The Happiness Hypothesis

by Jonathan Haidt

 

Note: This summary is incomplete. I seem to have lost most of my notes; what follows are two pages worth recovered from a notepad I found in an old travel bag.

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Why Meaning?

1) An era of abundance and freedom from the struggle to survive

2) Generational aging of the baby boom

3) Overwhelming information and choice

 

The World Values Survey: 58% of Americans think often about the meaning and purpose of life

 

Neuroscience shows the physiological basis for religion:

"Studies of our biological constitution make it increasingly clear that we are social creatures of meaning, who crave a sense of coherence and purpose. Yet, our modern way of life seems to provide fewer and fewer opportunities to engage in the group life that satisfies these human needs--indeed, many of its structures and institutions stunts these very needs."

--Steven R. Quartz

http://www.edge.org/q2003/q03_quartz.html

 

• Duke: Regular prayers have lower blood pressure
• Johns Hopkins: Attending religious services cuts the risk of death from heart disease, suicide, and cancer
• Dartmouth: Faith & prayer are an indicator of survival among open-heart surgery patients

 

Mitnoff and Denton: "A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America"

• http://www.getabstract.com/ShowAbstract.do;jsessionid=uOdYzCQNCwfObah3?dataId=1807
• Spirituality = "The basic desire to find purpose and meaning in one's life."
• Companies that aligned spiritual values with company goals performed better.
• Over 60% of Americans believe a greater sense of spirituality would improve their workplace

 

Robert White: "The Effectance Motive"

• The need or drive to develop competence through interactive with and controlling one's environment
• "Joy's soul lies in the doing" --Shakespeare

 

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "Vital Engagement"

• A relationship to the world that is characterized by experience of flow and by meaning

 

Csikszentmihalyi, Howard Gardner, William Damon: When doing good matches up with doing well, a profession is healthy

 

People gain a sense of meaning when their lives cohere across the three levels of their existence:

• Physical
• Psychological
• Sociocultural

 

David Sloan Wilson: Group Selection (competition between groups)

• Cultural evolution is faster than genetic selection (but both intertwine)
• Religions always serve to coordinate and orient people toward each other and toward the group as a whole
  • Trust and trade are enhanced
  • Respect for rules is enhanced (via sacredness and ostracism)
  • Twin studies suggest a particular gene is associated with a stronger tendency to have religious and self-transcendent experiences
• There is no contradiction with religions that preach love but cause hate. Group selection enhances cooperation within the group to better compete with other groups.

 

Mystical experience = when the sense of self is turned off

• No representation of the body's boundaries
• No fixed location in 3-dimensional space
• Often induced by rituals with repetitive movement and chanting

 

How it all fits together

• Individual selection = selfishness
• Group selection = the longing to lose the self in something larger
• Social creatures = We need love and attachment
• Industrious = Effectance and vital engagement