Science of Happiness April 27, 2012

2. Science of HappinessApril 27, 2012 Dacher Keltner University of California, Berkeley keltner@berkeley.edu GreaterGood.berkeley.edu

3. Happiness and health Diener, Lyubomirsky Happy nuns at 22 are 2.5 times less likely to die between 80 and 90 Happy about aging adds 7.5 years to life Happy at 70 adds 20 months to life Happiness associated with Fewer health symptoms Fewer strokes Fewer fatal accidents Reduced cardiovascular disease Reduced allergic reaction

4. Happiness at work Most cheerful college students make $25,000/year compared to least cheerful Happy workers more productive, better job performance Happiness leads to boost in creative thought, problem solving Happiness makes for more integrative negotiators Emotionally intelligent managers have more satisfied teams

5. Our culture needs it

6. A few caveats • The pursuit of happiness… makes us less happy (Gruber & Mauss, 2011) • Negative emotions are part of the mix • Positive emotions in extremes can be problematic (e.g., proneness to mania)

7. What is a happiness, the meaningful life? -- Jen -- Hiking in the Sierras -- Moderation -- Understanding self -- Virtue -- Standing out from others -- Eudamonia -- Fulfilling duties -- Justice -- Rising in status -- Financial well-being -- Giving -- Democracy -- Delicious burrito -- Reunion with family -- Success at work -- Being in love

8. POSITIVE EMOTION: A language for the 3 to 1 (own life) and 5 to 1 ratios (Marriage) • ResourcesEnthusiasm Approach Goal Contentment Satiation • Social RelationsLove Attachment Desire Reproduction Compassion Nurturance Pride Elevated Status Gratitude Reciprocity/Friendship Awe Leaders • Distress Reduction Relief • KnowledgeInterest Learning Amusement Transformation/Insight

9. Evolution of a hypersocial species

10. Dimensions to our ultrasociality • Care-taking • Flattened Hierarchies • Conflict and Reconciliation • Coordination • Fragile Monogamy

11. Reward: prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens Knutson • Rich with dopamine receptors • Dopamine: Wanting • Opiates: Liking • Activated by: • pretty faces • food, music • pleasurable scenes • winning money • heroin, amphetamines, cocaine The dopamine, opiate interplay DePue

12. Positive emotion and hemispheric asymmetry Davidson The Left Frontal Cortex is associated with language, approach, and Positive Emotion • Emotion Studies • Studies of Buddhist Monks • Studies of Meditation

13. The prosocial nervous system

31. Positive emotion in the voice? Simon-Thomas et al., 2009, Emotion

32. Vocal bursts of positive emotionSimon-Thomas et al., 2009

33. STRESS and the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis Chronic stress and Vigilance to threats Increased feelings of vulnerability, isolation, lack of control, threat Stress, anxiety, fear, and nervousness Immune system compromised, ulcers, damage to DNA, damage to brain cells, shortened lives in response to disease

34. Gratitude • The feeling of reverence for things that are given Emmons, 2007, Thanks

35. Gratitude as guide to good life Emmons, McCullough, 2001 • Barometer Tracks generosity in relationships • Motive Clark: thanked participants more likely to help Kurzban (2001): touched participants more likely to cooperate with stranger • Reward “thank you” on bill: 11% higher tips Volunteerism (to home for elderly) • Baseline return: 43% • Sent thank you notes: 80%

36. The grateful disposition McCullough et al., 2002 • I have so much in life to be thankful for • If I had to list everything I’m thankful for, it would be a very long list • When I look at the world, I don’t see much to be thankful for • I am grateful to a wide variety of people • As I get older I find myself better able to appreciate the people, events, and situations that have been part of my life history • Long amounts of time can go by before I feel grateful to someone or something

37. Correlates of being grateful • Grateful disposition • Life satisfaction .53*** • Happiness .50*** • Optimism .51** • Anxiety -.20* • Depression -.30** • Peer rate volunteerism .19* • Envy -.17** • Possessiveness -.34**

38. A brief history of awe Keltner & Haidt, 2003 • Early conversion experiences, being in presence of God • St Paul’s conversion • Vismaya in Hinduism • Burke’s revolution (1757): secular awe • Patterns light, dark • Ox vs. cow • Not smells • Power, obscurity • Immanuel Kant (1764): An Essay on the Sublime and the Beautiful • Aesthetic experience vs. awe • Emerson (1860s): Transcendent self in Nature • Max Weber (1905): political awe

40. A family of awe experiences Keltner & Haidt, 2003 Vast Accom Threat Beauty Virtue Supernatural God X X X Leader X X X Elevation X X Tornado X X X Cathedral X X X ? ? Music X X Aesthetics X X

41. Emerson In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life-- no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental; to be brothers, to be acquaintances, master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. “Nature”(1836/1982), p.39

42. Spirituality and health • Myers: Spiritually oriented report higher levels of happiness • Smith, McCullough, 2003: Spiritually oriented report less depression • 145 studies, 98,000 participants • R = -.096, greater during stress • Putnam: greater spirituality greater volunteerism, altruism • Norenzayan, 2010: Prime spiritual, civic ideas, become more generous • McCullough et al.,2000 • Meta analysis 42 studies: religious 29% more likely to be alive at any time point • McCullough et al., 2009 • Terman longitudinal study: 1523 high IQ people • Three curves • Always religious: Extraverts, neurotics • Always non-religious • Become more religious: Agreeable • Religious women live longer, due to social commitments, health behaviors

43. Play

44. Reflection on play: Your play history, narrative Brown, 2009 • Think back to your earliest experiences of play. What were they? • Are you as free as you’d like to play today?

45. What is play? • Peek-a-boo, rough-and-tumble, games, sociodramatic play, word play, imitations, interspecies play • Criteria: • Apparently purposeless • Voluntary • Inherent attraction • Freedom from time • Diminished consciousness of self • Improvisational • Desire to continue Stuart Brown, 2009

46. The functions of play • Boundaries • Rough-and-tumble play: learn boundaries between pleasure, pain, harm • Marc Bekoff: coyotes in rough-and-tumble play learn how not to bite, learn hierarchies • Flirtation: learn boundary between friend, intimate

47. The functions of play • Skills • Playful imitation • Play kissing of pre-adolescents • Boys playing cavemen, girls playing with dolls: • hunting, care-taking

48. The functions of play • Identity: • sociodramatic play (3 years) • Barrie Thorne studied lunchtime play of middle school girls: gender play to take on, try out sexual identities • Adolescents play at adults

49. The functions of play • Knowledge • Playing with liquids, sand: understand substance, materials, conservation

50. The functions of play • To learn empathy, theory of mind in pretend play (Leslie) • Abuse of language in pretend play • Object substitution: banana = phone • Attribution of non-literal properties: glasses have diamonds • Imaginary objects • Abuse of rules of language in pretend play frees children from egocentrism, paves way for theory of mind, different perspectives, empathy