Quote: Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has profound implications for economics, public policy -- and our own self-awareness.

Video ...and the pursuit of happiness.

Quote: I think the most interesting result that we found in the Gallup survey is a number, which we absolutely did not expect to find. We found that with respect to the happiness of the experiencing self. When we looked at how feelings vary with income. And it turns out that, below an income of 60,000 dollars a year, for Americans, and that's a very large sample of Americans, like 600,000, but it's a large representative sample, below an income of 60,000 dollars a year, people are unhappy, and they get progressively unhappier the poorer they get. Above that, we get an absolutely flat line. I mean I've rarely seen lines so flat. Clearly, what is happening is money does not buy you experiential happiness, but lack of money certainly buys you misery, and we can measure that misery very, very clearly. In terms of the other self, the remembering self, you get a different story. The more money you earn the more satisfied you are. That does not hold for emotions.

I must agree with these findings, as the downward shift in income that I have recently experienced, which I anticipated to make me much more unhappy, seems to have actually made me happier, in that I now ensure to enjoy the moment more, having more fun with the little money I have to spend. The image I have in my mind after watching this is one of a person taking a picture of someone else having fun. Sure, that picture might help you remember that fun day years later, but I think I'd rather be the person having fun than the person taking the picture. (I really dislike having a camera on me when I'm out having fun. It puts me from a first-person mode into a third-person mode.) Does society place too much value on remembered happiness versus experienced happiness?

I like your thought about cameras and fun, I have the same feeling. Remembering is okay, but it can't be (at least for me) as fun as the moment. (And mucking with the camera destroys the moment, so as analyzing it (which I do, but that's an other story)).

Making lot of money requires a lot of work. Which is likely to be not so fun. So... (I don't think satisfactory is a big deal to be worth to work your guts out)

Correct my English please...

"... below an income of 60,000 dollars a year, people are unhappy, and they get progressively unhappier the poorer they get."

I take it that even though you're not making as much as you used to make, you're still making more than $60,000 a year.

People are fed from every angle in life that they need "stuff" to be happy.
Pretty much all advertising tries to say "if you have X, you will be happier" and we get that our entire lives. We are practically brainwashed, including myself.

Quote: Original post by RivieraKid
People are fed from every angle in life that they need "stuff" to be happy.

We do need "stuff" to be happy.

We need the tools to pursue whatever interest we have, even if that interest is just watching TV, we needs a TV. While I think 60k is fairly high, as we get lower it becomes less about not having the time to pursue our dreams and more about not having enough money to.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
I take it that even though you're not making as much as you used to make, you're still making more than $60,000 a year.

Not after alimony :)

Quote: Original post by Binomine
We do need "stuff" to be happy.

But... all you need is lambda!

Quote: Original post by Silvermyst

Quote: Original post by LessBread
"... below an income of 60,000 dollars a year, people are unhappy, and they get progressively unhappier the poorer they get."

I take it that even though you're not making as much as you used to make, you're still making more than $60,000 a year.

Not after alimony :)

OK. Well, in the OP you wrote "I must agree with these findings" and that the decreased income "seems to have actually made me happier" but if that's the case, then it would appear that you disagree with those findings, because you're saying that you're making less than $60 and yet you're happier, which is the opposite of what Kahneman found.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
OK. Well, in the OP you wrote "I must agree with these findings" and that the decreased income "seems to have actually made me happier" but if that's the case, then it would appear that you disagree with those findings, because you're saying that you're making less than $60 and yet you're happier, which is the opposite of what Kahneman found.

It's more the shift from valueing the experiental happiness over the remembered one. Also, even paying alimony, I think I have a little bit more to spend on myself right now than I did before. Maybe that's actually the reason I find myself happier: I guess I feel like I'm making closer to $60k now than I was when still married :)

I see, so Kahneman's metaphysical findings are superior to his empirical findings.

How would he explain this: Costa Rica is world's greenest, happiest country