Daniel Kahneman and his studies on happiness

Everybody talks about happiness. Books, conferences, coaching, mentoring... are some of the products that people can buy today in the supermarkets of happiness. Most are usually a compendium of beautiful phrases, motivational advice and aphorisms to frame that may be motivational as you read them but lack practical utility to long term. The problem is that happiness is something so complex that it costs a lot to research about it.

Daniel Kahneman, one of the most influential psychologists of our time, reveals in the last chapters of the book that he was awarded the Nobel Prize current findings of science on well-being and happiness.

• Related article: "How do we think? Daniel Kahneman's Two Systems of Thought"

Kahnmeman and his idea of ​​happiness

Basically Kahneman's studies reveal that there is no single concept of happiness. This psychologist tells us about the existence of two “me”: the “me that experiences” and the “me that remembers”. Both are of great importance to the way in which we value our happiness.

Although the experiencing self is responsible for registering our sensations of events as they happen, the remembering self is making sense of those experiences.

To illustrate both concepts he relates the following example:

“A comment I heard from a member of the public after a lecture illustrates the difficulty of distinguishing memories from experiences. He told how he was listening in ecstasy to a long symphony recorded on a record that was scratched towards the end and produced a scandalous noise, and how that disastrous ending ruined the whole experience".

But the experience was not really ruined, but only the memory of it. The spectator's reality had been really pleasant for most of the time; however, the noise at the end made the overall viewer rating of the experience outrageous.

The "me" that enjoyed the symphony in the present moment, is the "experiencing me." On the other hand, the “me” that considered the experience as unpleasant is the “me that remembers”.

The logics of memory

In this example, Kahneman shows the dilemma between direct experience and memory. It also shows how different these two systems of happiness are that are satisfied with different elements.

The "experiencing self" takes into account day-to-day emotions in the present moment. How you have felt most of the day, the excitement of a meeting with someone you love, the comfort of a nap or the release of endorphins during sports.

The “remembering self” measures general satisfaction with our life. When someone asks us how we are, how about vacations, work or just we take stock of our life. It is about a narrator who values ​​specific experiences based on what we consider relevant in life.

Another example showing the difference between the two is the following: Let's imagine that on our next vacation we know that at end of the holiday period all our photos will be destroyed, and we will be administered an amnesic drug so that we will not remember nothing. Now, would you choose the same vacation?

If we think about it in terms of time, then we will get an answer. And if we think about it in terms of memories, we will get another answer. Why do we choose the vacations we choose? It is a problem that refers us to a choice between the two selves.

• You may be interested: "Types of memory: how does the human brain store memories?"

Well-being has more than one time

As the reader can see, happiness is presented as a complex and problematic concept in light of these studies. As Kahnemam says:

“In the last ten years we have learned a lot of new things about happiness. But we have also learned that the word happiness does not have a unique meaning and should not be used as it is used. Sometimes scientific progress leaves us more perplexed than we were before ”.

For this reason, in this article there are no tips, phrases or lessons about what makes our lives more rewarding. Only relevant scientific findings that should make us more critical of authors who sell quick and easy solutions to lead a life of satisfaction and happiness.

Bibliographic references:

• Kahneman, Daniel. Think fast, think slow. Barcelona: Debate, 2012. ISBN-13: 978-8483068618.