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The nature of happiness
Method of Madness:
Are they always different?
Barmymoo:
--- Quote from: Redball on 07 Mar 2014, 15:32 ---I keep thinking of that industrial-strength Kitchenaid mixer.
--- End quote ---
I did, of course, think of that fairly quickly - but although I am happy to own it and looking forward to the day when I have greater reason to use it regularly (as in, when I am in a larger house with space and reason to bake bread frequently), it doesn't provide as much happiness as, say, a cat asking me to pet it. Plus it was a present.
Do you think they ran this competition so we all realised that our happiness is not based on possessions? Or is this a side-bonus?
snalin:
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 08 Mar 2014, 00:28 ---Are they always different?
--- End quote ---
They are never different #hedonism
I'm going to go with the two computers I've bought for myself (waiting for self-bought computer 3 right as of now and I'm stoooked). I do most of the stuff I love to do on one. They don't exactly make me happy - but they enable me to do stuff that makes me happy, so I guess that's good enough.
LTK:
Would the US Declaration of Independence be improved if it said "life, liberty and the pursuit of hedonism"? :P
--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 08 Mar 2014, 03:50 ---Do you think they ran this competition so we all realised that our happiness is not based on possessions? Or is this a side-bonus?
--- End quote ---
Probably they just didn't think it through. On the giveaway page itself, first they say:
--- Quote ---All sorts of things make us happy, from the home we live in to the whisk that beats the eggs for our morning omelette. We are seeking to discover what you buy that delivers the most happiness.
--- End quote ---
Then after that:
--- Quote ---All you have to do is take our brief survey telling us in which purchase over the past 10 years has given you the most pleasure, and why.
--- End quote ---
The fact that they used 'pleasure' there tells me they aren't actually considering the difference between the two.
--- Quote from: Method of Madness on 08 Mar 2014, 00:28 ---Are they always different?
--- End quote ---
It's a matter of scale. Happiness is something you measure on a longer timescale than pleasure. Drinking beer can give you pleasure but not happiness*. A puppy that just shat on the rug doesn't give you pleasure, but the puppy does lead to more happiness. I assume. I recall some studies saying that pets are good for your mental health and life expectancy, but if you ask people about their happiness, they might not take into account their mental health and life expectancy.
Self-report measures of happiness support the idea of the 'hedonic treadmill', which says that you can have good or bad events in your life but these do not have an effect on your overall happiness in the long term. Usually, buying a new house or losing a close family member strongly affects your mood for some time, but before long you'll have adapted to the new baseline, and you don't feel more or less happy than before. That's also why money can't buy happiness: Beyond the minimum standard of living, more money may give you more pleasure but it doesn't affect your long-term happiness. Without that minimum standard of living, the day-to-day struggle to get by puts such a significant damper on your mood that you just can't reach a comfortable state that people call 'happy'. That goes for other things too, and as Valdís indicates, resolving gender dysphoria gets rid of that damper and really makes her more happy. So unless there's something that actively makes your life worse every day, most people would consider themselves roughly equally happy all the time. That's basically my whole view of happiness.
*I know, "only if you stop drinking."
Method of Madness:
People mention dogs and cats, but dogs and cats are hardly "items".
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