)
sources of optimism:
1. Interventions to increase happiness (limited, short-term) with virtues e.g. gratitude, self-
reflection
2. Motivational (successful pursuit of life goals that are intrinsic in content) & attitudinal
factors (e.g. optimistic perspective on life situation)
3. Older people happier than younger people (emotional selection theory: select more
enjoyable & self-appropriate goals)
4. Genes influence happiness only indirectly & unwanted effects of genes can be minimized
by active effort to avoid maladaptive behavior & unhappy situations
architecture of sustainable happiness
happiness = frequent positive affect, high life satisfaction & infrequent negative affect
· 40% genes + 10-20% circumstances + 40-50% own choice → 40% for intentional activity
(happiness boosting potential, larger than changing one’s circumstances)
1. Setpoint is stable & genetically determined
2. Circumstances national, geographical, cultural region; demographic factors; personal
history e.g. trauma; life status variables (marital, occupational status, job security, income,
health, religion)
→ small effect (8-15%) because people hedonically adapt rapidly to new circumstances & life
events
· life status variables increase chronic happiness only for short-term
3. Intentional activity individual chooses activity & has to put effort into it
· behavioral activity → exercising
· cognitive activity → reframing situations as more positive, gratitude
· volitional activity → striving important personal goals
→ only category with long-term effects, less hedonic adaptation
→ counteract adaptation: optimal timing, frequency of engagement so activity remain fresh,
meaningful & positive, variety; using all 3 activity types
4
