Hatrack River Forum: Some ways money can buy you happiness

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Posted by the_Somalian (Member # 6688) on :

Couple of years back I got interested in a branch of psychology known as positive psychology. A significant part of this branch concerns the psychology of happiness. For instance, while having plenty of market goods to choose from might mean we're materially well off, it doesn't necessarily mean that having more choice makes us happier. In fact, being faced with more choice everyday might make us less happy.

Another very illuminating theory is the hedonic treadmill.:

quote:
Humans rapidly and inevitably adapt to good things by taking them for granted. The more possessions and accomplishments we have, the more we need to boost our level of happiness. It supposes that the brain of a species that has dominated others would evolve to strive for continual betterment.

[edit] Details

* Despite the fact that external forces are constantly changing our life goals, happiness for most people is a relatively constant state. Regardless of how good things get, we'll always be about the same level of happiness.

* It is believed that the baseline of an individual's happiness is at least partially genetic. For example, identical twins are usually equally bubbly or grumpy.

* There are things that we can do to raise or lower our baseline happiness. Marriage does, pets do, but children don't seem to (despite what we think). Money does not add much to happiness. Lottery winners are the perfect example: within a year, they usually return to their former happiness level. Those handicapped in motor vehicle accidents are another example. They too return to former happiness levels, despite their loss of function.

But while money can't buy you happiness in many ways, it might be able to in some.

Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :

Meh. The problem with all that sort of study is that crossing off one of five boxes (very happy, somewhat happy, slightly happy, somewhat unhappy, suicide bomber) is just not a very good way to measure the internal state of happiness. You would almost have to measure smile/laugh frequency, brain patterns, serotonin levels... Actually, even that wouldn't help because we really have no idea how this correlates with the qualia of happiness. In short these studies are useless.

Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :

I'd say that a study that used a lack of voluntary attempted and/or successful suicide as a defining factor might be useful.

I say that because I live in the county with the second highest suicide rate in North Carolina.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:
Originally posted by the_Somalian:
But while money can't buy you happiness in many ways, it might be able to in some.

Firefox does not like that page.

Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :

My version of Firefox seems to like it just fine.

Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :

They didn't have "Buy a Wii", but I tell you what, that thing is loads of fun [Smile]

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:
Originally posted by steven:
My version of Firefox seems to like it just fine.

Including the titles of the stuff in the sidebars?

Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :

Do you mean higher up in the sidebars, or at the very bottom?

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

An example:

In Firefox:

code:

MY
EARTH-SHATTERI
HAPPINESS
FORMULA.

In IE:

code:

MY EARTH-
SHATTERING
HAPPINESS
FORMULA.

Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :

Yeah, those titles are jacked up for me too.