WEBVTT - Happiness, Part 1: What Really Makes Us Happy? 0:00:01.960 --> 0:00:05.760 Hey, welcome to Science Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. I'm 0:00:05.760 --> 0:00:08.640 Horey Champ and today we are tackling a question that 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:12.400 is very personal to me and that I imagine is 0:00:12.520 --> 0:00:15.760 very personal to you as well. And the question is 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.079 what really makes us happy? 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.279 Is it money? Is it love? Is it a sense 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:25.560 of purpose? Or is it random? Believe it or not. 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.360 Science has studied this question and it has come up 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:32.879 with some pretty definitive answers. So we're going to talk 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:36.600 to two scientists today. One is a psychologist who's running 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.120 one of the biggest and most unique experiments on human 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.040 happiness in history. And we're going to talk to a 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:46.000 neuroscientist who's going to tell us what he thinks is 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:48.879 happening in your brain when you feel happy. 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:49.760 Now. 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.440 This is the first in a two part series, so 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.400 be sure to also check out part two. Okay, get 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.440 ready to experience the joy of science as we answer 0:00:58.520 --> 0:01:06.639 the question it really makes us happy? Hey everyone, Okay, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.120 before we get started, I want you to take a 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:14.720 second and ask yourself this question, Am I happy? I'll 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.399 take a pause so you can think about it. 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:19.080 Now. 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.440 If you're a skeptical person, you might be thinking, well, 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:25.560 Orge what do you mean by being happy? Or you 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:29.320 might be thinking, well, sometimes I feel happy and sometimes 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:30.040 I don't. 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:32.920 Happiness is a pretty tricky. 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:35.759 Subject, which is what inspired our first guest here today, 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.520 doctor Matt Killingsworth, to start as a graduate student at 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:46.040 Harvard something called Track Your Happiness dot Org. Well, thank you, 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:47.840 doctor Killingsworth for joining us. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:48.600 Glad to be here. 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:50.440 Please tell us who you are and what you do. 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.200 Sure, my name is Matt Killingsworth. I'm at the University 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.920 of Pennsylvania at the Wharton School of Business, and I'm 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.240 a researcher who studies human happiness. 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:02.000 Fantastic, so tell us about Track Yourhappiness dot org. 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:04.320 So this is a project that I started more than 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:06.960 a decade ago. Track Your Happiness really aims to be 0:02:07.000 --> 0:02:09.600 the world's biggest happiness study to try to figure out 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.280 the recipe for human happiness and how to spread it 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.160 into people's lives. Since this project's been started, hundreds of 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.600 thousands of people from around the world have joined across 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.919 its different versions. I created it because I wanted to 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:23.240 understand how happy people really feel as they actually go 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:30.239 about their daily lives. What makes our lives enjoyable, fulfilling, interesting, satisfying, Okay. 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:34.280 Doctor Pilling's Worth study uses a very specific method called 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:38.399 experience sampling, which is based on the idea that how 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:41.920 we answer the question are you happy kind of changes 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:45.440 throughout the day, and it depends on what's happening to 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:49.079 us on any given moment. We'll get to how it works, 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:53.400 but first I wanted to know how he got this idea. 0:02:53.480 --> 0:02:58.400 I really, you know, especially before and during my PhD training, 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:02.320 I really read the scientific literature, hundreds and hundreds and 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:04.560 thousands of papers, so I had a pretty good sense 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:06.240 of all of the things that we discovered up to 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:06.800 that point. 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.520 So what were the things that you learn from the literature? 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:12.639 Lots of different things. So the idea that happiness might 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.919 be important, I mean, you can go back to Aristotle, 0:03:16.000 --> 0:03:18.840 you can certainly go back to Jeremy Mintham and John 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:21.480 Stuart Mill and other people kind of arguing some version 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:23.720 of happiness is kind of like the reason we do 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.760 everything else. It's the metric or the construct that all 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.160 this other stuff that humanity is pursuing is ultimately trying 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:33.080 to achieve. But it really wasn't until you know, the 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.800 second half of the twentieth century at least, and even 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:37.720 more so in the last few decades that it's become 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.520 quite clear that we can measure happiness pretty well, not perfectly, 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.760 but well enough to do really good science. I mean, 0:03:44.920 --> 0:03:48.760 that's probably the most essential thing that research is documented, 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:50.720 because if you can't measure it, you can't really do 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:52.960 science with it. But once you measure it, you could 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:56.560 be wrong about basically everything. But if you keep measuring, observing, 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:00.920 you know, refining your thinking, oh, you'll get closer and 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:02.200 closer and closer to the truth. 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:07.120 What Decker Killingsworth is saying is that happiness, or the 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.120 pursuit of it, in a way, kind of defines what 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.960 it means to be human. I mean, it's in the 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:15.800 founding Document of the United States that it's one of 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.960 our unalienable rights. It's the thing we all strive for 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.240 and hope to achieve. And yet it wasn't until the 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:27.880 nineteen fifties that we started studying it scientifically. That's what 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:29.840 psychologist started to look into it. 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:33.920 Well, a lot of the past research really focused on 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.640 what are the characteristics of happy people? Like who is happy? 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.039 We knew something about relationship between age and happiness, and 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.600 income and happiness, and how different countries differ in their 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.919 levels of happiness. You know, lots of these things that 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.839 you might collect on a big government survey or you 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.520 know personality as well, how to things like the Big 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:55.920 five personality dimensions relate to happiness. And one of the 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:58.919 things that was really missing, I think was trying to 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:01.120 understand like when people are happy. 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:05.599 So all of these studies since the nineteen fifties made 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:06.960 a lot of progress. 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.760 And trying to figure out the general. 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:13.800 Factors that affect your happiness, like personality, how much money 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.440 you have, what culture or country you live in. But 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:22.040 according to doctor Killingsworth, the data was always a little fuzzy. 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:25.880 That's because of something I think we all know about happiness, 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:28.719 which is said it sort of depends on when you 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:31.719 ask me if I'm happy or not. In other words, 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.120 is happiness how I feel in the moment, or is 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.680 happiness how I feel when I take a step back 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.040 and consider my life in general. If you ask me 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:44.360 if I'm happy in a particularly stressful moment, like if 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.520 I'm frustrated with my job, or my kids or my relationships, 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:49.960 I might answer one way. 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:51.920 Whereas if you ask me while I'm on. 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:55.480 Vacation, sitting in a beach thinking about my life, I 0:05:55.600 --> 0:05:59.520 might answer a different way, not to mention. Sometimes there 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:02.680 are trade offs in life. Sometimes you have to put 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.920 up with unpleasant moments or do things we don't really 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.840 want to do that might help us in the long run, 0:06:09.360 --> 0:06:14.200 like cleaning your COI lit Or exercising or most jobs 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:18.080 for most people. Now, this is something scientists knew, but 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:23.680 they didn't know quite what to do about it. Nobody 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:27.559 had thought to think that houseone responds to the question 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.640 are you happy? Depends on when you ask them the question. 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:32.880 I'm not saying they never thought of it. I think 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.720 people were certainly aware those things could be important, but 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.360 we really lacked the ability to do it. So, Like 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.440 this method of experience sampling that's really the cornerstone of 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.880 my research, you know, was invented by a guy Mehi 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:47.880 chicksit me Hai back in like the late nineteen seventies. 0:06:48.240 --> 0:06:50.880 But he did it with like radio pages clipped to 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.120 someone's belt and then a little paper booklet they filled 0:06:53.120 --> 0:06:55.800 out when the beeper went off. Well you can study 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:58.800 like eight people at a time. Later, there were you know, 0:06:59.040 --> 0:07:01.360 studies using like pomp pilot for those of us who 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.560 are old enough to remember that technology. But literally before 0:07:04.560 --> 0:07:06.640 I started this project, I looked in you know, the 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:09.720 flagship journals of the discipline of psychology, and they would 0:07:09.760 --> 0:07:12.680 have twenty studies that ever use experience sampling, and they 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:14.840 would have ten or twenty people in them a most. 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.520 You know, now I've had hundreds of thousands of people 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.440 in the study, and you know, a gigantic number of 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:21.240 variables too. 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.320 Okay, let's get to how Doctor Killing Sports project works. 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.000 If you go to track your Happiness dot org, you 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:31.880 can sign up with your phone or your email, and 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.200 once you sign up, you become part of the study. 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.840 So you'll first answer some questions about your life, like 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.360 your demographics and your personality and kind of your expectations 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:45.880 of how you think you experienced different facets of life. 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.720 And then from there, I really want to follow up 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.119 in the course of daily life. So you know, maybe 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:54.000 you did that on Monday, and now it's Tuesday. You're 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.240 going to start getting some pings from me, some kind 0:07:56.280 --> 0:07:59.960 of notifications by email or SMS or or something else, 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:04.520 and hopefully you'll answer one or a few surveys each day. 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:07.040 So I might ask you questions like how do you 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.920 feel right now, are you interacting with anyone else? Are 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.400 you thinking about something other than what you're doing? You know, 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:14.880 have you exercised in the last twenty four hours? A 0:08:14.920 --> 0:08:18.360 bunch of factors, And I'm basically taking the answers to 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.760 all of those questions, combining with the signals on happiness, 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:25.120 both in the moment happiness and these longer term measures 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.240 of happiness, and trying to sort of figure out, well, 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:30.440 what is the right equation for human happiness in general. 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:35.000 So the big innovation here is that we all carry 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.880 our phones with us all the time, and that gives 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:42.040 doctor Killingsworth a chance to basically pop into your life 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.400 and see how happy you are in any moment, because 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:49.800 if someone were to ask you later, your answer might change, 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:53.440 or you might not remember how you felt, or your 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:55.880 memory might get distorted with time. 0:08:57.200 --> 0:08:59.440 You know, we all experience those things. We're kind of 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.199 aware of what happening in the moment, but it's surprisingly 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.080 hard later to remember what occurred. And that's why tracking 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:08.800 and measuring are so powerful. So the sort of premise 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:11.560 behind this is that if I can watch and see 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.720 how happiness goes up and down during people's daily life 0:09:14.800 --> 0:09:17.719 across a whole bunch of different people and then put 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.680 all that data together to try to understand what drivers 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.760 of happiness might explain those shifts up and down. We 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:26.560 might discover some new insights into what really makes the 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:28.679 experience of human life better. 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:31.320 And what makes people give you an answer at the time, Like, 0:09:31.360 --> 0:09:33.360 if I'm in the middle of a difficult moment or 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.360 a super happy moment, why would I interrupt it and 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:37.160 answer it. 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:39.920 It's partly is that it's going to contribute to the 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:43.800 quality of your insight into yourself. So if you're selective 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:45.840 about when you choose to respond, you're going to end 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:47.920 up with an incomplete picture of your own life. You're 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.800 not going to understand what your best moments look like, 0:09:50.920 --> 0:09:52.760 what your worst moments look like, if you're kind of 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.800 leaving those out. So it's not necessarily great for you. 0:09:56.040 --> 0:09:59.040 I feel like it requires a certain openness, But I imagine 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.320 it could also be very therapeutic to kind of be 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.520 open and to confide in your system. 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:06.600 I think so, and I mean, honestly, I think there's 0:10:06.679 --> 0:10:09.559 real value in kind of the happiness report that people 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.720 get back and seeing their data. 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:14.079 Oh yeah, I forgot to mention when you sign out 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:16.120 to be a part of the study. You also get 0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:20.080 a report on your daily happiness. Okay, when we come back, 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.280 we're going to find out what doctor Killingsworth found in 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:27.120 this study that, as he mentioned, hundreds of thousands of 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:31.160 people from across the world have participated in. We're going 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:33.960 to find out what affects your happiness the most, and 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.360 we're going to find out if money is one of them. 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.160 So stay with us, we'll be right back. 0:10:47.520 --> 0:10:48.160 Welcome back. 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.400 Okay, we're answering the question what makes you happy? And 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.600 so far we'fer from the scientists who's been running one 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.199 of the largest and most unique studies on people's happiness 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:03.600 ever done. The study, led by doctor Matt Killingsworth, thanks 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:07.200 participants at random times during the day and ask them 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.640 what they're doing, how they feel, and many other questions 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.560 to try to get a sense of what happiness is 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:17.200 and what are the factors that determine whether you're happy 0:11:17.600 --> 0:11:17.840 or not. 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.400 It's at random times, and that's the idea. So you 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.520 can kind of think of, you know, ordinary like political surveys, 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.080 they're trying to get a representative sample of a population. Well, 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:31.880 my job as a scientist is to get a representative 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:35.120 sample of your moments, and so I'm gonna sort of 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.200 ping you at a bunch of random moments, and you know, 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.880 sometimes those will feel like odd times. 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.480 So might be washing my dishes and I'll get a 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:45.880 pink from you to ask me how I'm feeling. Or 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:47.640 i might be in the middle of like a frustrating 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:49.640 moment with my kids and I'll still get a pin 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:49.960 from you. 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.360 Exactly, It'll happen a bunch of times, and collectively that 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.719 kind of gives us this representative series of snapshots of 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.400 what do you actually do in your life, how do 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:01.400 you spend your time, what are you thinking about, how 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:03.560 do you feel, and lots of other factors. 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:08.040 According to doctor Killingsworth, hundreds of thousands of people have 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.600 signed up for the study over the years, generating a 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:16.720 huge amount of data on basically how humans live their lives. 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.600 So now the question is what does all this data 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:24.280 tell you about happiness? Well, as it turns out, doctor 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:28.320 Killingsworth has studied the data and he's identified several key 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:31.880 factors seem to matter the most when it comes to 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.080 your happiness. So at this point you have hundreds of 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.240 thousands of people who have signed up for this So 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:39.959 in your studies, What are the factors that contribute to 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:40.800 people's happiness. 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.080 Yeah, I'll tell you some big ones. One of the 0:12:43.080 --> 0:12:45.839 first ones that I published from this project was from 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:48.240 a paper called The Wandering Mind is an Unhappy Mind, 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.520 And so I just added this question that said, are 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.000 you thinking about something other than what you're currently doing? 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:56.560 And people could either say no, I'm just focused on 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.360 the present moment on what I'm doing, or yes, I'm 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.120 thinking about something else. And then I asked, if you 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:04.600 are thinking about something else, are those thoughts pleasant, neutral, 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.520 or unpleasant? And it turned out that people were engaging 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.760 in mind wandering almost half the time, and that turns 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:14.800 out to be very robustly correlated with lower happiness. 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.000 Okay, the first thing doctor Killingsworth found when you pink 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.720 people at random throughout their day is that many of 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.160 us are not really living in the present. About half 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.400 the time people were thinking about something other than what 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:30.800 they were doing. And you find that the people that 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.600 were distracted tended to be the people that also reported 0:13:34.840 --> 0:13:39.120 being unhappy, especially the ones that were distracted thinking about 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:43.959 irrelevant or unpleasant things. In other words, living in the 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:48.120 moment and not letting your mind wonder makes you happier. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.600 Half the time our mind is wondering, and when our 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:57.000 mind is wonder it tends to pull down our experience exactly. 0:13:57.400 --> 0:13:59.440 Partly it's because some of the time we think about 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.480 negative things, but I think it also impedes our ability 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.440 to enjoy what we're doing. Like, you know, if we're 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:08.720 having this conversation, like, the more the energy and attention 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:10.880 I'm bringing to that, the more I'm probably going to 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:13.800 enjoy it. If you kind of disengage and you're just 0:14:13.880 --> 0:14:17.040 kind of partially doing things, You're probably not going to 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:18.199 enjoy it that much either. 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:18.720 I see. 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.520 There's something inherently pleasurable about being in the moment. 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:25.000 That seems to be the case even when people are 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.920 like cleaning their house, they're much happier when they're just 0:14:27.920 --> 0:14:30.040 focused on what they're doing than when they let their 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:31.200 attention stray elsewhere. 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:36.280 Yeah, so living in the moment is scientifically proven to 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:40.800 make you happier. It's not just something taught by Buddhist Okay, 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.880 what else did doctor Killingsworth find in all this data? 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:46.440 All right, so what are some of the other factors 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:46.800 you found? 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:50.120 So things like what percentage of your life are you 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.280 interacting in person with other humans. 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.600 How social you're being in your life. 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:59.480 How social you really are in person? Exactly. So someone 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:01.680 that spends a lot of their leisure time really engaging 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:04.320 with other people versus folks that get off work and 0:15:04.400 --> 0:15:06.080 they go and sit at home alone or you know, 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:08.200 watching television or scrolling on their phone or something. 0:15:08.240 --> 0:15:10.120 Maybe explain to us for work some of the questions 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:10.880 you would ask people. 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.520 Yeah, so I might ask them are you talking or 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:16.160 interacting with someone right now? And they could say yes 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:18.520 or no? And I might say is that in person? 0:15:18.760 --> 0:15:26.960 Over video, over text? Which people are those? Friend, spouse, acquaintance, stranger, coworker, boss, child, grandparent, 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:30.520 et cetera. So it turns out interacting in person with 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:32.080 other people is really good. 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.880 Wow. So the more you're interacting with people in person, 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:37.760 greater the happiness in your life. 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.120 That's right. So if you just look at different people's 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.000 lives and say, you know, this person interacts ten percent 0:15:43.040 --> 0:15:45.840 of the time, this person as interacts forty percent, this 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.160 person seventy percent, that percentage is also a very good 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:52.160 predictor of how happy they tend to be. So you 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:56.640 will be transiently happier relative to your own average moment 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.560 when you're interacting versus not and the more you accumulate 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:03.040 those moments, the better your life tends to be in 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:05.320 terms of how you feel, in terms of how satisfied 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:06.120 and fulfilled you are. 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:09.760 Oh, I should tell that to my kids, my teenage 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:10.560 son for sure. 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:14.520 All right. The second big. 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.760 Factor, like doctor Killingsworth found in all the data that 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:23.280 affects your happiness is interacting with other people. Being social 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:27.200 makes you happier, although there are a few caveats. This 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:31.200 interaction has to be in person. Online doesn't count, and 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.440 you have to really engage in it. You can't just 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:35.560 sit at a party and be on your phone the 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:39.000 whole time. Also, the context in which you interact with 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:44.160 people matters. For example, talking with co workers at work helps, 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:48.800 but not that much. Okay, And you said that kind 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.320 of how we interact with those people in what context 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:51.960 is important? 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.360 Yeah, So during leisure time is when it seems to 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.240 matter the most. So kind of in your free time, 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:01.120 engaging with other people is especially beneficial. So like working 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.119 on your own versus with other people, it's somewhat better 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.080 with other people, but that's a smaller difference versus like 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:09.719 going out and hanging out with your friends versus like 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.200 sitting at home alone. That's extremely different. 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.880 In other words, people who spend more time having meaningful 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:20.920 interactions with other people on their free time in person 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.600 tend to report being happier. Now, I think, I know 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.359 what a lot of you out there are thinking right now. 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:30.679 But does that mean introverts are a little unhappier? 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:35.119 Introverts are a bit less happy? So I think my 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:38.720 data also reveal a kind of trap, which is introverts 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.320 think they don't benefit much, or some even think that 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:45.040 they're harmed by interacting with other people. But that isn't 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.920 actually the reality. The reality is, despite your best intuitions, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.879 speaking as an introvert myself, like, you would actually be 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:54.679 happier if you went out and interacted with other people. 0:17:54.880 --> 0:18:00.000 Amazing, Yes, sorry, introverts, you would be a lot happier 0:18:00.320 --> 0:18:03.800 if you make the effort to talk to people for fun. 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.240 Science says, so okay, And then there is a third 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:10.960 big factor that doctor Kingsworth's found that has a huge 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:14.840 impact on your happiness. So tell me what are some 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:15.600 of the other factors. 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.480 Then, yeah, so we talked about mental factors, we talked 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:20.840 about social factors, another one or what I would call 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.439 like physical factors. Particularly, the biggest one by far is 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.639 just being physically active. The number of days of the 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:32.840 week that someone is exercising is a surprisingly strong predictor 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.560 of their level of happiness across all these different outcomes. 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:40.840 Yeah, sorry to you too, couch potatoes, but sitting around 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:45.320 and doing nothing is also making you unhappy. The good 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:49.400 news is that physical activity doesn't have to mean exercise, 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:51.800 and it. 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.080 Doesn't just have to be exercised simply like, the level 0:18:55.160 --> 0:18:58.040 of physical activation in your body is a very strong 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.760 predictor of happiness. Being more physically in gauge in whatever 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:03.240 is going on is a really good predictor of happiness. 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:04.640 What do you mean physically engaged? 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.720 Like? Literally, how energized is your body right now? Are 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.360 you sitting down and not moving or are you standing 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:15.399 up and moving around? Are you walking? Are you moving 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.439 with energy? Kind of the more energy you're expending, the 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:19.600 happier you tend to be. 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.760 What what kinds of questions would you ask people in 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:23.240 this case? 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:31.080 I literally ask them at this moment, are you lying down, sitting, standing, walking, jogging, running, 0:19:31.480 --> 0:19:34.320 you know, being intensely physically active in some other way 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.560 and there's basically just a straight line upward. The more 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.480 they're kind of physically activated, the better they feel in 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:42.160 the moment and in their lives. 0:19:43.400 --> 0:19:43.800 All right. 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.000 To wecap, these are the three main factors that affect 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.840 your happiness, according to an analysis of data from hundreds 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:53.960 of thousands of people that look into their daily lives 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:57.560 and how they feel. Number one live in the moment, 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:03.240 Number two have meaningful in person non work interactions with 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:08.240 other people. And three stay physically active. Now, of course 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.440 that's not the full picture of happiness, but as doctor 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:15.320 Killyesworth says, focusing on these three things can go a 0:20:15.359 --> 0:20:17.800 long way to making you happier. 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:20.960 So the way that I kind of think about those 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.840 three factors, you know, there's so many other things going 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.879 on with happiness. It's not like this is the total story, 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:29.120 but I think it's a set of things that's pretty important. 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:31.800 You can kind of think about a happy life as 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:36.000 a function of being like mentally engaged, socially engaged, and 0:20:36.040 --> 0:20:39.680 physically engaged, sort of a life of engagement across those 0:20:39.680 --> 0:20:42.200 sort of three pillars. If you're doing pretty well and 0:20:42.280 --> 0:20:45.359 all three of those things, you're doing really well, And 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.719 if you're really not doing very well in all of 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:48.480