HOW happy are you? Do you really know?
Consider a study from the University of Mannheim in Germany. Psychologist
Fritz Strack and his colleagues asked students the following two questions: 鈥淗ow
happy are you?鈥� and 鈥淗ow many dates did you have last month?鈥� Responses varied
with the order of the questions. When the happiness question came first, the
frequency of dates was unrelated to happiness, but when the order of the
questions was reversed, the responses showed a strong positive link between the
number of dates and reported happiness.
This suggests that you don鈥檛 appear to be equipped with anything like a
鈥渉appyometer鈥� that you can consult on your mental dashboard. Instead, you
construct a judgement of your happiness as a function of your current
preoccupations. If you are a student thinking about how many dates you
have鈥攐r haven鈥檛鈥攈ad, this will affect your estimation of how happy
you are.
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But sometimes drawing attention to some temporary effect on your mood
discounts its effect on your happiness. University of Michigan psychologist
Norbert Schwarz and his team telephoned interviewees on sunny or rainy days and
found that they reported being more satisfied with their life as a whole on
sunny days. Yet when interviewers subtly drew attention to the weather as a
plausible cause of current feelings by asking 鈥淏y the way, how鈥檚 the weather
down there?鈥� those differences disappeared.
That our feelings about life are almost absurdly influenced by ephemeral
events is shown by another study by Schwarz. He arranged for some students using
a photocopier to find a dime on the machine. After finishing copying, an
interviewer asked: 鈥淭aking all things together, how happy are you with your life
as a whole?鈥� Those who had found the dime reported significantly higher
satisfaction than those who had not.
Our myopic concern with the here and now makes us overestimate the duration
of our emotional reactions. Before the 1996 election, University of Virginia
psychologist Timothy Wilson asked voters how they would feel a week after if
Bill Clinton won a second term. Democrats thought they would be substantially
happier. In fact, they were no happier. Republicans thought they would be
substantially less happy but in reality the result scarcely made a dent.
Wilson suggests that a 鈥減sychological immune system鈥� works covertly to hasten
recovery from emotional events. This could explain why intense emotional
reactions to changes in life eventually subside almost completely. Philip
Brickman and colleagues at Northwestern University found that lottery winners
and people paralysed by spinal injury adapted so effectively to their
dramatically changed circumstances that their levels of happiness hardly
differed from the 鈥渘ormal鈥� controls.
Such studies of how we examine our own feelings would outrage old-fashioned
behaviourists. Behaviourists insist that psychology should be about observable
behaviour not unverifiable reports of internal ups and downs. There鈥檚 a joke
mocking this view. Two behaviourists are making passionate love. Afterwards, one
says to the other: 鈥淲ell, that was alright for you, but what was it like for
尘别?鈥�
So, I wonder鈥攁ny idea?鈥攈ow happy am I?