I'm Dan Gilbert. I'm a social psychologist and a professor here at Harvard University. For centuries, happiness has been a subject for poets and philosophers. But in the last few decades, psychologists, neuroscientists, even economists, have begun to study happiness using the same scientific methods they used to study every other aspect of human behavior. Of course, scientists have only recently gotten into the happiness business, but that business has been booming for a long time. >> You have to train your mind to recall the simple successes you can have. >> Turn on the television, surf the web, visit a book store, and you'll see that there's no shortage of people offering advice about happiness. >> …Success University… >> It'll be fun, ya'll. >> All my needs, desires, and goals… >> They're all part of a large and growing business known as the self-help industry. >> …liberation from the horizontal image. >> This industry may or may not have made anyone happy, but it's definitely made some people very rich. >> It's my pleasure to welcome you here today to "You Can Build Your Life Conference." >> Last year, Americans spent about $10 billion on self-help. >> You're in the preferred section. >> Much of that money was brought in by conferences like this one, run by Hay House, a leading self-help publisher. Hay House sells books and DVDs on everything from diet and personal fitness to fairy magic and angel therapy. >> Wow! There's a lot of money to be spent here. >> Yes, there is. >> Yes. >> How much money are you going to spend here? >> Well, we didn't even make it around the tables, but it looks like we're going to be spending a lot. Stuff looks great. >> The desire for happiness drives different people toward different things. Some have come here hoping to lose weight. Some are hoping to find a new partner, a new career, or a whole new view of the universe. >> Unbelievably, amazingly, in the mind over body connection... >> Yeah. >> It's getting a better job. Love… >> Yeah. All the, all the good things in life. >> Relationships, all that kind of stuff. >> But some people have come here with very serious problems, and they may not be in the right place. Many have been drawn by Louise Hay, the founder of Hay House. She claims to have cured herself of cancer through positive thinking and other self-help techniques, and she tells others that they can do it, too. Although her claims have never been medically verified, she's been a guest on Oprah. And her memoir, Heal Your Life, has sold over 35 million copies, making her one of the best-selling authors of all time. >> Please join me in welcoming Louise Hay! >> [APPLAUSE] >> I choose the thoughts that make me feel good. Life loves you. I love you. Do you love you? >> Yes. >> That's the important thing. >> We love you! >> Thank you! Thank you! I accept. I do. You're damn right! >> [APPLAUSE] >> But Hay also believes that thoughts are the cause of all misfortunes. >> …because remember, somebody who has depression is choosing thoughts that make them feel rotten. >> That, by thinking the wrong way, we can give ourselves cancer, or AIDS, or depression, cause cars to hit us, or make ourselves the target of a terrorist attack. >> When I became 80, I decided that it was going to be the the best decade of my entire life, and it is. >> [APPLAUSE] >> I'm 82. >> As I go through your book, I see all sorts of maladies and various kinds of thoughts that you say can cause them. Alzheimer's is an inability to face life, leprosy, an inability to handle life at all. >> Oh, you're picking the fun ones. People who have Alzheimer's are really removing themselves from life completely. >> How do you know? >> Mm-hmm. >> How do you know what you're saying is right? >> My inner ding. >> You're inner ding? >> My inner ding. >> Ding? >> It speaks to me, yes. It feels right, or it doesn't feel right. Happiness is choosing thoughts that make you feel good. It's really very simple. >> I hear you saying that even if there were no proof for what you believed, or even if there was scientific evidence against it, it wouldn't change— >> Well, I don't believe in scientific evidence. I really don't. And science is fairly new. It hasn't been around that long. We think it's such a big deal, but it's, you know, it's just a way of looking at life. >> But you're telling it to millions of people, and you're telling them it's right for them, too. >> I tell them what's right for me. My inner ding, that's all I can say. >> You know what? Science is fairly new. But when we want to know what causes stars to explode or butterflies to migrate, we rely on scientific evidence rather than our inner ding. So, why not do the same thing to find out what causes human happiness? >> For thousands of years, philosophers were asking about happiness and talking about happiness, but without any data. And only probably in the last 30 or 40 years have we actually collected scientific data, rigorous data, measured happiness, and started to begin to see what is it that leads to happiness. >> Psychologist Ed Diener is a pioneer in the study of happiness. Since 1980, he and his collaborators have crossed the globe to measure it, surveying diverse communities from the Maasai tribe in Africa to the Inuit from northern Canada to the Amish of rural Pennsylvania, and many, many others. And the methods Diener uses are as diverse as his subjects. >> In happiness research, we ask people how happy they are on a one-to-ten scale. We also look at brain waves. You can look at hormones like cortisol that reflect stress, for example. You can also ask family and friends how happy that person is, because family and friends see how happy they say they are and how happy they act in everyday life. >> Diener has gathered data on nearly a quarter million people and has found that the happy ones have better health, better relationships, better sex lives, better careers, and better just about everything else. >> We think that's an evolutionary thing, and the people who are happy probably out achieve the other people and out reproduce them, and there's more of us around now. >> Diener's findings have been confirmed by psychologists, neuroscientists, and economists around the world. We now know a great deal about what actually makes people happy, and it isn't always what we think. >> What does happiness mean to you? >> I'm a firm believer in money is happiness. Okay, I have to be honest. >> My children, because I love my children. >> I like my summer camp the best. >> Is that the best? That makes you happy? >> What do you do to make yourself happier? Well, I don't mean to be recalcitrant, but I don't do anything in order to be happy. >> Yeah, rolling down your window. Turn the music on and let the breeze come in. >> What would you say is your greatest source of happiness? >> Well, I get a great deal of happiness from beautiful jewelry. >> Jewelry? >> Yes. >> There are a lot of different opinions about what causes happiness, but research suggests that not all of them are exactly on target. >> And do you think marriage is a source of happiness? >> Most of the time. >> Depends on how your, what your marriage is like. >> What do you think about marriage? Do you think it's a source of happiness for most people? >> No. >> What about marriage? Do you think married people are happier than unmarried people? >> No. I don't think they're less happy—I think it just depends. >> Not everyone lives happily ever after, of course, but studies do show that on average, married people are wealthier, healthier, and yes, happier than others. >> Do you think children make people happy? >> I think so. >> I mean, I think they'll be a part of my happiness. >> Yes or no—do children make you happy? >> Yes, mine do. >> So, what about those bundles of joy? Well, studies show that parents are no happier than non-parents, and are often less happy. Can money buy happiness? >> No, no. It doesn't. >> Do you think money can buy happiness? Can bring happiness? >> No. >> Does money buy happiness? >> Not at all. >> What about money? Do you think money makes people happy? >> Absolutely. >> Yeah? And the more the better? >> For me, especially, more the better. >> Guess what? Money does cause happiness. On average, the more money people have, the happier they tend to be. So, money? Yes. Marriage? Probably. Children? Not so much. What science is teaching us about these and many other things is that they are related to happiness, but not necessarily in the way you might think. In a recent experiment, researchers went to a health club and asked a simple question. >> You're going to live in the woods for two days and two nights. You can have food or water, but not both. Which would you rather have— food or water? >> Food. >> Uh, I'd say food. >> Okay, circle that. >> Some of the people were asked this question before they worked out. Some were asked after they worked out. And when they were asked made a huge difference in how they answered. In fact, people were 50% more likely to say "water" if they'd just finished working out than if they were about to start. >> Water. >> Definitely, water. >> Okay. >> Why? People were thirsty after exercising, and because they were thirsty now, they imagined being thirsty in the future. This is something our brains do all the time. When we think about how we'll feel in the future, our thoughts are shaped by how we feel in the present. It's as if our brains can't believe that we might feel differently later than we do now. That's not the only thing our brains can't quite believe. We all know that feelings inevitably change over time—that new love fades, that fresh wounds heal— and yet, when we imagine our future joys and our future sorrows, we tend not to think about how time will change them. >> We sure do have the compelling intuition that somehow improving our life circumstances, our situations—um, whether it has to do with relationships or jobs or health—that that's going to make us happier. And the truth is that it does make us happier, but it doesn't make us happier for as long or as intensely as we think it would. >> Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky suggests that we're sadly mistaken when we expect that the things that make us happy for a day will make us happy for a lifetime. >> It's a phenomenon called "hedonic adaptation," which means that human beings, basically, are just incredibly good at getting used to— getting accustomed to, adapting— positive changes, especially, in their lives, like the new car, or the new house, and so, that's one of the reasons that we keep sort of buying more stuff is that we get the handbag that gives us a boost, it wears off, and then we get a new handbag. >> Adaptation affects our experience of both good things and bad things in ways that we find difficult to anticipate. This is something my colleagues and I have been studying in the lab. And we'd be very happy to give you one as a gift for participating in the experiment. Which one would you like to have? >> In one experiment, we brought people into a room filled with art posters and offered to give them one. We told half of the participants that their decision was irreversible and that once they made it, they could never change their minds. We told the other half that they could exchange the poster they chose for a different poster any time they wanted. After making their choices, we asked both groups to rank their posters, and guess what? The people who knew they couldn't exchange their posters liked them more than the people who knew they could. Why? Because they had no choice, and so, they adapted. The lesson of this study was clear. People find ways to like things when they're stuck with them. When we can't change our circumstances, we change the way we think about those circumstances, and yet, most of us don't seem to realize this will happen. >> There is some set point to happiness that you tend to return toward, and for some people it's very happy, and for other people it's mildly happy, and unfortunately, for a few people, it may not be happy. But the set point is good in the sense that when we have something terrible in our life happen to us, we get very depressed, we get less satisfied with our life, but slowly over time, we come back toward that set point. >> The question is, what self-help actually works, and what self help is false and doesn't work? Psychologist Martin Seligman is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the leaders of the new movement he calls positive psychology. >> I realized that psychology had been all about whining and suffering and anxiety, depression, victim, suicide, drug addiction, and I had spent 35 years working on those things, but that that was half-baked. We're pretty good at misery, but what we weren't good at was what made life worth living. >> What distinguishes positive psychology from any other kind of self-help? According to Seligman, it isn't the message, but the method. >> We do random assignment placebo-controlled studies and ask: does that make people happier six months later and less depressed? So, this is an empirically based endeavor, and a scientifically based endeavor. >> Positive psychology has some very promising new ideas, but for now, it's probably fair to say that they need more testing. Of course, some scientists think that the most promising ideas aren't new at all. One of the best-studied techniques for improving well-being was developed not in a clinic or a laboratory but on a mountaintop 2,500 years ago. >> Meditation changes our relationship to our thoughts and emotions. There's nothing magical about it; it's not mysterious. It can be addressed with the known mechanisms of science. >> Psychologist Richard Davidson has been studying the benefits of meditation since 1992, when the Dalai Lama invited him to India to measure the brain activity of Buddhist monks. >> He had heard about me through mutual friends and knew that I was, um, a respectable, rigorous neuroscientist who had interests in meditation. And he was interested in promoting scientific research on meditation, and we thought that this would be an amazing opportunity. We can bring portable equipment with us, and shlep it up the mountain, and see if we can collect some data. So, we had quite a journey. We brought about 5,000 pounds of equipment with us. We looked like this crazy traveling rock band with, ah, you know, these enormous cases. >> Unfortunately, once Davidson was ready to collect the data, the monks had a change of heart. >> They said that they'd be happy to teach us everything they know about meditation, but they didn’t really want to do the tests. >> But the Dalai Lama himself wanted to continue fostering the dialogue between Buddhism and Western science. >> This kind of dialogue, very helpful to expand human knowledge among these not yet explored and, still, vast subject. Our knowledge, very limited. So, particularly about inner world, inner science, inner space. >> In 2000, the Dalai Lama began sending monks to Davidson's laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, where they participated in a series of neuropsychological studies. The results surprised Davidson himself. >> I thought about meditation as relaxation. In fact, what we see in the brain of an advanced meditation practitioner when he or she is meditating is heightened activation—not relaxation. >> Davidson's studies of Buddhist monks and other experienced meditators suggested that, while they may appear to be resting, their minds are actually intensely focused. And as they meditate more and more, their brains begin to change. When Davidson compared scans of the monks to scans of people who'd never meditated, he found that the monks showed considerably more activity in the left prefrontal cortex—a part of the brain that registers positive emotions. >> There are certain circuits in the brain that are more sensitive to the processing of negative emotions, and other circuits that are more sensitive to the processing of positive emotions. And more than any other organ in our body, the brain is built to change in response to experience—it's a learning machine. The scientific evidence suggests that we can actually train our mind and shape its circuitry in our brain in very specific ways to promote increased levels of well-being. >> I think scientific findings also very, very useful, very convincing. It can be useful for medical science and also can be useful for bringing new generation more healthier mind, more compassionate mind. >> So, is there a secret to happiness? Well, yes, but it isn't very much of a secret. Scientific research suggests that a lot of things matter—money, health, work— but that one thing matters a lot, and that thing is social relationships. We're one of the most social animals on our planet. We need each other for just about everything. So, it isn't very surprising that nature's designed us to experience happiness when we're connected to others: family, friends, lovers. In fact, new evidence suggests that happiness may be as contagious as the common cold— that it can be passed along from person to person, and that it can travel farther and faster than anyone imagined. This is Framingham, Massachusetts. In 1948, medical researchers began tracking the residents of this town, trying to learn about the behaviors that cause heart disease. Their work continues today, known as the Framingham Heart Study— it's one of the world's most extensive epidemiological studies, containing six decades' worth of data on the health of more than 15,000 people. And hidden in this mountain of data is a deep and powerful secret about the nature of human happiness. >> Your happiness depends upon whole large clusters of people you don't even know, and who you have no way of knowing. >> Nicholas Christakis is a physician and a sociologist. He became interested in the Framingham study not because he was interested in heart disease, but because he was interested in social connections. >> These individuals had had their social network ties repeatedly assessed over this 32-year period, and as it turns out, had had various aspects of their emotional lives assessed as well. So, what we could tell, is we could tell who these people were connected to every 4 years or so for 30 years. And we could tell, for example, whether they were happy or depressed or lonely, and in some cases anxious, repeatedly across time. >> Using the Framingham data, Christakis and his colleagues mapped out a web of more than 50,000 connections between friends, family, and coworkers who participated in the study. Then they began to calculate how changes in the happiness of any single person affected the happiness of others in this vast web of relationships. The results were astounding. >> What we found is that if your friend becomes happy, it increases the probability that you will become happy by about 15%. And if your friend's friend becomes happy— someone you don't even know, perhaps— it increases the probability that you'll become happy by about 10%. It's only when we get to four degrees of separation—only when we speaking of your friend's, friend's, friend's, friend— that that person's emotional state is no longer associated with your emotional state. >> Everyone knows that people can make each other happy, but before this study, no one had any idea just how powerful this effect could be. Christakis's work shows that happiness spreads through social networks like a virus— that happiness is, in a very real sense, contagious. >> There's no doubt about it: we're all connected, and those connections exert a powerful influence on our happiness. We start out in high chairs, we end up in wheelchairs, and somewhere between the two, we all have to figure out where our happiness lies, and then start marching in that direction. So, who brought the map? Well, everyone did—grandmothers and uncles, priests and rabbis, taxi drivers, bartenders, motivational speakers. They all have something to say about happiness, but they don't all say the same thing, and that's where science comes in. By using scientific methods to identify the causes of human happiness, we're learning that the secret of happiness was never very secret. We're connected to each other. We belong to each other. We're made for each other. Life is a journey through time, and happiness is what happens when we make that journey together.
