Happiness Hypothesis [ Part 2 ]

I’ve written a lot more notes now so I think this post will be a little bit more dense.

Implicit Bias: Bias in favor of certain things and against others. No rational thinking.

Negativity Bias : Negative events are weighted more heavily.

Implications of this: Helps a species survive and avoid dangers. Makes avoiding danger matter more than feeling good things.

The Cortical Lottery

The “winners” of the cortical lottery are those that see the good in the world vs. those who tend to focus on the “dark side” . Its easier for them to be happy. This is a genetic thing, hence the word “lottery” .

Speaking of genetics, lets about the Adaption Principal.

The Adaption Principal basically states that if something good or bad happens to you, eventually go back to your biological set points of happiness. Its doesn’t matter how horrible/ fantastic it was. Eventually you go back to your set points.

Along with this is the Progress Principal. This states that the steps going to the goal is more likely to make you feel happy. Once you complete a goal, more often than you you’ll just think , “Now what?”.

“ Man Bracelets, this seems like a lot of stuff. Don’t you have an equation or something for me to be happy?”

Im glad you asked reader. Haidt actually made an equation to measure your happiness.

The Happiness Formula:

H = S + V+ V

H = Level of Happiness

S = Biological Set Points

C = Conditions of Life ( For the mot part you can adapt to conditions in life. )

V = Voluntary activities you do. ( This is like the only thing you can increase / decrease. Everything else is pretty much set in stone.)

Adversity

Challenges and struggles help you grow as a person. There are two hypothesis that come with this: Strong hypothesis and weak hypothesis . The weak hypothesis is that adversity can lead to growth. The strong hypothesis is that adversity is necessary for growth to occur. Haidt believes that if the strong hypothesis is true, then we consider how we live our lives. What do you guys think? Which hypothesis is superior.

Thats about it. In part 3 Ill talk about the books take on Love and Attachments and other stuff.