We all strive to make decisions in our lives that will make us happy. After all, isn't that what we all want? Despite that fact, studies have shown that we are not very good at making decisions that make us happy, or at least, not as happy as we thought we would be. One of the things these studies have shown is that people have an "impact bias" of how they feel future events will impact them. The "impact bias" causes people to think good things will be greater than they really are, and that bad things will be even worse than they end up being.
I have found this to be true in my own life. I have had a variety of jobs that have provided me with different levels of income. Some jobs I thought going in that I would like less, but since I made more money, I would be happy overall. Other times, I took less money to do a job I thought I would like more, and thought that would make me happy. The truth is, after the newness of the opportunity wore off, I found my happiness back where it was previously. If I enjoyed work more than making money, that made my personal life more stressful as I had less money for the things I wanted. If I did a job that I liked less but paid more, my personal life improved, but I grew to hate going to work and overall my happiness was the same. In each case I wasn't as happy as I thought I would be for as long as I thought I would be. This same bias applies to material possessions as well. Last year I bought myself a huge 73" 3D DLP TV. I thought it was my greatest purchase ever and loved it. What should happen? A couple months later they came out with their new model year and had a huge 92" TV. I instantly wanted the newer, bigger TV. I still have my 73", mostly due to finances, and love it. I still have that thought in the back of my mind that I would like that bigger one a lot more, even though I know the one I have is enough. Popular culture has had a big impact on how I, and others view happiness. Media is always promoting things on the cutting edge, usually meaning bigger and better, and thus has caused many people to think of happiness in terms of the things they have.
It is interesting to think about this from the view point of a job's affect on happiness. I work for my parents so it's mostly involuntary labor, but it's interesting to think that the more money you make, but disliking your job could have the potential to make you just as happy as having a job that makes less money, but a job you prefer more.
ReplyDeleteI agree that today's society tends to think of happiness based off of material wealth, but I also feel like that, similar to you, most people cannot afford the newer better item so they content themselves with what they already have.