What Is Happiness: Sandburg's Answer And The Role of Rose-Tinted Spectacles

Submitted by tonyplant on May 9, 2006 - 12:17.

I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell
me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of
thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though
I was trying to fool with them
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along
the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with
their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

- Carl Sandburg, Chicago Poems

Researchers in positive psychology have argued for some time that we have a "psychological immune system" that leaps into action in response to significant and substantial negative events (the death of a loved one, redundancy) but allows small negative events (the commute into work; fast-food wrappers stuffed in your garden hedge by passers-by) to occur and accumulate without any response. Which means that our day-to-day happiness is more profoundly influenced by little events than by big ones. Banal as this sounds, it has been validated by many studies. Some researchers advocate that a hassles and uplifts index is a better method for  assessing people's happiness and wellbeing than the more usual scoring mechanism that only recognises recent, major life-events.

Although people are frequently derided for wearing rose-tinted spectacles it seems as if it is a protective mechanism. Daniel Gilbert's, Stumbling on Happiness has been described as "a paean to delusion". "How do we manage to think of ourselves as great drivers, talented lovers and brilliant chefs when the facts of our lives include a pathetic parade of dented cars, disappointed partners and deflated soufflés?" Gilbert asks. "The answer is simple: We cook the facts."

In the popularised version of Freud's work, it is argued that behaviour can be motivated by impulses beyond conscious awareness. Cognitive scientists such as Gilbert assert that faulty logic — rather than the concealed desires of the unconscious mind — leads us to misperceive and misconstrue reality. We do not behave in ways that maximise our happiness: we might opt to accept a promotion that means we spend less time with our family although the family might be a source of greater happiness and satisfaction than the job.

In order to navigate our way successfully through life, it seems as if we need an admixture that involves an appreciation of reality with a little bit of denial and some delusion. No matter the mountains of evidence to the contrary, there are just some areas in life where we need to feel competent or good about ourselves (apparently, 90 percent of drivers believe themselves to be above average in their skill levels). Just like in Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor's fictional community where "the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average".

If we were to experience the world exactly as it is, we'd be too depressed to get out of bed in the morning. But if we were to experience the world exactly as we want it to be, we'd be too deluded to find our slippers.

Gilbert remarks that most of us believe that we could not be happy as a conjoined twin, yet conjoined twins report themselves as happy as everybody else (granted, it is a small sample size). Gilbert reports that, in general, cancer patients are more optimistic about the future than healthy people. We are experience rich and theory poor when it comes to making informed guesses as to what will actually make us happy. I meet a lot of people who tell me that they will be happy if they win the lottery and don't have an alternative plan for happiness outside this: and this is despite the finding that the average Briton is 176 times more likely to be murdered than to win the lottery.  

People who are clinically depressed seem to make fewer of these basic cognitive errors. They may have a more accurate view of reality — but it seems as if the ability to delude ourselves may be a key to mental health. We need to wear rose-tinted spectacles in order to have the resilience to live our lives.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project

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uplifts | Sandburg | resilience | Lake Wobegon effect | hassles | happiness | delusion