Happiness

“We’re happy when we have a rosy view of the future, but we’re also happy that the present exceeds what our expectations were,” [Researcher George] Loewenstein said. Also, quite unsurprisingly, past rewards had less of an impact on contentment as time passed. 

Using MRI data, researchers determined that signals from a region of the brain called the striatum could be used to predict how happy people would be at any given time during the experiment. They then created a smartphone app to test their model on a much wider audience–a total of 18,420 online participants. 

The app featured the same decision-making game as the MRI experiment. Although the subjects were remote and anonymous, the results were still consistent with the model.  “All models are simplifications of reality,” said Loewenstein. “But their central insight that happiness depends on how reality pans out relative to expectation is a correct one, in my view.” 

He noted that, while the idea behind the happiness equation isn’t new, the study is a “strong and interesting” piece of supportive evidence. But can we use this knowledge to boost our own well-being? Lowering expectations as a tactic has already been ruled out, but the study does hint at why you might not feel as elated after reaching an expected goal as you might think. “People are always pursuing goals, and when they reach the goal, they don’t end up being as satisfied as they perceive they’d be–as if happiness is held out in front of us, and we never quite achieve it,” Loewenstein said. 

On the other hand, he suggests that there might be some consolation in realizing that we are all hard-wired this way in order to keep us moving forward.  

From “On the road to happiness, a pleasant surprise beats a sure thing,” Washington Post by Meeri Kim, August 8