How Mistaken Expectations Affect Your Life & Happiness (Video)

Last month, I wrote this blog based on a book I really dig, called "Stumbling on Happiness," about how we perceive joy and appreciate others. In it, Dr. Dan Gilbert explains that in his lab, they constantly find that people have an inability to predict what will make them happy, or unhappy for that matter. The truth is, bad things don’t affect us as profoundly as we expect them to (also true for the affect of good things) and that we adapt to either very quickly.

I wanted to post this excellent video of a seminar that Gilbert gave on our mistaken expectations. In it, he presents data from his many studies on happiness. You might be surprised at some of the results. Some of the interesting topics he covers, include:

• Errors in value
• Errors in odds
• "The Stupidity Tax"
• Comparing with the past
• Comparing with the future
• Comparing with the possible
• How prediction affects your experiences
• Illusions of spatial perspective
• Illusions of temporal perspective
• That terrorism is based on people's psychological reactions to a set of events
• The joy of anticipation
• Lots more...

The mind is a VERY CURIOUS thing! Oh, and an audience member who asks a question near the end of the video has an excellent beard, that I just know Steve will like.

Enjoy!

Comments

[Scott F. Page]

Thanks Jinxi.The program was very intruiging!

[sabrina]

nice post and very informative

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