happiness hypothesis chapter 2 summary

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt [Book Summary – Review]

Have you for once really thought about what makes us happy? In the whole of human history, individuals have usually been pursuing happiness – it could be the olden Greeks, Buddha, or nowadays happiness researchers.

But, in spite of the huge human attempt to find the secret to happiness, the basic questions persist: What is happiness? Also, how can it be accomplished?

In the whole of human history, there have been a lot of various common concepts about what makes up happiness. Due to that, individuals looked for happiness in places as diverse as exercise, riches, religion, also food.

But, nowadays, there looks to be an agreement: happiness implies having the appropriate relationship between one’s personality as well as the environment.

Jonathan Haidt observes how the working of the human mind can affect our happiness In The Happiness Hypothesis. Particularly, he claims that we usually think that our rational self – what he refers to as our “rational rider” – guides our day-day decision making, when as a matter of it’s controlled by our intuitive, emotional self (our “inner elephant”).

In this book chapter, you’ll discover the reason why learning how the mind functions are the first step to take in other to achieve being a happier individual and the reason why passion is particularly vital to romantic relationships at the start.

Lastly, you’ll find out the reason why healthy social relationships are vital to our health, and the reason why giving is more helpful to our health than getting.

Chapter 1 – Our mind is separated: or the mind of a human that works as a rational rider on a wild elephant.

Have you ever observed how it is so easy to have New Year’s resolutions than it is to abide by them?

What is the reason for that?

The reason is that the mind isn’t a unit; however, it is really separated into two different parts. One comparison for this divided mind is a wild elephant that is ridden by a human being who is attempting his possible best to being in charge of it. This division can be seen working in various means:

First of all, we cannot completely control the body with conscious thought. For instance, the human heart behaves separately from the mind, because our heart rate cannot be controlled consciously. The reason is that we have a second brain, known as the “gut-brain,” whose deeds are autonomous and can’t be guided by rational choices.

Therefore, in terms of the above-stated metaphor, our heart rate is influenced by how fast our inner elephant is racing, and it is not influenced by the rider’s rational conscious decision making.

Secondly, and furthermore, this division is shown in our brain structure.

Although older structures such as the limbic system are in control of simple instincts, like hunger and sex, the newer neocortex is in charge of inhibition as well as reasoning, which makes us keep the drives, as well as desires that arise from the older regions of the brain in control. The purpose of the neocortex can be noticed most evidently in how individuals whose neocortex is impaired behave: when they get hungry, they can’t put off eating; and when they get aroused, they can’t prevent themselves from harassing others sexually.

In order to control our simple drives, the rider makes use of language to plan before time and guide the elephant, who is in charge of feelings as well as instincts. But, in real life, rather than making use of reason in our decision making, we normally let our emotions guide us – which implies that the elephant of our metaphor, who works more or less involuntary, has a tendency to be stronger than the rider.

Chapter 2 – Even though genes affect our happiness, transforming the way we think can make us happier.

Anybody who has ever read one of the numerous self-help books available will be conversant with this term: “Nothing is inherently good or bad; just our thinking makes it seem like that.”

However, is it really possible to change the manner we thing? Also, if it is possible, what precisely can we do to alter it?

The actual hindrance is that our inner elephant has a tendency to assess all the things we see – and normally in a really negative manner. Because our forefathers’ survival rested on their ability to identify risk, we’ve grown to react more powerful to things that are worse than to things that are good.

For instance, if we came directly with a wild animal, we’d feel anxiety and dread that would cause us to run away. However, in order to feel joy over a thing we’d already gotten was redundant, as it didn’t offer us the motivation to acquire more of it.

Similar to how a real elephant gets shocked when it spots a mouse, our inner elephant reacts excessively with fear and concern of things that are not likely to harm or kill us –such as getting scared over the presentation we need to deliver at our work.

However, our genetics as well is partially in charge of our disposition to have either an optimistic or a pessimistic view.

For example, a study discovered that babies who showed mainly right-brain activity were less happy than the babies who were essentially left-brain active, even extending into adulthood. Also, other studies reveal that about 50-80% of someone’s average level of happiness is influenced by their genetic material.

Therefore, it seems that our elephant cannot be regulated at any time by our rational rider. But, the rider can use specific skills to teach the elephant to be happier.

For instance, meditating regularly can extremely decrease pessimistic, negative thinking; hence, changing our view of the world into a more optimistic view. Cognitive therapy is another technique, which was established during the 1960s and has been confirmed to effectively heal depression. Cognitive therapy entails the effort to substitute negative, self-blaming thought patterns with more positive thoughts.

Chapter 3 – Reciprocity is the simple basis we form our social lives on.

Assuming you got a Christmas card from a person you barely know, what would be your action? You’d probably send back a card to the person in return.

The reason is that human beings have an extremely in-built instinct to reciprocate.

We’ve grown into reciprocal beings since reciprocity extremely improved the chances of survival for the whole group.

Consider, for instance, groups whose survival relies on hunting. If one of the members of the group kills more prey than he needs for himself, he can share his prey with a less privileged group member.

Deciding not to share provides no benefit to him because the surplus food will become wasted. Also, if in the future, the other member reciprocates the act, he can anticipate getting the exact quantity back in return.

However, reciprocity does not usually serve us well: it’s really a simple instinct to us that we’ll at times reciprocate when it even goes against our own interest.

Think about the following experiment: two participants are offered $25 among them. The first participant has the chance to choose how the money will be allocated, and the second participant can only accept or reject the deal. But, if the second decides to refuse the offer, both participants get nothing. Logically, the first participant should give the second only a dollar.

But, the majority of the people who take part in this experiment essentially gave half of the total amount. However, if the first participant gives below $7, the majority of the second people would reject, choosing to get no money. This is interesting because logically the receiver should choose to make $1 compared to nothing at all.

The principle of reciprocity is really powerful that individuals will respond with retaliation if it is defiled –usually by gossiping about the person. If a person doesn’t fulfill our desire for a reciprocal relationship, we’ll tell the other members of our group about him in an attempt to destroy his status as a member.

Chapter 4 – A big obstacle in a lot of relationships is our failure to notice our own mistakes.

Have you ever been in a fight with a person and thought about how it is possible for the other person not to notice their own mistakes as well as flaws? This feeling was most likely mutual.

We have a tendency not to see our own mistakes since understanding that we’re imperfect is totally unpleasant to us. Certainly, due to that, both our elephant as well as rider neglect to notice them.

Our resistance to the unpleasantness of seeing our own errors is really powerful that, for instance, if we’re accused of doing a wrong thing, our instant response (meaning, our elephant’s response) is inner denial.

Also, in reaction to this spontaneous, instant response of the elephant, the conscious rider hurries to justify it. Instead of calmly thinking about the accusation, the rider searches for just those elements which support the elephant’s initial response.

Although this process is somewhat normal, the rider’s bias towards the elephant usually leads to conflict among people.

The reason is that we usually see the world based on good vs. evil and we like to think that we’re on the good part. The outcome is that we usually don’t notice our errors.

Consider, for instance, the normal dynamic among individuals sharing a living space. Fights among flatmates usually happen over who does more house chore. Maybe one thinks that he does the majority of the cooking, whereas the other flatmates argue that she does most of the cleaning. During that process, ever flatmate ignores the other’s work and backs it up with explanations such as, “But you like to cook; therefore, it does not actually work for you.”

Although that kind of conflict can look like a continuous cycle of mutual blame, the cycle can be stopped. For example, if we put a conscious attempt into looking for errors that we ourselves made, we can minimize our cognitive biases to at least a little extent.

Also, based on the principle of reciprocity, the other party will most likely then acknowledge their own errors or flaws, and on this basis, we’re able to honestly apologize and fix the conflict.

Chapter 5 – In order to be a person that is happy, you require the right people in your life and to do the things you’re good at.

If we believe that the way we think influences our opinion of things as being either good or bad, it results that the external world would not have any impact on our happiness.

But, this is just partly true.

Due to the fact that individuals have a powerful tendency to acclimatize to new situations, external circumstances have a really small lasting impact on our happiness. The reason is that, from an evolutionary view, concentrating and acclimatizing to new situations in our lives has usually been more significant than being happy about former ones.

This can be noticed in the results of one research that studied the happiness levels of lottery winners and individuals who were paralyzed from the neck downward. The research discovered that the lottery winners were actually much happier –however, just for a short period. Certainly, after a lot of months had gone, the majority of the subjects of both groups had gone back to their previous level of happiness.       

But, specific external circumstances are really vital to our happiness that we basically cannot acclimatize to them.

For example, since humans are social animals, healthy social relationships are very vital to our health. Certainly, if we don’t have social relationships, we can get extremely unhappy.

The number as well as the depth of our relationships is the most significant external factor to our happiness. As a matter of fact, individuals who have a bigger number of friends or who have happily married report higher levels of happiness averagely.

However, it’s not just our social connectedness that influences happiness. Also, it is vital to do the things we’re good at since we feel extremely happier when our activities fit our strengths.

We all have our own strengths or things we’re both good at and like doing. For instance, if a person has really good interpersonal abilities and if the person is a good communicator, a job in PR will offer her good pleasure. Also, she will never acclimatize to this pleasure; the job won’t “get old” for her; however, it will keep on making her happy every day.

Chapter 6 – In human lives, love is a really basic and important feeling.

Whether or not you like The Beatles, it’s difficult to dispute that they were correct about at least one thing: “The only thing you need is love.” Love is one of the fundamentals of our lives, and due to that, it’s totally essential and irreplaceable.

Certainly, just like how a mother’s milk is important to babies, a powerful bond to the mother is a biological need for a child’s healthy growth.

This bond offers children with a sense of security as well as belonging that they take with them all through their whole adult lives. As a matter of fact, in a study that was conducted where monkeys were fed by a number of various human strangers rather than their mothers, the monkeys didn’t form basic socializing as well as problem-solving abilities.

Also, the love we feel towards our parents in our childhood is really similar to the romantic love we feel later on in our lives. The similarities are noticeable: for instance, the mutual hugging, the long staring into one another eyes, and the separation anxiety that’s experienced when the other person isn’t around.

Because of the requirement of love in our lives, we ought to not attempt to please our need for romantic love with passionate love. Rather, we must attempt to form companionate love.

Passionate love is the feeling of being “in love,” which is felt at the start of a romantic relationship – nearly usually disappears, generally after around six months. At that moment, passionate love can be substituted by companionate love, which looks like that of our feelings towards our parents in a lot of ways and, significantly, develops over time.

Proof of the short-lived nature of passionate love can be seen in the brain, which displays a response to the passion that is really similar to the activity of the brain when we’re high on a drug.

Definitely, that kind of high is for a short time. Likewise, the concept that passionate love will remain forever is an illusion.

In a relationship, when passionate love is gone, a lot of individuals think of the relationship to have failed. This is an error. Rather, individuals ought to take the time to allow companionate love to grow.

Chapter 7 – What doesn’t make you die can make you get stronger – and hence happier.

We usually hear that personal development appears just as a result of handling adverse circumstances or traumatic events. Still, this can’t be true every time because a lot of people suffer from deep depression after going through traumatic situations.

Therefore, how, and in which situations, does adversity bring about benefits?

Research shows that the majority of the people who go through hardships are most likely to benefit from suffering.

For example, individuals usually feel an improvement in confidence after losing a job or someone they love since their experience of having survived a difficulty that was formerly unimaginable changes their self-image for good.

Likewise, experiencing a distressing occurrence usually deepens current relationships as well as friendships since we need to ask for and offer help during those times, which has a tendency to make people get closer to one another.

One other benefit of going through traumatic events is that they can offer the chance to transform our self-concept and get more realistic about ourselves.

Our rider believes that our self-concept is what characterizes us – such as, for instance, considering oneself as an ambitious career woman. But, our real personality, is what our elephant instinctively desires –such as, to spend more time with individuals outside the world of one’s career. The greater the difference between the two, the less happy we get.

During the time of adversity, we get the opportunity to show on our self-concept. For instance, a traumatic occurrence like losing a family member can make us reconsider our self-concept to make it coherent with our personality.

But, in terms of adverse events bringing about personal development, specific times of our lives are more productive than the other ones.

Although kids are likely to be extremely affected by trauma and adults more than thirty are not really resilient to it, people in their teens and twenties are able to benefit significantly. The reason is that young adults are usually looking for meaning; therefore, emotionally difficult experiences –such as a break-up – can offer them the perfect chance to discover coherence between their personality as well as their self-concept, their elephant, and their rider.

Chapter 8 – Altruism as well as a virtue has to be practiced and not taught.

All through history, the notion of virtue usually referred to specific respected character features, such as nobleness, altruism, or morality. These features were usually thought to be vital for living a happy life in historical periods like the Middle Ages and in ancient Rome.

But, nowadays, the Western idea of morality is usually incorrect and ineffective. For example, in opposition to a lot of other cultures, Western kids are now taught to think about morality, instead of practicing moral behavior, by, for instance, via obligatory social service.

The issue with this method is that only thinking about morality will not affect our elephant. In order to become a very moral and virtuous individual, we need to train our elephant.

Practicing altruism is one means to do this. We usually consider altruism as serving the whole society. But, being altruistic is as well good for the person.

The reason is that altruistic behavior offers to mean to our lives and it connects us to others– both of which are useful to our happiness. For example, one study discovered that old people who gave their assistance to other people lived a happier and longer life than old people who just got such help.

One other means to train our elephant to practice morality is to form a fixed set of values in a society, i.e., a surrounding where everybody is taught to abide by the same set of rules. That kind of a rule-governed surrounding helps to offer the person with greater coherence between rider and elephant.

Also, as a study revealed, one of the best predictors of health in U.S. neighborhoods is the degree to which society values are maintained.

Hence, because practicing morality as well as being surrounded by moral neighbors improves our happiness, it may be a good thing for you, and the growth of your kids, to live in a society that represents a system of common beliefs as well as rules.

Chapter 9 – We possess a basic human necessity for the divine.

Likened to other communities or olden times, religion plays a quite small part in the contemporary Western world. However, even though you’re not a person that is religious, religions might still offer something that is vital: awe-inspiring experiences.

Regardless of whether we’re religious or not, our minds possess a divinity scale based on what we see things to be more or less holy.

All human culture all through history has had some kind of religion, usually, one which characterized humans, deeds, or objects based on their holiness. Normally, actions that look like those of animals were regarded as impure, while more spiritual actions – for instance, ritual bathings or prayer – were regarded as divine.

As a matter of fact, even the minds of atheists work based on a really similar scale – for instance, atheists usually remember where they had their first kiss as being special.

Those kinds of awe-inspiring experiences –may be religious or not – can assist us to become happier, better, individuals

We usually experience awe when we see a thing our present mental structures cannot hold –such as the immeasurable stars in the sky or seeing a person do a great moral action.

This feeling of awe makes us happier individuals since we’re linked to a thing much greater than ourselves. Certainly, it can as well connect us to other people, particularly when we experience awe in group activities, such as chanting or prayer.

This would clarify the reason why individuals in the largely secular West usually feel as though their lives are missing something vital: the Western world doesn’t actually create space for divine experiences.

The Western community has grown to become completely practical, a place where all things are assessed as well as rated based on its functional value and where religions are not approved. As a result, really few individuals experience the awe and the majority of us feel an absence of something vital in our lives.

Chapter 10 – Happiness, as well as purpose, emanate from the appropriate relationship between you and your environments.

Human beings have for ages attempted to establish the vital elements of a meaningful life. Lately, contemporary psychology has found various principles for discovering meaning in our lives.

First of all, we can become happier by forming the appropriate type of relationship between ourselves as well as other people.

Since we’re partially social beings and partially individuals, our desires are usually in conflict with one another: “Should I assist other people, or should I assist myself?”

Because this is a default state of human beings, it follows that we have to surround ourselves with individuals we care about sincerely, because assisting them will be the same as assisting ourselves.

Secondly, to be satisfied with your work, that work has to fit with your beliefs concerning what’s good and worth doing. Everybody possesses his own personal beliefs as well as values; therefore, finding your work meaningful needs that these values cohere with the values of your job.

A study showed that hospital janitors who thought they were a vital part of a team that assisted patients since they set and maintained the doctors’ working areas were happier than the janitors who regarded their work as just tiresome and tedious.

Lastly, forming a relationship between you as well as something that is greater than yourself is important for a meaningful life. Certainly, religion in some way or the other has constantly been part of all societies because it allows us to connect the person to god, or to every group member. These days this appears in the form of meditation, which offers a means for us to connect to a thing bigger and mystical, like nature or the entire humankind.

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt Book Review

In order to enhance our happiness, we have to understand humans generally and our own personality particularly. Later on, we can make use of that understanding to enhance our lives.

Do something you love.

Never pick a job only for the income; however, because it’s a thing you really enjoy doing: you’ll eventually become happier. In order to determine the type of work you really enjoy, examine your own personal beliefs as well as values, and look for a job that fits with these. We have a tendency to enjoy work we consider meaningful.

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The Happiness Hypothesis: Summary Review & Takeaways

This is a summary review of The Happiness Hypothesis containing key details about the book.

What is The Happiness Hypothesis About?

The Happiness Hypothesis poses several ideas on happiness espoused by thinkers of the past—Plato, Buddha, Jesus, and others—and examines them in the light of contemporary psychological research, extracting from them any lessons that still apply to our modern lives.

Central to the book are the concepts of virtue, happiness, fulfillment, and meaning.

Who is the Author of The Happiness Hypothesis?

Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 and then did post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago and in Orissa, India.

What are key takeaways from The Happiness Hypothesis?

Takeaway #1 our inner elephant.

Have you ever stopped to ponder what happiness actually is and how it can be achieved? We know that our mind can control how happy we are but without being part medical student part psychologist it can be difficult to understand how happiness works. That's where the fun metaphor of you being a wild elephant ridden by a human comes in!

Takeaway #2 Controlling The Elephant

Our conscious thoughts cannot fully control our body. If we look at our heart as an example, our heart is not controlled by our thoughts but by an autonomously acting second brain, therefore, our heart rate is controlled by how fast our inner elephant is running, not by the thoughts the rider sends to the elephant.

Usually, the rider plans ahead to direct and control the wild elephant's instincts so as to control basic drives such as hunger but when it comes to emotions, we usually let the elephant take charge and unfortunately, the elephant evaluates most things negatively. This is due to early humans relying on their ability to recognize danger to stay alive – fear would cause them to flee from the wild animal whilst joy was a rather redundant feeling. Right to this day, our inner elephant is wired to respond more strongly to negative things than positive things causing us to overreact with worry and fear to the modern world.

Genetics also come into play, determining how pessimistic or optimistic you are meaning that some elephant riders will need to work harder at controlling their elephant, training it to be happier through methods such as CBT and meditation.

Takeaway #3 Lifting The Blinkers on Both Elephant & Rider

We are hard-wired to not see our own faults since the realization that we're fallible isn't pleasant. However, living life with blinkers on can cause huge conflicts with those around us – just think how many times you've become angry or frustrated wondering why your partner or colleague couldn't see their own errors... it's likely that they will have also thought the same thing about you.

Our inability to recognize our shortcomings is so strong that when we're accused of doing something wrong, our inner elephant's automatic reaction is to deny it, with the rider rushing in to defend the elephant. It is possible to lift the blinkers when you make a conscious effort to find your flaws and mistakes you have made, this weakens our cognitive bias. Thanks to another human nature; reciprocity, when we admit our mistakes the other person will likely admit their own errors too resulting in a sincere apology and the conflict resolved.

Takeaway #4 All You Need Is Love

The Beatles were right, this basic yet vital feeling is a must in our lives. As adults, we often substitute our need for romantic love (this type of love including the positive feelings we received from our parents) with passionate love - the feeling of being in love that fades fast. When passionate love is over it doesn't mean the relationship is over, it just means you need to move on to the third type of love – compassionate love. This type of love grows over time and resembles the love we felt for and from our parents.

There are other ways to feel love that lead us to happiness – Doing a job because you love it rather than because it pays the bills, surrounding yourself with people that make you feel loved and part of a team, and practicing altruistic – showing unselfish concern for the well-being of others which gives meaning to our life.

Our desire to help others can sometimes come into conflict with helping ourselves, that's because we're social creatures programmed yet we're also highly individual creatures – Aligning the two states can feel like a balancing act but getting the balance right ensures happiness.

Book details

• Print length: 297 Pages
• Audiobook: 10 hrs and 18 mins
• Genre: Psychology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Self Help, Science, Mental Health

What are the chapters in The Happiness Hypothesis?

Chapter One - Introduction: Too Much Wisdom Chapter Two - The Divided Self Chapter Three - Changing Your Mind Chapter Four - Reciprocity With a Vengeance Chapter Five - The Faults of Others Chapter Six - The Pursuit of Happiness Chapter Seven - Love and Attachments Chapter Eight - The Uses of Adversity Chapter Nine - The Felicity of Virtue Chapter Ten - Divinity With or Without God Chapter Eleven - Happiness Comes from Between Chapter Twelve - On Balance

What are some of the main summary points from the book?

Here are some key summary points from the book:

What is a good quote from The Happiness Hypothesis?

― Jonathan Haidt - The Happiness Hypothesis Quotes

What do critics say?

Here's what one of the prominent reviewers had to say about the book: "This unusual book sets itself apart from the self-help category with its extensive scientific references, and intelligent, neutral prose, while the author's illuminating illustration of how the human mind works is both educational and refreshing." — Sunday Times (London)

* The summary points above have been concluded from the book and other public sources. The editor of this summary review made every effort to maintain information accuracy, including any published quotes, chapters, or takeaways

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The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt - Summary and Book Notes

Haidt explores different paths to happiness, examines them through the lens of modern research, and proposes a revised 'Happiness Hypothesis'.

This is a great rundown of positive psychology's main findings. Haidt writes clearly while backing up his arguments with research. The book has solid recommendations for improving happiness levels.

Highly recommend for anyone who:

• Wants to understand how happiness works
• Wants to shape their lives to improve well-being
• Has limited knowledge of psychology

Psychology majors could probably skip this one.

Quick Summary

Good fortune or bad, you will always return to your happiness setpoint—your brain’s default level of happiness—which was determined largely by your genes.

• Attachments bring pain, but they also bring our greatest joys
• People need obligations and constraints to provide structure and meaning to their lives
• The turn in philosophy from character to quandary was a profound mistake
• The human mind does perceive “divinity.”
• "Why are we here?" and "How ought I to live?" are separate questions, don't conflate them.
• Vital engagement does not reside in the person or in the environment; it exists in the relationship between internal and external factors.
• People gain a sense of meaning when their lives cohere across the three levels of their existence
• The final version of the happiness hypothesis is that happiness comes from between . You have to get the conditions right and then wait.

If you are a pessimist:

• consider meditation , cognitive therapy , or even Prozac .
• Second, cherish and build your social support network .
• Third, religious faith and practice can aid growth, both by directly fostering sense making and by increasing social support

Buy The Happiness Hypothesis on Amazon.

Recommendations for Further Reading

The following are rough notes I took while reading. These are mostly paraphrased or quoted directly from the book.

we have a deep need to understand violence and cruelty through “the myth of pure evil.”

The myth of pure evil is the ultimate self-serving bias, the ultimate form of naive realism . And it is the ultimate cause of most long-running cycles of violence because both sides use it to lock themselves into a Manichaean struggle.

Baumeister found that violence and cruelty have four main causes:

• greed/ambition (violence for direct personal gain, as in robbery)
• sadism (pleasure in hurting people).

greed/ambition explains only a small portion of violence, and sadism explains almost none.

• high self-esteem
• moral idealism.

when someone’s high esteem is unrealistic or narcissistic, it is easily threatened by reality; in reaction to those threats, people—particularly young men—often lash out violently.

Baumeister questions the usefulness of programs that try raise children’s self-esteem directly instead of by teaching them skills they can be proud of.

to really get a mass atrocity going you need idealism —the belief that your violence is a means to a moral end.

the world we live in is not really one made of rocks, trees, and physical objects; it is a world of insults, opportunities, status symbols, betrayals, saints, and sinners. they are a consensual hallucination.

once anger comes into play, people find it extremely difficult to empathize with and understand another perspective.

The Pursuit of Happiness

recent research in psychology suggests that Buddha and Epictetus may have taken things too far. Some things are worth striving for, and happiness comes in part from outside of yourself

THE PROGRESS PRINCIPLE

The elephant and the rider metaphor : The rider represents the conscious controlled processes and the elephant represents all of the automatic processes.

here’s the trick with reinforcement: It works best when it comes seconds—not minutes or hours—after the behavior.

The elephant works the same way: It feels pleasure whenever it takes a step in the right direction. The elephant learns whenever pleasure (or pain) follows immediately after behavior, but it has trouble connecting success on Friday with actions it took on Monday.

when it comes to goal pursuit, it really is the journey that counts, not the destination.

“the progress principle”: Pleasure comes more from making progress toward goals than from achieving them. Shakespeare captured it perfectly: “Things won are done; joy’s soul lies in the doing.”4

THE ADAPTATION PRINCIPLE

We are bad at “affective forecasting,” that is, predicting how we’ll feel in the future. We grossly overestimate the intensity and the duration of our emotional reactions.

Within a year, lottery winners and paraplegics have both (on average) returned most of the way to their baseline levels of happiness.

When we combine the adaptation principle with the discovery that `people’s average level of happiness is highly heritable , we come to a startling possibility: In the long run, it doesn’t much matter what happens to you.

“hedonic treadmill.”

Men have more freedom and power than women, yet they are not on average any happier. (Women experience more depression, but also more intense joy). People who live in cold climates expect people who live in California to be happier, but they are wrong.

at the lowest end of the income scale money does buy happiness. once you are freed from basic needs and have entered the middle class, the relationship between wealth and happiness becomes smaller.

Only a few activities avoid the adaptation principle:

• dependable companionship, which is a basic need; we never fully adapt either to it or to its absence.
• religious people are happier, on average, than nonreligious people.

This effect arises from the social ties that come with participation in a religious community, as well as from feeling connected to something beyond the self.

THE HAPPINESS FORMULA

Yes, genes explain far more about us than anyone had realized, but the genes themselves often turn out to be sensitive to environmental conditions .

each person has a characteristic level of happiness, but it now looks as though it’s not so much a set point as a potential range or probability distribution .

Whether you operate on the high or the low side of your potential range is determined by many factors that Buddha and Epictetus would have considered externals.

Voluntary activities, therefore, offer much greater promise for increasing happiness while avoiding adaptation effects.

One of the most important ideas in positive psychology is what Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, Schkade, and Seligman call the “happiness formula:”

The level of happiness that you actually experience (H) is determined by your biological set point (S) plus the conditions of your life (C) plus the voluntary activities (V) you do.

There really are some external conditions (C) that matter:

people who must adapt to new and chronic sources of noise (such as when a new highway is built) never fully adapt. Noise, especially noise that is variable or intermittent, interferes with concentration and increases stress.

Even after years of commuting, those whose commutes are traffic-filled still arrive at work with higher levels of stress hormones.

• Lack of control.

People who undergo plastic surgery report (on average) high levels of satisfaction with the process, and they even report increases in the quality of their lives and decreases in psychiatric symptoms (such as depression and anxiety)

• Relationships.

conflicts in relationships—having an annoying office mate or room-mate, or having chronic conflict with your spouse—is one of the surest ways to reduce your happiness.

in the happiness formula, C is real and some externals matter.

FINDING FLOW

Two different kinds of enjoyment. One is physical or bodily pleasure. At meal times, people report the highest levels of happiness, on average.

The other is Flow : the state of total immersion in a task that is challenging yet closely matched to one’s abilities.

The keys to flow: There’s a clear challenge that fully engages your attention; you have the skills to meet the challenge; and you get immediate feedback about how you are doing at each step (the progress principle).

In the flow experience, elephant and rider are in perfect harmony.

distinction between pleasures and gratifications: Pleasures are “delights that have clear sensory and strong emotional components."

Gratifications are activities that engage you fully, draw on your strengths, and allow you to lose self-consciousness.

Seligman proposes that V (voluntary activities) is largely a matter of arranging your day and your environment to increase both pleasures and gratifications

You can find out your strengths by taking an online test at www.authentichappiness.org .

people experienced longer-lasting improvements in mood from the kindness and gratitude activities than from those in which they indulged themselves.

Choose your own gratifying activities, do them regularly (but not to the point of tedium), and raise your overall level of happiness.

MISGUIDED PURSUITS

Evolution seems to have made us “strategically irrational” at times for our own good;

People would be happier if they reduced their commuting time, took longer vacations

Conspicuous and inconspicuous consumption follow different psychological rules. Conspicuous consumption is a zero-sum game

Activities connect us to others; objects often separate us.

“consume” more family time, vacations, and other enjoyable activities.

The elephant cares about prestige, not happiness,

" Paradox of Choice ”: We value choice and put ourselves in situations of choice, even though choice often undercuts our happiness.

paradox mostly applies to people they call “maximizers"

"satisficers”—are more laid back about choice. They evaluate an array of options until they find one that is good enough, and then they stop looking. Satisficers are not hurt by a surfeit of options.

THE HAPPINESS HYPOTHESIS RECONSIDERED

Most people (with the exception of homeless people) are more satisfied than dissatisfied with their lives.

Another reason for Buddha’s emphasis on detachment may have been the turbulent times he lived in

Yes, attachments bring pain, but they also bring our greatest joys

would like to suggest that the happiness hypothesis be extended—for now—into a yin-yang formulation: Happiness comes from within, and happiness comes from without.

Buddha is history’s most perceptive guide to the first half; he is a constant but gentle reminder of the yin of internal work.

But I believe that the Western ideal of action, striving, and passionate attachment is not as misguided as Buddhism suggests.

Love and Attachments

“contact comfort” is a basic need that young mammals have for physical contact with their mother.

the attachment of mother and child is so enormously important for the survival of the child that a dedicated system is built into mother and child in all species that rely on maternal care.

Bowlby’s grand synthesis is called Attachment Theory .

two basic goals guide children’s behavior: safety and exploration. A child who stays safe survives; a child who explores and plays develops the skills and intelligence needed for adult life.

These two needs are often opposed, however, so they are regulated by a kind of thermostat that monitors the level of ambient safety. When the safety level is adequate, the child plays and explores. But as soon as it drops too low, it’s as though a switch were thrown and suddenly safety needs become paramount.

If you want your children to grow up to be healthy and independent, you should hold them, hug them, cuddle them, and love them.

Give them a secure base and they will explore and then conquer the world on their own.

Harlow, Bowlby, and Ainsworth can help us understand grown-up love.

Some people change style as they grow up, but the great majority of adults choose the descriptor that matched the way they were as a child.

How did human females come to hide all signs of ovulation and get men to fall in love with them and their children?

the most plausible theory in my opinion begins with the enormous expansion of the human brain

There were physical limits to how large a head hominid females could give birth to and still have a pelvis that would allow them to walk upright.

our ancestor—evolved a novel technique that got around this limitation by sending babies out of the uterus long before their brains were developed enough to control their bodies. Humans are the only creatures on Earth whose young are utterly helpless for years, and heavily dependent on adult care for more than a decade.

active fathers, male-female pair-bonds, male sexual jealousy, and big-headed babies all co-evolved—that is, arose gradually but together.

But from what raw material could a tie evolve between men and women where one did not exist before?

It didn’t take much change to modify the attachment system, which every man and every woman had used as a child to attach to mom, and have it link up with the mating system

TWO LOVES, TWO ERRORS

Take one ancient attachment system, mix with an equal measure of caregiving system, throw in a modified mating system and voila, that’s romantic love. I seem to have lost something here; romantic love is so much more than the sum of its parts.

myth of “true” love—the idea that real love burns brightly and passionately, and then it just keeps on burning until death

But if true love is defined as eternal passion, it is biologically impossible.

two kinds of love: passionate and companionate.

Passionate love is the love you fall into.

companionate love, in contrast, as “the affection we feel for those with whom our lives are deeply intertwined.”

if passionate love is a drug—literally a drug—it has to wear off eventually.

Passionate love and companionate love are two separate processes, and they have different time courses.

People are not allowed to sign contracts when they are drunk, and I sometimes wish we could prevent people from proposing marriage when they are high on passionate love

The other danger point is the day the drug weakens its grip.

True love, the love that undergirds strong marriages, is simply strong companionate love, with some added passion, between two people who are firmly committed to each other.

WHY DO PHILOSOPHERS HATE LOVE?

In the ancient East, the problem with love is obvious: Love is attachment.

people need close and long-lasting attachments to particular others.

several reasons why real human love might make philosophers uncomfortable. First, passionate love is notorious for making people illogical and irrational,

two less benevolent motivations are at work. First, there may be a kind of hypocritical self-interest in which the older generation says, “Do as we say, not as we did.”

second motivation is the fear of death.

when people are asked to reflect on their own mortality, they find the physical aspects of sexuality more disgusting,

FREEDOM CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH

people who had fewer social constraints, bonds, and obligations were more likely to kill themselves.

people need obligations and constraints to provide structure and meaning to their lives

Having strong social relationships strengthens the immune system, extends life (more than does quitting smoking), speeds recovery from surgery, and reduces the risks of depression and anxiety disorders.

As a character in Jean-Paul Sartre’s play No Exit said, “Hell is other people.” But so is heaven.

The Uses of Adversity

“ Adversity hypothesis ,” which says that people need adversity, setbacks, and perhaps even trauma to reach the highest levels of strength, fulfillment, and personal development.

When is adversity beneficial, when is it harmful?

POSTTRAUMATIC GROWTH

Psychopaths are not violent (although most serial murderers and serial rapists are psychopaths). They are people, mostly men, who have no moral emotions, no attachment systems, and no concerns for others.

One of the most common lessons people draw from bereavement or trauma is that they are much stronger than they realized, and this new appreciation of their strength then gives them confidence to face future challenges.

The adversity hypothesis has a weak and a strong version . In the weak version, adversity can lead to growth, strength, joy, and self-improvement

The weak version is well-supported by research, but it has few clear implications for how we should live our lives.

The strong version of the hypothesis is more unsettling: It states that people must endure adversity to grow , and that the highest levels of growth and development are only open to those who have faced and overcome great adversity.

Psychologists often approach personality by measuring basic traits such as the “ big five ”: neuroticism, extroversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness (warmth/niceness), and conscientiousness

psychologist Dan McAdams has suggested that personality really has three levels, and too much attention has been paid to the lowest level, the basic traits.

second level of personality, “characteristic adaptations,” includes personal goals, defense and coping mechanisms, values, beliefs, and life-stage concerns (such as those of parenthood or retirement) that people develop to succeed in their particular roles and niches.

The third level of personality is that of the “life story.” The life story is written primarily by the rider.

You create your story in consciousness as you interpret your own behavior , and as you listen to other people’s thoughts about you. It is more like a work of historical fiction that makes plenty of references to real events and connects them by dramatizations and interpretations that might or might not be true to the spirit of what happened.

Most of the life goals that people pursue at the level of “characteristic adaptations” can be sorted—as the psychologist Robert Emmons has found—into four categories:

• work and achievement
• relationships and intimacy
• religion and spirituality
• generativity (leaving a legacy and contributing something to society).

People who strive primarily for achievement and wealth are, Emmons finds, less happy, on average, than those whose strivings focus on the other three categories

At the third level of personality, the need for adversity is even more obvious: You need interesting material to write a good story.

people who are mentally healthy and happy have a higher degree of “ vertical coherence ” among their goals. Higher-level (long term) goals and lower-level (immediate) goals all fit together well so that pursuing one’s short-term goals advances the pursuit of long-term goals.

BLESSED ARE THE SENSE MAKERS

When bad things happen to good people, we have a problem.

Psychologists have devoted a great deal of effort to figuring out who benefits from trauma and who is crushed. Optimists are more likely to benefit than pessimists.

When a crisis strikes, people cope in three primary ways:

• active coping (taking direct action to fix the problem),
• reappraisal (doing the work within—getting one’s own thoughts right and looking for silver linings)
• avoidance coping

If you are a pessimist, you are probably feeling gloomy right now. But despair not! If you can find a way to make sense of adversity and draw constructive lessons from it, you can benefit, too. And you can learn to become a sense maker by reading Jamie Pennebaker’s Opening Up .

Pennebaker asked people to write about “the most upsetting or traumatic experience of your entire life,” preferably one they had not talked about with others in great detail. He gave them plenty of blank paper and asked them to keep writing for fifteen minutes, on four consecutive days.

The people who wrote about traumas went to the doctor or the hospital fewer times in the following year.

it’s not about steam; it’s about sense making.

You have to use words, and the words have to help you create a meaningful story.

• The second step is to cherish and build your social support network .

And finally, no matter how well or poorly prepared you are when trouble strikes, at some point in the months afterwards, pull out a piece of paper and start writing.

Pennebaker suggests34 that you write continuously for fifteen minutes a day, for several days. Don’t edit or censor yourself; Before you conclude your last session, be sure you have done your best to answer these two questions: Why did this happen? What good might I derive from it?

When people older than thirty are asked to remember the most important or vivid events of their lives, they are disproportionately likely to recall events that occurred between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.

adversity may be most beneficial for people in their late teens and into their twenties.

Knowledge comes in two major forms: explicit and tacit.

Tacit knowledge is procedural (it’s “knowing how” rather than “knowing that”),

The strong version of the adversity hypothesis might be true, but only if we add caveats: For adversity to be maximally beneficial, it should happen at the right time (young adulthood), to the right people (those with the social and psychological resources to rise to challenges and find benefits), and to the right degree (not so severe as to cause PTSD).

The Felicity of Virtue

The Greek word aretē meant excellence, virtue, or goodness, especially of a functional sort.

Thus in saying that well being or happiness (eudaimonia) is “an activity of soul in conformity with excellence or virtue,” Aristotle was saying that a good life is one where you develop your strengths, realize your potential, and become what it is in your nature to become.

Franklin himself admitted that he failed utterly to develop the virtue of humility, yet he reaped great social gains by learning to fake it.

THE VIRTUES OF THE ANCIENTS

When we Westerners think about morality, we use concepts that are thousands of years old, but that took a turn in their development in the last two hundred years.

Most approaches then specified actions that were good and bad with respect to those virtues.

these ancient texts rely heavily on maxims and role models rather than proofs and logic. When moral instruction triggers emotions, it speaks to the elephant as well as the rider.

many ancient texts emphasize practice and habit rather than factual knowledge.

the ancients reveal a sophisticated understanding of moral psychology. They all knew that virtue resides in a well-trained elephant. They all knew that training takes daily practice and a great deal of repetition.

Why the shift away from Tacit Knowledge?

• First, the Greek mind that gave us moral inquiry also gave us the beginnings of scientific inquiry. Science values parsimony, but virtue theories, with their long lists of virtues, were never parsimonious.
• Second, the widespread philosophical worship of reason made many philosophers uncomfortable with locating virtue in habits and feelings.

Kant turned the problem around and said that people should think about whether the rules guiding their own actions could reasonably be proposed as universal laws. This simple test, which Kant called the “ categorical imperative ,” It offered to make ethics a branch of applied logic

Bentham was the father of utilitarianism

The argument between Kant and Bentham has continued ever since. Descendants of Kant (known as “deontologists” from the Greek deon, obligation) try to elaborate the duties and obligations that ethical people must respect, even when their actions lead to bad outcomes

Descendants of Bentham (known as “consequentialists” because they evaluate actions only by their consequences) try to work out the rules and policies that will bring about the greatest good, even when doing so will sometimes violate other ethical principles

They both believe in parsimony. They both distrust intuitions and gut feelings, which they see as obstacles to good reasoning. And they both shun the particular in favor of the abstract

This turn from character ethics to quandary ethics has turned moral education away from virtues and toward moral reasoning.

believe that this turn from character to quandary was a profound mistake , for two reasons.

• First, it weakens morality and limits its scope. Where the ancients saw virtue and character at work in everything a person does, our modern conception confines morality to a set of situations that arise for each person only a few times in any given week
• The second problem with the turn to moral reasoning is that it relies on bad psychology.

Many moral education efforts since the 1970s take the rider off of the elephant and train him to solve problems on his own.

Trying to make children behave ethically by teaching them to reason well is like trying to make a dog happy by wagging its tail.

THE VIRTUES OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Peterson and Seligman suggest that there are twenty-four principle character strengths, each leading to one of the six higher-level virtues.

strengths test (at www.authentichappiness.org).

• Wisdom : • Curiosity • Love of learning • Judgment • Ingenuity • Emotional intelligence • Perspective
• Courage : • Valor • Perseverance • Integrity
• Humanity : • Kindness • Loving
• Justice : • Citizenship • Fairness • Leadership
• Temperance : • Self-control • Prudence • Humility
• Transcendence : • Appreciation of beauty and excellence • Gratitude • Hope • Spirituality • Forgiveness • Humor • Zest

Here’s my favorite idea: Work on your strengths, not your weaknesses

[In Haidt's class] the final project is to make yourself a better person, using all the tools of psychology, and then prove that you have done so. the most successful ones usually either use cognitive behavioral therapy on themselves (it really does work!) or employ a strength, or both.

HARD QUESTION, EASY ANSWERS

it true that acting against my self-interest, for the good of others, even when I don’t want to, is still good for me? Sages and moralists have always answered with an unqualified yes, but the challenge for science is to qualify: When is it true, and why?

[Children] go through a phase in which many rules take on a kind of sacredness and unchangeability. During this phase, children believe in “immanent justice”—justice that is inherent in an act itself.

In this stage, they think that if they break rules, even accidentally, something bad will happen to them, even if nobody knows about their transgressions.

HARD QUESTION, HARD ANSWERS

Does helping others really confer happiness or prosperity on the helper?

the evidence suggests that they often gain happiness.

When a person increased volunteer work, all measures of happiness and well-being increased (on average) afterwards, for as long as the volunteer work was a part of the person’s life.

The elderly benefit even more than do other adults,

two of the big benefits of volunteer work are that it brings people together, and it helps them to construct a McAdams-style life story.

THE FUTURE OF VIRTUE

Should we in the West try to return to a more virtue-based morality? I believe that we have indeed lost something important—a richly textured common ethos with widely shared virtues and values.

Anomie is the condition of a society in which there are no clear rules, norms, or standards of value . In an anomic society, people can do as they please; but without any clear standards or respected social institutions to enforce those standards, it is harder for people to find things they want to do. Anomie breeds feelings of rootlessness and anxiety and leads to an increase in amoral and antisocial behavior.

the history of America ever since has been one of increasing diversity. In response, educators have struggled to identify the ever-shrinking set of moral ideas everyone could agree upon.

This shrinking reached its logical conclusion in the 1960s with the popular “values clarification” movement, which taught no morality at all.

(For a sensitive analysis from a more liberal perspective of the need for “cultural resources” for identity creation, see Anthony Appiah’s The Ethics of Identity .)

We have paid a price for our inclusiveness, but we have bought ourselves a more humane society,

I wondered whether celebrating diversity might also encourage division,

two main kinds of diversity—demographic and moral. Demographic diversity is about socio-demographic

nobody can coherently even want moral diversity.

Liberals are right to work for a society that is open to people of every demographic group, but conservatives might be right in believing that at the same time we should work much harder to create a common, shared identity .

Divinity With or Without God

In all human cultures, the social world has two clear dimensions: a horizontal dimension of closeness or liking, and a vertical one of hierarchy or status.

My claim is that the human mind perceives a third dimension, a specifically moral dimension that I will call “divinity.”

the human mind simply does perceive divinity and sacredness, whether or not God exists.

The logic of disgust.

Disgust was originally shaped by natural selection as a guardian of the mouth:

But disgust doesn’t guard just the mouth; its elicitors expanded during biological and cultural evolution so that now it guards the body more generally.

THE ETHIC OF DIVINITY

when people think about morality, their moral concepts cluster into three groups, which he calls the ethic of autonomy , the ethic of community , and the ethic of divinity .

educated Americans of high social class relied overwhelmingly on the ethic of autonomy in their moral discourse, whereas Brazilians, and people of lower social class in both countries, made much greater use of the ethics of community and divinity.

Purity is not just about the body, it is about the soul. If you know that you have divinity in you, you will act accordingly:

the ethic of divinity had been central to public discourse in the United States until the time of the World War I, after which it began to fade (except in a few places, such as the American South—

Eliade says that the modern West is the first culture in human history that has managed to strip time and space of all sacredness and to produce a fully practical, efficient, and profane world.

had never even wondered whether “uplift” is a real, honest-to-goodness emotion.

Jefferson went on to say that the physical feelings and motivational effects caused by great literature are as powerful as those caused by real events. He even said that it was the opposite of disgust. He chose the word “elevation,”

moral elevation appears to be different from admiration for nonmoral excellence.

Witnessing extraordinarily skillful actions gives people the drive and energy to try to copy those actions. Elevation, in contrast, is a calmer feeling, not associated with signs of physiological arousal.

Although people say, in all our studies, that they want to do good deeds, in two studies where we gave them the opportunity to sign up for volunteer work or to help an experimenter pick up a stack of papers she had dropped, we did not find that elevation made people behave much differently .

oxytocin might be released during moments of elevation. Oxytocin causes bonding, not action. Elevation may fill people with feelings of love, trust, and openness, making them more receptive to new relationships. yet, given their feelings of relaxation and passivity, they might be less likely to engage in active altruism toward strangers.

For many people, one of the pleasures of going to church is the experience of collective elevation.

This love has no specific object; it is agape. It feels like a love of all humankind

AWE AND TRANSCENDENCE

Something about the vastness and beauty of nature makes the self feel small and insignificant, and anything that shrinks the self creates an opportunity for spiritual experience.

Drugs in this class [have the] ability to induce massive alterations of perception and emotion that sometimes feel, even to secular users, like contact with divinity, and that cause people to feel afterwards that they’ve been transformed.

When people bring a reverential mindset and take the drugs in a safe and supportive setting, as is done in the initiation rites of some traditional cultures, these drugs can be catalysts for spiritual and personal growth.

William James analyzed the “varieties of religious experience,” including rapid and gradual religious conversions and experiences with drugs and nature. James found such extraordinary similarity in the reports of these experiences that he thought they revealed deep psychological truths.

we experience life as a divided self, torn by conflicting desires.

Religious experiences are real and common, whether or not God exists , and these experiences often make people feel whole and at peace.

In the rapid type of conversion experience, the old self, full of petty concerns, doubts, and grasping attachments, is washed away in an instant, usually an instant of profound awe.

Maslow suggested that all religions are based on the insights of somebody’s peak experience. Peak experiences make people nobler, just as James had said, and religions were created as methods of promoting peak experiences and then maximizing their ennobling powers.

Religions sometimes lose touch with their origins , however; they are sometimes taken over by people who have not had peak experiences—the bureaucrats and company men who want to routinize procedures and guard orthodoxy for orthodoxy’s sake.

But what is most surprising in Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences is Maslow’s attack on science for becoming as sterile as organized religion.

scientists and philosophers had traditionally held an attitude of wonder toward the natural world and the objects of their inquiry. But in the late sixteenth century, European scientists began to look down on wonder.

THE SATANIC SELF

the development of the self may have been crucial to the development of human ultrasociality. the self also gave each one of us a personal tormenter.

It is important to note that the self is not exactly the rider—much of the self is unconscious and automatic—but because the self emerges from conscious verbal thinking and storytelling, it can be constructed only by the rider.

The self is the main obstacle to spiritual advancement,

But I am trying to understand the mutual incomprehension of the two sides in the culture war, and I believe that Shweder’s three ethics—particularly the ethic of divinity—are the key to it.

Many of the key battles in the American culture war are essentially about whether some aspect of life should be structured by the ethic of autonomy or by the ethic of divinity.

liberals were much more permissive and relied overwhelmingly on the ethic of autonomy; conservatives, much more critical, used all three ethics in their discourse.

I do not entirely lament the “flattening” of life in the West over the last few hundred years. An unfortunate tendency of three-dimensional societies is that they often include one or more groups that get pushed down on the third dimension and then treated badly, or worse.

Because the culture war is ideological, both sides use the myth of pure evil.

Happiness Comes from Between

There appear to be two specific sub-questions to which people want answers, and for which they find answers enlightening. The first can be called the question of the purpose of life: “ What is the purpose for which human beings were placed on Earth? Why are we here? ”

Either you believe in a god/spirit/intelligence who had some idea, desire, or intention in creating the world or you believe in a purely material world in which it and you were not created for any reason;

The second sub-question is the question of purpose within life: “ How ought I to live? What should I do to have a good, happy, fulfilling, and meaningful life? ”

When people ask the Holy Question, one of the things they are hoping for is a set of principles or goals that can guide their actions and give their choices meaning or value. Aristotle asked about aretē (excellence/virtue) and telos (purpose/goal), and he used the metaphor that people are like archers, who need a clear target at which to aim. Without a target or goal, one is left with the animal default.

In my adolescent existentialism, I conflated the two sub-questions. Because I embraced the scientific answer to the question of the purpose of life, I thought it precluded finding purpose within life.

religions teach that the two questions are inseparable.

For the rest of this chapter I will ignore the purpose of life and search for the factors that give rise to a sense of purpose within life.

LOVE AND WORK

The computer metaphor has so pervaded our thought that we sometimes think about people as computers, and about psychotherapy as the repair shop or a kind of reprogramming. But people are not computers, and they usually recover on their own from almost anything that happens to them .

think a better metaphor is that people are like plants.

If people are like plants, what are the conditions we need to flourish?

Love and work are, for people, obvious analogues to water and sunshine for plants. people and many other mammals have a basic drive to make things happen.

Karl Marx’s criticism of capitalism was based in part on his justified claim that the Industrial Revolution had destroyed the historical relationship between craftsmen and the goods they produced.

most people can get more satisfaction from their work.

Take the strengths test and then choose work that allows you to use your strengths every day, thereby giving yourself at least scattered moments of flow.

If you are stuck in a job that doesn’t match your strengths, recast and reframe your job so that it does.

Work at its best, then, is about connection, engagement, and commitment. As the poet Kahlil Gibran said, “Work is love made visible.”

Happiness comes not just from within, as Buddha and Epictetus supposed, or even from a combination of internal and external factors. Happiness comes from between.

Vital engagement does not reside in the person or in the environment; it exists in the relationship between the two.

CROSS-LEVEL COHERENCE

If your lower-level traits match up with your coping mechanisms, which in turn are consistent with your life story, your personality is well integrated and you can get on with the business of living.

People are multilevel systems in another way: We are physical objects (bodies and brains) from which minds somehow emerge; and from our minds, somehow societies and cultures form.

To understand ourselves fully we must study all three levels—physical, psychological, and sociocultural

[People gain a sense of meaning when their lives cohere across the three levels of their existence](/cohesion) .

You can’t just invent a good ritual through reasoning about symbolism. You need a tradition within which the symbols are embedded, and you need to invoke bodily feelings that have some appropriate associations. Then you need a community to endorse and practice it over time.

Meaning and purpose simply emerge from the coherence, and people can get on with the business of living. But conflict, paralysis, and anomie are likely when a community fails to provide coherence , or, worse, when its practices contradict people’s gut feelings or their shared mythology and ideology.

GOD GIVES US HIVES

Do humans compete, live, and die as a group?

As long as each human being has the opportunity to reproduce, the evolutionary payoffs for investing in one’s own welfare and one’s own offspring will almost always exceed the payoffs for contributing to the group; in the long run, selfish traits will therefore spread at the expense of altruistic traits.

human beings evolve at two levels simultaneously: genetic and cultural.

Cultural elements, however, don’t spread by the slow process of having children; they spread rapidly whenever people adopt a new behavior, technology, or belief.

groups that parlayed those beliefs into social coordination devices (for example, by linking them to emotions such as shame, fear, guilt, and love) found a cultural solution to the free-rider problem and then reaped the enormous benefits of trust and cooperation.

HARMONY AND PURPOSE

From Wilson’s perspective, mystical experience is an “off” button for the self. When the self is turned off, people become just a cell in the larger body, a bee in the larger hive.

Newberg believes that rituals that involve repetitive movement and chanting, particularly when they are performed by many people at the same time, help to set up “resonance patterns” in the brains of the participants that make this mystical state more likely to happen.

THE MEANING OF LIFE

The final version of the happiness hypothesis is that happiness comes from between. You have to get the conditions right and then wait.

Some of those conditions are within you, such as coherence among the parts and levels of your personality. Other conditions require relationships to things beyond you: Just as plants need sun, water, and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger.

It is worth striving to get the right relationships between yourself and others, between yourself and your work, and between yourself and something larger than yourself. If you get these relationships right, a sense of purpose and meaning will emerge.

Conclusion: On Balance

Psychology and religion can benefit by taking each other seriously, or at least by agreeing to learn from each other while overlooking the areas of irreconcilable difference.

But the most important lesson I have learned in my twenty years of research on morality is that nearly all people are morally motivated. Selfishness is a powerful force, particularly in the decisions of individuals, but whenever groups of people come together to make a sustained effort to change the world, you can bet that they are pursuing a vision of virtue, justice, or sacredness .

Each culture develops expertise in some aspects of human existence, but no culture can be expert in all aspects.

liberals are experts in thinking about issues of victimization, equality, autonomy, and the rights of individuals, particularly those of minorities and nonconformists. Conservatives, on the other hand, are experts in thinking about loyalty to the group, respect for authority and tradition, and sacredness.

good place to look for wisdom, therefore, is where you least expect to find it: in the minds of your opponents.

## Further Reading

• The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt - Haidt explores morality and it's effects on politics and religion.
• Book Notes on Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari - More on the history of humankind
• More on Cohesion for the self.
• The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz - More on satisficers and maximizers

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The happiness hypothesis.

Jonathan Haidt

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2006

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Happiness Hypothesis Summary - Jonathan Haidt

Updated: Jun 2, 2021

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3 Big Ideas:

The Happiness Hypothesis Summary:

Happiness Formula (H = S + C + V) - Happiness = Set Level + Conditions + Voluntary activities

Set Level -The set-point theory of happiness suggests that our level of subjective well-being is determined primarily by heredity and by personality traits ingrained in us early in life, and as a result remains relatively constant throughout our lives

Conditions – Relationships(connection) is one of the most important conditional factors to happiness. You can never adapt if you lose connections.

Voluntary activities – Focus on activities that bring joy to others. Such as showing gratitude, kindness, favours.

Retrain the Elephant – A strong metaphor throughout. Rider = Rational Brain Elephant = Compulsive, Irrational brain. Lasting happiness does not occur through an epiphany. It occurs through focusing on the relationship between rider and elephant and retraining the elephant. You need to consistently act your way to change through tiny habits.

Coherence is a strong theme throughout. Living coherently leads to happiness. This includes coherence between different levels of your personality, personal values, the environment you live and work within, relationships you have.

The Happiness Hypothesis Quotes:

“Happiness is not something that you can find, acquire, or achieve directly. You have to get the conditions right and then wait. Some of those conditions are within you. Other conditions require relationships to things beyond you: Just as plants need sun, water, and good soil to thrive, people need love, work, and a connection to something larger “

“Work less, Consume less, Attach less, Connect more”

Tobys Takeaway:

The biggest takeaway from the Happiness Hypothesis:

Focus on building good relationships in my life.

Relationships between myself and others, between myself and work, between myself and a greater purpose.

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Big Ideas Expanded

The Happiness Hypothesis Summary of ideas expanded:

The brain sends bad feedback signals quicker than good. We are wired for negativity bias.

Three beliefs depressed people hold:

I’m no good

My world is no good

My future is hopeless

Three best ways to change thought patterns:

CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)

Throughout the Happiness Hypothesis, this metaphor is used. The rider and the elephant.

The rider and the elephant are often in conflict. The elephant usually wins.

Streetlight Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetlight_effect

You can’t change your mind(or anything else) through willpower alone. You need to act your way to changes through tiny habits done consistently such as meditation and thinking habits formed through CBT

Our search for knowledge is flawed. We search for facts that confirm our position and once found we stop thinking and looking for alternatives (Confirmation Bias)

Our perception of others is often correct. Our perception of self is flawed. We have significant blind spots. The ego is strong. We see ourselves through rose-tinted spectacles

Naive Realism – we see the world objectively, everyone else is wrong!

Progress Principle – Joy comes through the journey towards the goal not the achievement of the goal.

Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work

Adaptation Principle – In the long run, it doesn’t matter what happens to you, good or bad, you will ultimately return to your happiness equilibrium which is largely influenced by your genes. Also referred to as Hedonic Treadmill

Relationships(connection) is one of the most important factors to happiness. You can never adapt if you loose connections.

Experiences, such as going to a concert, give more happiness due to their social value. They bring connection

Voluntary Activity essential is to your daily habits. Build reciprocal habits can have the biggest effect. Such as showing gratitude, kindness, favours for others

Happiness = work less, consume less, attach less, connect more

3 levels of personality (McAdams):

Basic internal traits (having)

Personal values, goals, projects (doing)

Life Story (making)

Coherence between the 3 levels is essential for happiness

3 typical responses to tragedy :

Active response(taking action)

Reframing (such as into a positive)

4 types of Life Goals :

Work/Achievement – People least happy if they drive towards this goal

Relationship

3 ways to manage your environment :

Adapt – respond to changing environment

Shape – changing the environment to suit needs

Select – choosing the environment to work within

People are not computers. The technology metaphor is now so pervasive we see people as machines. And therapy as the repair shop. Our metaphors are wrong. People are more like plants

Most plants will come back to life without repairing plant. Focus on

the conditions. Fix the environment the plant(person) will naturally spring back to life.

vital conditions for humans to flourish:

Social connection (love)

Compelling purpose or goal greater than ourselves

Vital Engagement = Flow + Meaning

Coherence is important for individuals happiness. Coherence at the three levels of your personality. If you do not have coherence, it is likely you will be tormented . Without good skills to diagnose your personal system, you may struggle to find the problem You need coherence with your personal “optimisation” goal.

When you do find coherence, it may be one of the most profound moments in your life.

Items which need coherence: – Habits – Goals – Values – Work – Love

These items are always in healthy tension but importantly there needs to be coherence.

Coherence needed at all levels:

Psychological

We have an internal desire to share learning and ideas. The desire to reciprocate shares this even further and creates a virtuous cycle. Helping others succeed is hard-wired into humans.

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The Happiness Hypothesis Summary and Key Lessons

“The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom” is a book by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist. In this work, Haidt explores the connection between ancient wisdom and modern psychology to understand the nature of happiness and how it can be achieved in our contemporary lives.

Quick Summary : Haidt delves into various cultural and religious teachings from the past, comparing them with scientific research on well-being and contentment. He identifies common principles, suggesting that happiness is a blend of inner harmony, social connections, and purposeful living, challenging us to reevaluate their perceptions of happiness.

The Happiness Hypothesis Summary

Introduction to the ancient wisdom.

Haidt begins by delving into the teachings of ancient philosophers and religious texts, highlighting the universal quest for happiness and meaning. 

He introduces the central metaphor of the book – the idea of a rider (conscious reasoning) on an elephant (automatic processes or intuition). 

This metaphor suggests that while we might believe our rational side is in control, it is the elephantine intuition that truly drives our actions . 

This concept is essential in understanding the various hypotheses about happiness presented in the book.

The Divided Self

Haidt explores the idea that the human mind is divided into parts that sometimes conflict. 

Drawing from ancient philosophies, he discusses concepts like the battles between passions and reason, body and soul, and ego and id. Through this, he suggests that internal conflicts are a significant source of human misery . 

However, by understanding and mastering these divisions, one can move towards a harmonious existence and, consequently, happiness.

The Role of Adversity and Challenges

Contrary to the modern notion that happiness is the absence of adversity , Haidt emphasizes the importance of challenges and adversities in personal growth and happiness. 

He refers to the concept of “ post-traumatic growth ” and demonstrates how some individuals find meaning and increased satisfaction after undergoing significant challenges. 

This perspective offers a refreshing view on happiness , suggesting it isn’t just about pleasant experiences but also about growth and resilience.

Relationships and Happiness

Haidt delves deep into the importance of human connections, love, and work in the pursuit of happiness. He discusses the role of love and attachments, emphasizing the significance of meaningful relationships . 

By synthesizing various studies and ancient teachings , Haidt argues that while love can bring joy, it can also bring pain, emphasizing the importance of balance. 

Furthermore, the role of work, especially work that aligns with one’s values and passions , is highlighted as a critical component of a fulfilling life.

The Pursuit of Happiness in Modern Times

In the concluding sections, Haidt contrasts ancient wisdom with modern understandings of happiness. 

He addresses the challenges of the modern world, such as materialism and the constant pursuit of more , which often lead to a sense of emptiness. 

By revisiting the central metaphor of the rider and the elephant , Haidt offers strategies for aligning one’s conscious reasoning with intuition, leading to a more integrated, authentic, and ultimately happier life.

Also Read: In Defense of Food Summary and Key Lessons

Key Lessons

1. understanding the dichotomy of mind.

Our minds are not singular entities but are composed of conflicting parts. The metaphor of the rider (conscious reasoning) and the elephant (intuition) is particularly powerful in illustrating this. 

While we might believe we’re making rational decisions, our intuition often holds more sway than we realize. To achieve happiness and contentment, it’s crucial to recognize and harmonize these two components.

By being more self-aware, you can begin to notice when your ‘elephant’ is taking the lead, especially during emotional decisions. 

Over time, through reflection and practice, you can guide your ‘rider’ to work in harmony with your ‘elephant’ , leading to more aligned and satisfying choices.

2. The Value of Adversity

Modern society often promotes the idea that happiness is the absence of problems or adversity. 

However, Haidt challenges this notion by highlighting the role of challenges in personal growth. 

Adversities, while painful in the moment, can lead to “ post-traumatic growth ,” wherein individuals emerge stronger, wiser, and often more fulfilled than before.

So, instead of viewing challenges or failures negatively, you can reframe them as opportunities for growth. 

By adopting a growth mindset, you’ll be better equipped to navigate hardships, extract lessons from them, and emerge more resilient and content.

Also Read: The Secret Summary and Key Lessons

3. The Importance of Meaningful Connections

While individual achievements and personal success are essential, the significance of human connections cannot be understated. Meaningful relationships, whether they are familial, platonic, or romantic , play a pivotal role in our overall happiness and well-being. 

However, it’s essential to strike a balance, as love can bring both joy and pain.

Prioritize building and maintaining strong, meaningful relationships in your life. Spend quality time with loved ones, communicate openly, and foster deep connections. 

At the same time, recognize the importance of boundaries and ensure that relationships are healthy and mutually beneficial .

Final Thoughts

“The Happiness Hypothesis” offers a comprehensive exploration of the nature of happiness, drawing from ancient wisdom and modern science . Haidt provides a nuanced understanding of happiness, emphasizing the importance of self-awareness, relationships, and purpose. The book challenges the reader to reflect on their own beliefs about happiness and provides actionable insights for those seeking a deeper sense of fulfillment in life.

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Book Summary: The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt

The Happiness Hypothesis is a book written by Jonathan Haidt, published in 2006. The book explores the concept of happiness and how it can be achieved through understanding the connections between psychology, philosophy, and spirituality. The book is divided into ten chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of happiness and how it can be achieved.

Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1: the evolution of self-help.

In the first chapter, Haidt discusses the history of self-help books and how they have evolved over time. He also discusses the different approaches to self-help, including the cognitive-behavioral approach, the humanistic approach, and the spiritual approach. Haidt argues that the best approach to self-help is one that combines all three approaches.

Chapter 2: The Buddha’s Brain

In this chapter, Haidt explores the concept of mindfulness and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the science behind mindfulness and how it can be used to reduce stress and improve well-being. Haidt also discusses the importance of meditation and how it can be used to achieve a state of inner peace.

Chapter 3: The Joy of Introspection

In this chapter, Haidt discusses the importance of introspection and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the different types of introspection, including self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-discovery. Haidt also discusses the benefits of introspection, including increased self-esteem, improved relationships, and greater happiness.

Chapter 4: The Power of Love

In this chapter, Haidt discusses the importance of love and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the different types of love, including romantic love, familial love, and platonic love. Haidt also discusses the benefits of love, including increased happiness, improved health, and greater well-being.

Chapter 5: The Happiness of Pursuit

In this chapter, Haidt discusses the importance of pursuing goals and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the different types of goals, including intrinsic goals and extrinsic goals. Haidt also discusses the benefits of goal-setting, including increased motivation, improved well-being, and greater happiness.

Chapter 6: The Happiness of Giving

In this chapter, Haidt discusses the importance of giving and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the different types of giving, including charitable giving, volunteer work, and random acts of kindness. Haidt also discusses the benefits of giving, including increased happiness, improved relationships, and greater well-being.

Chapter 7: The Happiness of Being

In this chapter, Haidt discusses the importance of being present and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the different types of being, including mindfulness, acceptance, and gratitude. Haidt also discusses the benefits of being, including increased happiness, improved relationships, and greater well-being.

Chapter 8: The Happiness of Doing

In this chapter, Haidt discusses the importance of doing and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the different types of doing, including work, hobbies, and leisure activities. Haidt also discusses the benefits of doing, including increased happiness, improved relationships, and greater well-being.

Chapter 9: The Happiness of Making

In this chapter, Haidt discusses the importance of creating and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the different types of creating, including art, music, and writing. Haidt also discusses the benefits of creating, including increased happiness, improved relationships, and greater well-being.

Chapter 10: The Happiness of Being Human

In the final chapter, Haidt ties together all of the previous chapters and discusses the importance of being human and how it can be used to achieve happiness. He discusses the different aspects of human nature, including our emotions, our relationships, and our sense of purpose. Haidt also discusses the benefits of being human, including increased happiness, improved relationships, and greater well-being.

Overall, The Happiness Hypothesis is a thought-provoking book that explores the concept of happiness and how it can be achieved through understanding the connections between psychology, philosophy, and spirituality. Throughout the book, Haidt provides practical advice and insights into how readers can achieve happiness in their own lives. Whether you are looking to improve your relationships, increase your motivation, or find greater well-being, The Happiness Hypothesis provides a roadmap for achieving happiness.

If you are looking for a book that will inspire you to live a happier life, The Happiness Hypothesis is a great choice. With its practical advice and insightful analysis, this book is sure to leave you feeling inspired and motivated to achieve your own happiness.

Interested in reading the whole book?

Buy the book “The Happiness Hypothesis” on Amazon

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Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis; Putting Ancient Wisdom to the Test of Modern Science

Random House, London, 2006, 297 pp, ISBN 9780434013364

• Book review
• Open access
• Published: 20 February 2007
• Volume 8 , pages 299–301, ( 2007 )

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• Jan Ott 1  

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Jonathan Haidt is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia and co-editor of “Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-Lived”. His “Happiness Hypothesis” is an assessment of factors contributing to happiness. The assessment is properly based on ancient wisdom and modern psychology and is a plea for a balanced approach to avoid jumping to conclusions. The book is interesting for readers who want to know more about happiness and happiness-research.

Haidt discusses the importance of ten great ideas. The most basic of these ideas are about the divided self, changing your mind, the pursuit of happiness, love and attachments, and happiness as a result of the interaction between internal needs and external opportunities. First we discuss these basic chapters and then some interesting side-roads.

The Divided Self (chapter 1). An essential and recurrent element in the book is the distinction between our rational ego and our emotions and motives, each with specific dynamics. In Haidt’s metaphor: the rider and the elephant. If there is a conflict the elephant wins because the elephant is older in terms of our evolutionary history and considerably stronger. Haidt wants to stress the importance of cooperation between the two and this is an important fact to be taken into account in moral education. The rider must train and direct the elephant but has to respect its characteristics in order to be effective. An interesting claim in this chapter is that people without emotions are unable to make any decisions; without the emotional input of the elephant the rider will be mentally paralyzed.

Changing your mind (chapter 2), and The pursuit of happiness (chapter 5). Our happiness depends for a great deal on our way of thinking and how we see the world. Our individual genes have a strong impact on this way of thinking but we do have possibilities to make changes, for instance by meditation, cognitive therapy and Prozac. This implies that our individual happiness H does not completely depend on our biological genetic set-point S: H is more than S. Buddhists and stoics even go several steps further; they believe they are just riders and completely in control of their mental state. They believe they can change their thinking by voluntary mental activities V. However, this vision is also too extreme and simple: our set-point and individual circumstances C have a considerable impact: H is more than V. This actually completes Haidt’s happiness formula H = S + C + V, but in the next chapters he nicely specifies this formula.

Love and attachments (chapter 6) and Happiness comes from between (chapter 10).

According to behaviorists material circumstances have a decisive impact on our behavior and happiness. Haidt modifies this vision by following Harry Harlow and John Bowlby who have demonstrated the importance of inborn needs. Pleasant material circumstances “as such” are not sufficient; people need specific circumstances or opportunities to develop their inborn capabilities and emotional attachments. In this last chapter Haidt specifies his happiness-formula with a nice conclusion about the nature of happiness: happiness requires an adequate fit between internal needs and external opportunities and grows at the borderline between the self and the environment

This is the mainstream in Haidt’s book but there are some interesting side-roads. The impact of adversity is always a fascinating puzzle in happiness research. In chapter 7, The Uses of Adversity , Haidt describes some positive effects that adversity may have on happiness. Adversity can help people to get a better understanding of their own personal strengths and can deepen social relationships. In other words: adversity can mobilize important psychological and social resources and by doing so demonstrate the existence of such resources. This has positive effects on contemporary and future happiness. Apart from that, adversity can help to reconsider and update priorities in life. Haidt also describes a more specific effect: the actual life of people is usually not an outcome of rational choices, but in many ways the outcome of accidental circumstances and incidents. In many lives this history has created some inconsistencies between basic personality traits, personal habits and goals people pursue in life. Adversity can stimulate people to face such inconsistencies and to do something about it. If such actions reduce inconsistencies and improve harmony, then this can also have a profound and structural positive effect on happiness.

Two other side-roads are Haidt’s discussion of morality and the meaning of life in chapter 8, The Felicity of Virtue , and chapter 9, Divinity With or Without God . In Haidt’s vision Immanuel Kant and Jeremy Bentham deserve both a prize for coming up with a single moral rule, to be applied through the power of reason, that can cleanly separate good from bad. Kant’s principle is the “categorical imperative”: actions are only acceptable if the rules guiding this actions can be acceptable as general laws; breaking an inconvenient promise is not acceptable since breaking inconvenient promises can never be acceptable as a general law. Bentham’s principle is “the greatest happiness principle”: actions are morally acceptable if they, in their consequences, increase the average happiness. Haidt admires both philosophers but has two problems with their interpretation of morality; an interpretation that has become dominant in our modern times. First it weakens morality and limits its scope because it confines morality to specific situations and dilemmas. The ancient philosophers, like Plato and Aristotle, saw morality as a matter of character, at work in everything a person does. Haidt prefers their interpretation of morality as “an ethics of virtue”. Morality in that sense, as practical wisdom, is important for happiness and Haidt admires Franklin who developed such wisdom deliberately. Haidt’s second problem with our modern interpretation of morality is that it is based on bad psychology because it is only based on human rationality—the rider—and has nothing to do with human emotions—the elephant. Moral education, for instance in our treatment of animals, will be more effective if it is supported by emotions.

Meaning is another important issue in Haidt’s work; not as a linguistic problem of finding a definition or metaphor, but as a question of purpose in life. Haidt makes a distinction between two questions:

What is meaning or the purpose of life?

What is meaning or the purpose within life?

The first question looks at life from the outside, it looks at people—and everything else—as objects. This question is properly addressed by theologians, physicists and biologists. The second question looks at life from the inside, from the living subject’s point of view. According to Haidt this second question is empirical and can be examined by scientific means; this question is properly addressed by theologians, philosophers and psychologists. Haidt ignores the first question and tries to answer the second one. At that point he returns to the external conditions C in his happiness formula. Love and work—at the borderline between internal needs and external opportunities!—are in his vision the most important conditions for a meaningful and happy life. Meaning and happiness are obviously closely connected in Haidt’s vision.

Haidt’s book is obviously an excellent piece of work. Perhaps we can make just two critical comments. Haidt’s argument that “an ethics of virtue” is important for individual happiness as a type of practical wisdom is convincing. There is much to be said in favor of stimulating such wisdom in schools and otherwise; even if schools and people prioritize different virtues. However, a broader interpretation of morality to incorporate such “ethics of virtue”, is debatable. Modern morality and ethics are indeed about specific dilemmas in human relations and seek rational and socially acceptable solutions. There is nothing wrong with that. The real problem appears to be the lack of implementation of morality. Discrepancies between rationality and emotions—or the rider and the elephant—contribute to this failure, but a broader interpretation of morality would only disguise this problem, without offering a solution. A broader interpretation could also create serious conceptual problems, because the distinctions between morality, social values and individual virtues would become unruly. A second critical remark concerns Haidt’s vision on meaning within life. He believes that theologians, philosophers and psychologists can find meaning in life by scientific research, since meaning is a suitable object for empirical research. This is also debatable. People can only create their own meaning, as individuals or collectivities, by the attribution of values to anything they choose. This attribution is a nice object for social research but this research will never provide us with any answers about the meaning within life as such. We must always make our own decisions about values and meaning within our own life!

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Ott, J. Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis; Putting Ancient Wisdom to the Test of Modern Science . J Happiness Stud 8 , 299–301 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9049-2

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The Happiness Hypothesis Summary

1-Sentence-Summary:   The Happiness Hypothesis is the most thorough analysis of how you can find happiness in our modern society, backed by plenty of scientific research, real-life examples and even a formula for happiness.

Favorite quote from the author:

Table of Contents

Video Summary

The happiness hypothesis review, audio summary, who would i recommend the happiness hypothesis summary to.

If you’re looking for a scientifically proven way to find happiness, you’ve come to the right place.

These blinks show that Jonathan Haidt , social psychologist and professor at NYU , has pulled out all the stops.

In the beginning of The Happiness Hypothesis , he establishes a metaphor, which then serves throughout the rest of the book to explain happiness in different contexts.

He says our brain is divided into two main parts.  Your limbic system is in charge of your basic instincts , the needs for sleep, food and sex.

The neocortex is, as its name suggests, a newer part of the brain, responsible for your rational thinking . It’s what keeps your limbic system in check and makes sure you don’t run around naked on the street, overeat, or sleep in when you’re supposed to go to work.

While the neocortex follows suit to your thoughts, your limbic brain doesn’t. It’s fully in charge of your heart rate, moving while you sleep or the knee-jerk reflex .

Haidt therefore describes the limbic brain as a wild elephant,  with your neocortex being  the rider , trying to control the elephant.

Unhappiness comes from the rider and the elephant disagreeing, and Haidt uses this metaphor to show you what you can do to close the gap between the two.

50% to 80% of your baseline level of happiness is determined in your genes , but by changing your thoughts you can still train the elephant .

For example, your limbic brain is trained to recognize danger everywhere, in order to survive, but by  becoming an optimist , you can lessen this behavior, which isn’t quite so useful today.

If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.

A large chunk of our happiness comes from our social relationships , and the first step towards improving them, is understanding them.

Reciprocity is the principle on which we interact, which is why you feel guilty if you don’t return a favor and  Sheldon feels compelled to give a gift back . We feel so strongly about it, that we’d prefer to get nothing, rather than receiving an unfair share .

You can use this principle the next time you fight with your spouse or roommate: Just admit some of the things you did wrong . Your friend will start to reciprocate and also admit what they did wrong, helping both of you to resolve the conflict.

Doing this also helps lessening your self-serving bias , since your elephant thinks it’s always right and your rider usually defends it.

Next to your relationships, your work is one of the few factors that matters a lot to your happiness.

The adaptation principle shows that whatever lucky event or adversity we face, we get used to it. This was proven in a study showing that people who won the lottery and people who became paralyzed both returned to their baseline happiness levels after one year.

However, what you spend your time working on is one of those external circumstances that has a big impact, thanks to the progress principle . It says that we draw much more happiness from working towards a goal , rather than reaching it.

So try to find meaningful work  you’re good at – as Confucius says: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Your most important relationship in your life will likely be the one with your partner or spouse. But on your quest for love , don’t just rely on passion . No matter how much “in love” you are at the beginning of the relationship, it naturally fades – and that’s okay.

Haidt says we must seek to develop companionate love , which is what best friends, brothers, sisters and family members share. Having someone at your side through the ups and downs of life, sharing your joy and sadness and exploring and learning together creates a much stronger bond, which can last you a lifetime, but it takes time to develop.

So don’t give up a relationship once passion fades, but give your companionate love time to develop.

The rider and the elephant might also disagree about who you are.  For example your rider can try to preserve your image of being an efficient, career-driven manager, while your elephant just wants to cut himself some slack and play soccer with his buddies.

It often takes a crisis for us to see these differences, which is why adversity can make us happier.  This is especially true for people in their teens and twenties, who spend a lot of time thinking and looking for meaning in their lives. A crisis gives you the chance to see what the elephant really wants and help the rider adjust your self-image to match your true desires.

Lastly, we need to feel connected to something greater than ourselves , which is why religion has a place in our lives. Even if you’re an atheist, you probably believe in karma, destiny or fortune. That’s a good thing! Belief gives us a sense of awe , because it makes us realize that we’re a small part of something much greater.

• Surround yourself with the people you love the most and live in accordance with reciprocity
• Do work that matters to you
• Find a partner who will stand by your side through sunshine and rain
• Allow yourself to be part of something greater

These are just some of the things I learned from these blinks, as there were so many good insights, let alone in the book.

These blinks did an awesome job. I read parts of The Happiness Hypothesis , and every page hits you with a new insight. I don’t know how I would’ve summarized it, but Blinkist did it.

I would have liked to learn about the formula here (Haidt gives a formula for happiness in the book, consisting of your biological set points, the conditions of your life, and your voluntary activities), but I don’t mind that they went for the rider and the elephant metaphor.

Using this throughout all blinks made the summary very consistent and actionable. The book is great, the summary is superb – I highly recommend you get both.

Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:

The 27 year old who burns through one love relationship after another, the 47 year old who still slaves away in a corporate job she hates in hope for a good retirement and anyone who thinks happiness is just something your born with.

Last Updated on December 5, 2022

Niklas Göke

Niklas Göke is an author and writer whose work has attracted tens of millions of readers to date. He is also the founder and CEO of Four Minute Books, a collection of over 1,000 free book summaries teaching readers 3 valuable lessons in just 4 minutes each. Born and raised in Germany, Nik also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration & Engineering from KIT Karlsruhe and a Master’s Degree in Management & Technology from the Technical University of Munich. He lives in Munich and enjoys a great slice of salami pizza almost as much as reading — or writing — the next book — or book summary, of course!

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PDF Summary: The Happiness Hypothesis , by Jonathan Haidt

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Below is a preview of the Shortform book summary of The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt. Read the full comprehensive summary at Shortform.

1-Page PDF Summary of The Happiness Hypothesis

The Happiness Hypothesis explores the nature of human happiness, blending the philosophical and theological wisdom of ancient thinkers with insights from the field of positive psychology. Our satisfaction is driven by how our mental filters interpret the events in our lives, with the human brain perpetually divided against itself in the struggle between the desires created by our emotions and the attempts of reason to control them. The key to happiness is to use reason to focus the mind away from desires that will only bring fleeting happiness, while giving in to those desires that will bring lasting fulfillment.

(continued)... This will make people value their interactions with you more because you’ll be acting as a genuinely open and empathetic person. And, because of the reciprocity reflex, they’ll start doing the same for you—which will make for better and happier relationships, for you and them.

The Fleeting Joy of Achievement

Many religious traditions teach that self-denial is the route to happiness. Buddhism famously encourages its adherents to break all emotional attachments to things and refrain from all attempts to attain what they don’t have. Striving, according to this view, is the source of human unhappiness. But some things are worth striving for. The key is not to eliminate desire; it’s to start desiring the right things.

Our brains evolved to respond to immediate pleasures like food or sex (which both advance species success) with jolts of dopamine, which serve as a reinforcement mechanism. But the effects of any reinforcement mechanism are immediate and short-lived. The pleasure, instead, comes from the baby steps you take along the way. This is known as the progress principle. As a corollary, no single event is likely to permanently alter your affective style, because you’ll just reach a new plateau. This idea is known as the adaptation principle.

Striving for the Right Things

The progress and adaptation principles have important things to teach us about how we can increase our happiness. They tell us to focus more on the road to achieving a goal, not on the goal itself. Although some conditions of life are beyond the ability of an individual to alter, there are changes you can make to your life circumstances to bring lasting happiness.

Simple things like reducing exposure to unwanted noise, cutting down on commuting time, improving one’s perceived body deficiencies (like being overweight or being too skinny), and introducing more autonomy in one’s life have been shown to make people happier in the long term. Most of all, meaningful and joyful connections to other people are central to happiness. These are the things we should all strive for.

People are happiest when doing a task that is difficult, but closely aligned to their strengths . For a bodybuilder, this might be lifting a heavy weight; for a violinist, it might be practicing a particularly complex piece of music. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called this state “flow,” or what we might call “being in the zone.”

The key to flow is that you are receiving constant positive feedback; the progress toward the goal sustains you. In flow, the elephant and rider are perfectly synchronized, with the elephant chasing what it wants and the rider guiding it along and spurring it to action.

Another effective way you can boost your happiness through striving for the right things is by shifting from conspicuous consumption to inconspicuous consumption. Conspicuous consumption is when we buy visible, materialistic things for the purpose of demonstrating our wealth, prestige, or status to others. Inconspicuous consumption, by contrast, refers to the kind of spending we do for our benefit, on things that make us intrinsically happy. These are things, such as vacations, that we value for their own sake, not for what they convey about us relative to other people.

Embracing, in moderation, the pleasures of life and forging meaningful attachments is a key part of what it is to be human. Happiness can come from within; but it also comes from without.

Attachment Theory

People with lots of meaningful relationships and connections to other people have been shown to have better health outcomes and report being happier. But how do we form those connections? It turns out that a great deal of our relationship success later in life hinges on the quality of our connections as children.

Attachment theory states that children have two primary needs—safety and exploration . From an evolutionary perspective, both are necessary. Safety guarantees survival, while exploration enables children to develop the skills they need to succeed as adults and have children of their own.

This knowledge that the parent will always be there to act as a guardrail gives the child the sense of security she needs to develop independence. Accordingly, when children are deprived of their attachment figures, they become insecure and unable to develop the emotional security and independence needed to thrive in adulthood. Unconditional love does not inhibit the development of independence; it’s what makes it possible in the first place.

Thus, providing unconditional love to children will enable them to form healthy, stable connections as adults. Indeed, the research shows that our childhood attachment styles carry forward into our adult romantic relationships , setting the pattern for how we form bonds with other people for the rest of our lives.

The Case For Adversity

In thinking about how to maximize our happiness, we have to consider what makes us unhappy .

Research suggests that human beings need some amount of struggle in their lives in order to reach their full potential. People who suffer setbacks, even tragedies like the loss of a loved one, often find new strengths as a result of their experience.

Trauma survivors discover that they have a much stronger network of people who love and care for them than they previously thought . This discovery activates the reciprocity reflex—we feel a deeper love for and connection to people in our social network and want to foster even closer ties with them. And because we come to value these relationships more, we devote more of our energies to cultivating them, instead of seeking money or possessions.

Setbacks can alter one’s life story or self-narrative. This is the rider’s domain, the conscious reality we construct for ourselves about who we are and how we got to be that way. The experience of triumph over loss enables us to replace a story about our frustrated hopes or positive experiences turned sour with a more compelling story about overcoming adversity and using that experience to learn compassion and empathy for others. And in the end, this is a more fulfilling story to have about ourselves.

Our teenage years in particular are the period in our lives when our self-narratives begin to truly coalesce and some of our most important life experiences take place. Events that happen during this time are those we revisit the most throughout the rest of our lives, serving as a constant point of self-reference. Accordingly, some adversity in one’s teenage and early adulthood years, if properly overcome, can provide a real character-building boost to people later in life.

Cultivating Virtue

So far, we’ve talked mostly about how our interpretations of events or our relationships with other people influence our happiness. But we should also look inward. What are the innate qualities we should possess if we wish to be happy?

Virtue is defined as the cultivation of the best version of oneself . It is about fulfilling your potential, engaging in constant self-improvement, and striving toward the acquisition of a set of positive attributes or qualities. The specific virtues you aim for depend on your particular strengths and interests. The key to cultivating virtue—and, thus, cultivating happiness—is improvement, be it moral, intellectual, or even physical. And it’s intimately linked to human happiness.

Western moral philosophy, unfortunately, gives pride of place to rationalism and science. This has inculcated in the Western mind an aversion toward ideas of virtue based in feeling and habit. For the celebrants of reason, feeling was something to be conquered and overcome; the rider had to master the elephant, not merely coordinate with it. But you don’t reason your way toward good morals; instead, cultivating virtues leads you to use the powers of reason in a way that will lead to moral actions .

Positive Psychology

Positive psychology links ancient virtue theories with our modern understanding of how the human mind works. Positive psychology attempts to elevate the human experience and cultivate excellence, instead of merely treating disorder . The field identifies six core virtues that are celebrated across all civilizations:

• Wisdom: being intellectually curious and emotionally intelligent
• Justice: being fair
• Temperance: exercising self-control
• Courage: showing perseverance and commitment to principles
• Humanity: displaying kindness and love
• Transcendence: appreciating beauty

The cultivation of these virtues should be a joyful, enlightening experience. You are focusing on things you enjoy, which is intrinsically rewarding. The cultivation of virtue is its own reward.

Elevation and Religion

Some of our most powerful moments of joy come from our experiences with the divine or spiritual. We experience a sense of uplifting when we witness someone doing a good deed; we are often driven by a desire to follow suit and do good deeds of our own. It is often closely linked to religious or spiritual experiences that bring us closer to the realm of the divine. This is elevation, the feeling you get when you are:

• Experiencing awe and wonder by sharing moments of transcendence with others
• Becoming attuned with the most noble parts of yourself; and
• Witnessing phenomena that are larger than yourself and beyond the capacity of your limited mental structures to fully process

The feeling of experiencing God’s love as part of a congregation is a common manifestation of elevation . It’s why religion is found in every culture at every time across the world; it fulfills a basic human need to connect with something greater.

We’ve seen how important attachments and connections are to any individual’s enjoyment of life. By binding the individual to a community, connecting that individual to a higher purpose, and facilitating intrinsically rewarding altruistic behavior toward members of the group, religion has served as a great facilitator of human happiness.

Occupational Self-Direction

One of the essential conditions for a satisfied life is meaningful work. The most meaningful and satisfying work is that which people find intrinsically rewarding. Humans desire occupational self-direction—work that is complex and challenging, engages their interests or talents, and allows for a high degree of independence and autonomy. This kind of work harnesses the progress principle to maximize our happiness, rewarding us for each baby step we take toward the goal.

The Key to Happiness

We are responsible for creating the conditions for our own happiness . It is about finding the right balance between connecting to your community and connecting to yourself. Happiness comes from your attachments to the world around you, but it also comes from the cultivation of inner virtues—training the elephant to explore its full potential, while respecting its power over the rider.

But by aligning the rider with the elephant, you will discover your own path to purpose, meaning, and, ultimately, happiness.

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PDF Summary Introduction

• Overcoming negativity by moving to the upper range of your affective style
• Practicing reciprocity and tearing down self-delusions
• Desiring the right things
• Improving your relationships
• Learning to overcome adversity
• Cultivating your virtues
• Discovering the divine or sacred in your life
• Living a purposeful life

Our analysis of all these strategies will blend insights from positive psychology, ancient and modern philosophy and religion, and evolutionary anthropology.

PDF Summary Chapter 1: The Split Mind

This is because our autonomic nervous system, or “gut brain,” controls many bodily functions separately from the “head brain,” where conscious thought lives. The two simultaneously influence one another, but can also operate independently of one another.

Division 2: Left and Right Hemispheres

Our brains are divided into two hemispheres. The left hemisphere controls language and analytical tasks. The right side, meanwhile, recognizes patterns, and is most notably responsible for facial recognition. The two hemispheres are connected by a mass of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum.

We can see the split in action in patients who have had the corpus callosum severed or damaged in some way. This causes a literal “split-brain” syndrome in which the two hemispheres begin to function independently of one another. Thus, the left hand (which is controlled by the right hemisphere) might pick up objects that the patient has consciously put down with the right hand, and even attempt to physically restrain actions that the patient is consciously attempting to do with the right hand.

Neurologists have discovered that people with more brainwave activity in their left hemispheres...

PDF Summary Chapter 2: Overcome Negativity

The first type of error could lead to instant death; in the second scenario, there was likely another source of water that could be found. Therefore, those individuals who had strong fear and aversion instincts had an inherent advantage that enabled them to pass this quality along to their offspring. It’s why we evolved to startle at sudden noises that frighten us but have no equivalent emotional or physical reaction to positive stimuli. It also informs our strong biases toward loss aversion, whereby we value the avoidance of losses more than we value equivalent gains.

These emotional cues color our thinking, causing the elephant to dominate the rider. A perceived threat will make us consciously evaluate all stimuli as possible threats; a rush of sadness will cause us to adopt a more bleak way of looking at the world as a whole.

(Shortform note: For a more detailed discussion of loss aversion, read our summary of Thinking, Fast and Slow .)

Affective Style

The elephant determines our likes and dislikes, often in ways that we’re not consciously aware of . These emotional cues color our thinking,...

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PDF Summary Chapter 3: Do Unto Others

This reflex is supported by two emotional sub-reflexes—gratitude and vengeance. Gratitude causes us to aid those who’ve aided us in the past; vengeance causes us to withhold aid from those who’ve been stingy or selfish, making it less likely that free riders will exploit the community’s altruism. This opens up the possibility of mutually beneficial cooperation, which makes the group as a whole stronger and strengthens social ties between members of a community.

(Shortform note: For a fuller discussion of reciprocity, read our summary of Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion .)

Altruism and Happiness

Will self-sacrifice for others (which has become synonymous with morality in much of western thought) also be self-rewarding?

To answer that, we should briefly look at the two main explanations for why humans engage in altruistic behavior.

• The first has its roots in evolution—your genes are more likely to survive if you’re altruistic toward people in your kin group. Reciprocity is also important, as others will respond to your...

PDF Summary Chapter 4: Adjusting Your Happiness

Accepting a new normal.

There is a fundamental truth of human psychology that follows from the progress principle— no single event is likely to permanently alter your affective style, because you’ll just reach a new plateau. This idea is known as the adaptation principle.

In the long run, we are much more sensitive to positive or negative changes relative to our baseline than we are to absolute changes. We can see this in happiness studies comparing lottery winners with people who’ve become paraplegic due to injury or illness.

One might think that the lottery winners exist in a state of constant elation, while the paraplegics are trapped in a state of endless despair. And this is true—for the short period after winning the lottery or losing the use of one’s legs. But, after time, studies show that both groups adapt and settle into a new normal. Lottery winners become used to their new riches and find themselves no longer thrilled by their change in status (and often come to resent it because they are hounded by friends and relatives asking them for money). Meanwhile, paraplegics come to accept their condition and discover that life can have its joys even in their...

PDF Summary Chapter 5: Attachment

In his research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harlow observed that monkeys engaged in many problem-solving tasks for which there was no conditioned reinforcement—they simply enjoyed solving problems for the intrinsic joy they derived from them.

Harlow’s most famous experiment, however, was with baby rhesus monkeys who had been separated from their biological mothers. Harlow and his team of researchers wanted to test the behaviorists’ idea that the mothers’ sole purpose was to provide milk for their young. His team managed to create a milk formula that substituted for mothers’ milk, enabling a group of baby monkeys to be separated from their mothers. But Harlow found that these monkeys, raised without their mothers, were completely unable to socialize or form attachments once they were placed within a group.

This raised the idea that perhaps there was something about mother or mother-like figures that was crucial for development, beyond their ability to give milk. Accordingly, the team created two types of artificial mothers for the caged monkeys—one made of wire, one made of cloth. The monkeys would be raised alone in a cage with one of each type of artificial...

PDF Summary Chapter 6: What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

The idea of inner change coming from tragedy and even near-death experiences is, of course, well-explored in the world of literature. In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the miserly and misanthropic Scrooge transforms into a benevolent, kind-hearted humanitarian once he is shown a vision of his own death by the Ghost of Christmas-Yet-to-Come—and how little he will be missed by those who knew him unless he changes his ways. Dickens was demonstrating knowledge of a great psychological truth.

Changing Your Personality and Self-Narrative

We’ve seen that some elements of our overall level of happiness are tied to built-in pieces of our personality, like our affective style. But can adversity play a role in altering one’s personality? To answer that, we need to examine exactly what an individual’s personality is made of. Personality appears to consist of three levels:

• Basic traits
• Characteristic adaptations
• Self-narratives

The basic traits of one’s personality consist of what psychologists call the “big five”—neuroticism, extroversion, openness to new experiences, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. These basic traits are squarely within the elephant’s...

PDF Summary Chapter 7: Cultivate Your Virtues

From a psychological perspective, this was rather insightful. Moral instruction that guided an individual to develop an intuitive understanding of how to properly conduct oneself in all situations—and to want to do the right thing—demonstrated a sophisticated understanding by the ancient thinkers of the need for the rider to tame the elephant and guide it toward the pursuit of the right things.

Where the West Went Wrong

Intellectual developments like the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution, however, set western civilization on a different course. These movements, building on the foundation laid by the ancient Greeks, placed rationalism and science at the center of the western intellectual tradition.

As a result, western ideas of virtue shifted away from feeling and habit. For the celebrants of reason, feeling was something to be conquered and overcome; the rider had to master the elephant, not merely coordinate with him. But we know that this is not possible and reflects a misunderstanding of how the human mind works. The elephant leads the rider, not the other way around. While we may think that our beliefs and opinions derive from a rational study of the...

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PDF Summary Chapter 8: Divinity

Separating the disgusting from the divine.

This notion of cleanliness connects us to the divine, elevating us above the animals (who, after all, perform the same crude biological functions we do) . Our disgust at impurity and our desire to conceal or sanitize many aspects of our animal behavior, whether it is the elimination of waste or the act of mating, is one way that we travel along the divine Z-axis.

Hindu teaching even mandates that recitation or study of the holy scriptures like the Bhagavad Gita should never be done during eating or elimination, ensuring that the spark of divinity within each individual is always separate from the baser functions of our biology.

These notions go far beyond mere tools of hygiene or social control (as a non-believer might be tempted to think). They speak to something much more profound and universal. To fail to treat one’s body as a temple is to degrade and diminish the godliness within oneself. This leads to bad karma and reincarnation as a baser animal in the next life.

Even in the west, where (as we explored in Chapter 7) our ethics are more based on individual autonomy—do what you want as long as you don’t harm others—this...

PDF Summary Chapter 9: The Purpose of Life

One need not be engaged in white-collar or highly paid work to enjoy occupational self-direction. Blue-collar and manual workers can enjoy this same feeling of self-worth if they believe what they do is critical to the achievement of a larger mission. In one NYU study, the janitors who cleaned the bed pans reported some of the highest levels of satisfaction of anyone working in the hospital surveyed by the research team. These janitors believed they were making a visible and meaningful contribution to the creation of a safe and healthy environment for patients.

The key is to find work that engages your strengths, which will initiate a cycle of more positive thinking . You’ll start to connect the dots between your work and the achievement of larger goals. Without these intrinsic rewards, you’ll just be doing a job on a purely translational basis, seeing your work only in isolation and connecting it to no larger purpose.

Religion and the Birth of Altruism

Our happiness is intimately connected to our experiences with others. We do not operate in isolation. We all have physical brains; that physical brain creates the mind, the set of mental patterns and structures that...

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The happiness hypothesis book summary (pdf) by jonathan haidt.

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Why This Book Matters:

The Happiness Hypothesis explains to readers the internal and external factors which influence their happiness.

The Big Takeaways:

• If Some actions and thoughts are within our control, while others are not.
• We cannot control our thoughts, but we can implement activities, such as meditation and cognitive therapy, to help us gain more joy from the happiness we experience.
• It is ingrained in humans to give back what they have been given in one way or another; it is one of our strongest desires.
• Introspection is not a human’s favorite activity because it forces them to realize that there are parts of them that are less than desirable. Therefore, they often ignore their faults, leading to poor relationships.
• Humans rely on genuine social interaction to fuel their happiness.

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