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Zusammenfassung von The Happiness Hypothesis

Name: The Happiness Hypothesis
Rating: 4.5 (209 reviews)
Author: Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt

Putting Ancient Wisdom and Philosophy to the Test of Modern Science

4.5 (209 Bewertungen)

23 Min.

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What’s in it for me? Understand happiness, and make yourself and others happier.

Have you ever seriously considered what makes us happy? Throughout history, people have always been chasing happiness – whether the ancient Greeks, Buddha or today’s happiness researchers.

However, despite the massive human effort to discover the key to happiness, the fundamental questions remain: What is happiness? And how can it be achieved?

Throughout history, there have been many different popular ideas about what constitutes happiness. As a result, people searched for happiness in areas as diverse as wealth, religion, exercise and even food.

Today, however, there seems to be a consensus: happiness means having the right relationship between one’s personality and surroundings.

In The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt examines how the functioning of the human mind can influence our happiness. In particular, he argues that we often assume that our rational self – what he calls our “rational rider” – directs our everyday decision making, when in fact it’s driven by our intuitive, emotional self (our “inner elephant”).

In these blinks, you’ll find out why learning how the mind works is the first step towards being a happier person and why passion is only important to romantic relationships in the beginning.

Finally, you’ll discover why healthy social relations are essential to our well-being, and why giving is more beneficial to our health than receiving.

Our mind is divided: or the human mind as a rational rider on a wild elephant.

Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to make New Year’s resolutions than it is to stick to them?

Why is that?

Because the mind isn’t a unit, but actually divided into two distinct parts. One metaphor for this divided mind is a wild elephant being ridden by a human who’s trying his best to control it. We can see this division at work in several ways:

First, we cannot fully control the body with conscious thought. For example, the human heart acts independently from the mind, as we cannot consciously control our heart rate. That’s because there is a second brain, called the “gut brain,” whose actions are autonomous and can’t be directed by rational decisions.

So, in terms of the above metaphor, our heart rate is determined by how quickly our inner elephant is running, not by the rational rider’s conscious decision making.

Second, and moreover, this division is reflected in the structure of the brain.

While older structures like the limbic system are in charge of basic instincts, such as sex and hunger, the newer neocortex controls reasoning and inhibition, which enables us to keep the desires and drives which stem from the older areas of the brain in check. The function of the neocortex can be seen most clearly in the behavior of people whose neocortex is damaged: if they’re hungry, they can’t put off eating; if they become aroused, they can’t stop themselves from sexually harassing people.

To control our basic drives, the rider uses language to plan ahead and advise the elephant, who is responsible for instincts and emotions. In reality, however, instead of using reason in our decision making, we usually allow our emotions to direct us – which means that the elephant of our metaphor, who acts more or less involuntary, tends to be more powerful than the rider.

Although genes influence our happiness, changing our thinking style can make us happier.

Anyone who’s ever read one of the many self-help books out there will be familiar with this phrase: “Nothing is inherently good or bad; only our thinking makes it so.”

But is it actually possible to alter our way of thinking? And, if it is, what exactly can we do to change it?

Reciprocity is the basic foundation we build our social lives on.

If you were to receive a Christmas card from someone you hardly know, what would you do? Most likely, you’d send a card back in return.

That’s because humans have a deeply ingrained instinct to reciprocate.

Our inability to see our own faults is a big obstacle in many relationships.

Have you ever been in a conflict with someone and wondered how on earth the other person could not see their own errors and shortcomings? Well, this feeling was probably mutual.

We tend not to notice our own faults because realizing that we’re fallible is extremely unpleasant to us. Indeed, for that reason, both our elephant and rider neglect to see them.

To be a happy person, you need the right people in your life and to do what you’re good at.

If we assume that our way of thinking determines our perception of things as being either good or bad, it follows that the external world would not have any effect on our happiness.

However, this is only partially true.

Love is a very basic and necessary feeling in our lives.

Whether you like The Beatles or not, it's hard to deny that they were right about at least one thing: “All you need is love.” Love is one of the basics of our lives, and as such it’s completely necessary and irreplaceable.

Indeed, just as a mother’s milk is essential to infants, a strong attachment to the mother is a biological necessity for a child’s healthy development.

What doesn’t kill you can make you stronger – and therefore happier.

We often hear that personal growth comes only as a result of dealing with adverse conditions or traumatic experiences. Yet this can’t be true all the time, since many people suffer from profound depression after experiencing traumatic events.

So how, and in which cases, does adversity yield benefits?

Altruism and virtue need to be practiced, not taught.

Throughout history, the concept of virtue often referred to certain respected character traits, like morality, altruism or nobleness. These traits were commonly believed to be necessary for leading a happy life in historical periods such as the Middle Ages and in ancient Rome.

Today, however, the Western notion of morality is generally flawed and ineffective. For instance, in contrast to many other cultures, Western children are taught nowadays to think about morality, rather than to practice moral behavior, by, for example, through obligatory social service.

We have a basic human need for the divine.

Compared to other societies or past times, religion plays a rather small role in the modern Western world. But even if you’re not a religious person, religions still might have something essential to offer: awe-inspiring experiences.

Whether we’re religious or not, our minds have a divinity scale according to which we perceive things to be more or less holy.

Happiness and meaning come from the right relationship between you and your surroundings.

Humankind has for eons tried to establish the essential elements of a meaningful life. Recently, modern psychology has discovered several principles for finding purpose in our lives.

First, we can become happier by establishing the right kind of relationship between ourselves and others.

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Worum geht es in The Happiness Hypothesis?

In The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt examines the ideas of famous ancient thinkers in light of modern knowledge and uses scientific findings to answer the question, “What makes a person happy?” The book will provide you with a better understanding of human social behavior and enable you to increase your own happiness.

Wer The Happiness Hypothesis lesen sollte

Anyone looking for more happiness and meaning in his or her life
Anyone interested in psychology and research on happiness

Über den Autor

Jonathan Haidt is Professor of Social Psychology at New York University. He is well known for his research on morality and emotions of disgust. In 2012, he wrote The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, which ultimately became a New York Times bestseller.

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