October 24, 2019

Laurie Santos: The Happiness Lab – You Are Not So Smart

Check out the You Are Not So Smart Episode Page and Show Notes

Key Takeaways

• More money only solves your money problems. Odds are, it won’t affect your overall happiness levels.
• A recent National Health survey of college students found
  • Over 40% of students are too depressed to function
  • Over 60% are overwhelmingly anxious
  • Over 80% feel too overwhelmed to get stuff done
  • Over 10% actively considered suicide in the past year
• Around the world, loneliness is reported at double the rate it was in the 1980s, in every age category
• We as human are horrible at predicting what will make us happy
• After a while, people tend to revert back to a baseline of happiness (good or bad events don’t affect your happiness, long-term, as much as you think)
• Positive interactions with strangers can boost your mood way more than expected
• Socializing is a better mood-booster than eating, shopping, relaxing or watching TV (even if it’s with a stranger)

Intro

• Laurie Santos (IG: @lauriesantos, T:@lauriesantos) is a professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University
  • In January 2018, her course, “Psychology and the Good Life,” became the most popular course in Yale’s 300- year history
  • Check out her podcast – The Happiness Lab
• Host – David McRaney (@davidmcraney)

Does more money = more happiness?

• Most people believe that if they had more money their problems would go away
  • Laurie says this is only true if you’re desperate (i.e., if you were in need of a roof over your head or food)
    • Research shows that beyond an annual salary of $75k/year, happiness levels off

Why doesn’t money lead us to happiness?

• We as humans aren’t good at predicting what makes us happy
• “We create life plans that lead us away from happiness. We don’t know what makes us happy, but we don’t know that we don’t know that!” – Laurie Santos

How did Laurie end up teaching a happiness class and turning it into a podcast?

• As head of one of Yale’s colleges, she was required to live on campus
  • What she found: “College students seemed less happy than I thought they’d be” – Laurie Santos
• So, Laurie had the idea to teach a class on the science of happiness with the aim that if students understood the science behind it, their lives and happiness would improve
  • She assumed 30-40 students would enroll in the course because it was an upper-level psychology class – she was shocked when 1200 students registered for it
• The Happiness Lab podcast was a natural outgrowth of the class

Has something shifted in the life of college students now compared to 10-20 years ago that has affected their happiness?

• “Yes, we know from surveys, that mental health is completely different now” – Laurie Santos
• A recent National Health survey of college students found:
  • Over 40% of students are too depressed to function
  • Over 60% are overwhelmingly anxious
  • Over 80% feel too overwhelmed to get stuff done
  • Over 10% actively considered suicide in the past year

But non-college age folks are struggling with the happiness factor, too. Why?

• Technology is leading to less interaction and more transactions
  • Examples:
    • ATM vs bank teller
    • At Starbucks, you can order online – you don’t need to talk to anyone
• Simple, positive interactions with strangers can bump our mood way more than expected
  • Next time you’re waiting in a long line, talk to a stranger!
• Researchers looked at those who scored in the top 10% on happiness surveys and found what they had in common:
  • They were more social/spent more time around humans than the average person
    • Conclusion: Being around other people is a necessary condition for happiness
  • Which daily activity makes us feel the best?
    • Socializing! – More so than eating, shopping, relaxing or watching TV

A Happiness Study

• A study out of the University of Chicago gave people $10 Starbucks gift cards to talk to strangers on the train
  • Most thought this would be awkward or weird
    • But, after their trip, surveys showed that commuters found they experienced a better mood/more happiness when making a connection with someone they didn’t know

We use our intuition to decide what we’ll do to make us happy.  But, if we’re wrong, are we missing out on a chance for happiness?

• “We’re using intuition to design whole systems that actually reduce our happiness” – Laurie Santos
• Here’s an example:
  • Researchers pondered whether the Chicago transit system should try having a “chatty car” for people who want to talk
    • As it turns out, they’re actually rolling out a quiet car because that’s what people say they want
      • Laurie says – “But people don’t know what they want!”
    • Result:  Our intuition is leading us astray

Why are we so resistant to being social?

• The cost of not being social = loneliness
• Around the world, loneliness is reported at double the rate it was in the 1980s, in every age category
  • Loneliness impairs well-being and health
  • Feeling isolated is as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day
• Simple interactions, like a conversation with a barista, are important, but instead…. we stay quiet.  Why?
  • 1. Because we’ve designed a world where we don’t have to interact
  • 2. Its easier to scroll through our Instagram feed than talk to strangers
• “Even though intuition tells us that talking to the person beside us in line or next to us on a train is going to suck, it’s actually better than we think” – Laurie Santos
• Happiness isn’t about the intensity of interaction, but frequency
  • Quick fix: talk to people

What is impact bias?

• Impact bias stems from the belief that you can predict how you’ll feel in the future
• The truth: The good things won’t be as good and the bad things won’t be as bad as your mind leads you to believe
  • You overestimate the magnitude and duration of events—both good and bad
    • Examples – Marriage, child, divorce, death, job loss
• Predicting the future is a relatively new ability for humans from an evolutionary standpoint (chimps can’t do it)

Hedonic Adaptation

• After a while, people tend to revert back to a baseline of happiness (good or bad events don’t affect your happiness, long-term, as much as you think)
• “We think, ‘I’ll get this job and be happy forever.’ We have this hypothesis as to how happy we’ll be, but we have a baseline we return to and it doesn’t take long to get back to it.” – Laurie Santos
  • This leads to continued dissatisfaction stemming from a mismatch between our prediction of how happy we thought we’d be and how happy we actually end up being

Laurie’s takeaway from all the research?

• “Our mind lies to us about what we think will make us happy and we’re missing out” – Laurie Santos
  • If you know the science, you can change things in your life to take control of your happiness