Happiness: The Science Behind Your SmileBringing together the latest insights from psychiatry, psychology, and philosophy, Daniel Nettle sheds light on happiness, the most basic of human desires. Nettle examines whether people are basically happy or unhappy, whether success can make us happy, what sort of remedies to unhappiness work, why some people are happier than others, and much more. The book is packed with fascinating observations. We discover the evolutionary reason why negative thoughts are more powerful than positive ones. We read that happiness varies from country to country, for example, the Swiss are much more happy than Bulgarians. And we learn that, in a poll among people aged 42 years old--peak mid-life crisis time--more than half rated their happiness an 8, 9, or 10 out of 10, and 90% rated it above 5. Nettle, a psychologist, is particularly insightful in discussing the brain systems underlying emotions and moods, ranging from serotonin, to mood enhancing drugs such as D-fenfluramine, which reduces negative thinking in less than an hour; to the part of the brain that, when electrically stimulated, provides feelings of benevolent calm and even euphoria. In the end, Nettle suggests that we would all probably be happier by trading income or material goods for time with people or hobbies, though most people do not do so. Happiness offers a remarkable portrait of the feeling that poets, politicians, and philosophers all agree truly makes the world go round. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 Comfort and joy | 7 |
2 Bread and circuses | 45 |
3 Love and work | 65 |
4 Worriers and enthusiasts | 91 |
5 Wanting and liking | 115 |
6 Panaceas and placebos | 141 |
7 A design for living | 161 |
Further reading | 185 |
Notes | 187 |
| 198 | |
| 213 | |
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Common terms and phrases
actually adaptation addicts amygdala anxiety asked Authentic happiness average behaviour better brain activity brain stimulation reward chapter clinical depression cognitive context correlation Csikszentmilhalyi d-fenfluramine depression desire Diener dopamine drugs effect Ekman endowment effect environment eudaimonia evidence evolutionary evolutionary psychology example experience extroverts factors fear feel happier hedonic hedonic treadmill human implicit theory income increase individuals judgements Kahneman kind level of happiness level three level two happiness lives marital status mean mindfulness-based cognitive therapy mood National NCDS ness Nettle neuroticism nucleus accumbens one’s opioids pain participants Paul Ekman peak-end rule people’s personality pleasure positive emotion Positive Psychology possible predict predictor pretty programme question relative response reward Ryff satisfaction Schopenhauer score seems self-reported Seligman sense serotonin social class soma SSRIs stress studies therapy things tion twin unhappiness well-being whilst worry