happinesssnu
Burke, R. J., Koyuncu, M., Fiksenbaum, L., &Demirer, H. (2009). Time affluence, material affluence and well-being among Turkish managers. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 16(4), 386-397.
Humans are biologically adapted to their ancestral food environment in which foods were dispersed and energy expenditure was required to obtain them. The modern developed world has a surplus of very accessible, inexpensive food. Amid the enormous variety of different foods are “super” foods, such as chocolate, which are particularly appealing and calorie dense. Energy output can be minimal to obtain large amounts of food. In terms of education (eg, in nutrition and risk-benefit thinking) and environment design, modern cultures have not kept pace with changes in the food world. Overweight and worrying about food result from this mismatch between human biological predispositions and the current food environment. The French have coped with this mismatch better than Americans. Although at least as healthy as Americans, they focus more on the experience of eating and less on the health effects of eating. They spend more time eating, but they eat less, partly because of smaller portion sizes. French traditions of moderation (versus American abundance), focus on quality (versus quantity), and emphasis on the joys of the moment (rather than making life comfortable and easy) support a healthier lifestyle. The French physical environment encourages slow, moderate social eating, minimal snacking, and more physical activity in daily life.
Rozin, P. (2005). The meaning of food in our lives: a cross-cultural perspective on eating and well-being. Journal of nutrition education and behavior, 37, S107-S112.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1499-4046(06)60209-1
A central question in psychology and economics is the determination of whether individuals react differently to different values of a cared-about attribute (e.g., different income levels, different gas prices, and different ambient temperatures). Building on and significantly extending our earlier work on preference reversals between joint and separate evaluations, we propose a general evaluability theory (GET) that specifies when people are value sensitive and when people mispredict their own or others’ value sensitivity. The GET can explain and unify many seemingly unrelated findings, ranging from duration neglect to affective forecasting errors and can generate many new research directions on topics ranging from temporal discounting to subjective well-being.
Hsee, C. K., &Zhang, J. (2010). General evaluability theory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(4), 343-355.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610374586
Recent scholarly and media accounts paint a portrait of unhappy parents who find remarkably little joy in taking care of their children, but the scientific basis for these claims remains inconclusive. In the three studies reported here, we used a strategy of converging evidence to test whether parents evaluate their lives more positively than do nonparents (Study 1), feel relatively better than do nonparents on a day-to-day basis (Study 2), and derive more positive feelings from caring for their children than from other daily activities (Study 3). The results indicate that, contrary to previous reports, parents (and especially fathers) report relatively higher levels of happiness, positive emotion, and meaning in life than do nonparents.
Nelson, S. K., Kushlev, K., English, T., Dunn, E. W., &Lyubomirsky, S. (2013). In defense of parenthood: Children are associated with more joy than misery. Psychological Science, 24(1), 3-10.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612447798
Modern lifestyles disconnect people from nature, and this may have adverse consequences for the well-being of both humans and the environment. In two experiments, we found that although outdoor walks in nearby nature made participants much happier than indoor walks did, participants made affective forecasting errors, such that they systematically underestimated nature’s hedonic benefit. The pleasant moods experienced on outdoor nature walks facilitated a subjective sense of connection with nature, a construct strongly linked with concern for the environment and environmentally sustainable behavior. To the extent that affective forecasts determine choices, our findings suggest that people fail to maximize their time in nearby nature and thus miss opportunities to increase their happiness and relatedness to nature. Our findings suggest a happy path to sustainability, whereby contact with nature fosters individual happiness and environmentally responsible behavior.
Nisbet, E. K., &Zelenski, J. M. (2011). Underestimating nearby nature: Affective forecasting errors obscure the happy path to sustainability. Psychological science, 22(9), 1101-1106.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611418527
Commuting times and distances continue to increase in the United States with potential impacts to the environment as well as possible health consequences for the travelers, because of stress from the commuting trip. There is very little empirical information, however, on the differences between various modes of commuting on commuter stress. This study provides a cross-sectional comparison of car and train commuters with multiple indicators of stress, including statistical controls for group characteristics. We compared commuters in the same geographic region, Metropolitan New York City, who had comparable starting and destination points, and were from homogeneous socioeconomic backgrounds. We also explored potential underlying psychological processes (i.e., control, effort, predictability) to help explain stress differences related to commuting mode. There were statistically significant differences for perceived commuting stress and mood. Car commuters showed significantly higher levels of reported stress and, more negative mood. Mediational analyses indicated that effort and predictability largely account for the elevated stress associated with car commuting.
Wener, R. E., &Evans, G. W. (2011). Comparing stress of car and train commuters. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, 14(2), 111-116.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2010.11.008
The common heuristic association between scarcity and value implies that more valuable things appear scarcer (King, Hicks, & Abdelkhalik, 2009), an effect we show applies to time as well. In a series of studies, we found that both income and wealth, which affect the economic value of time, influence perceived time pressure. Study 1 found that changes in income were associated with changes in perceived time pressure. Studies 2–4 showed that experimentally manipulating time’s perceived economic value caused greater feelings of time pressure and less patient behavior. Finally, Study 5 demonstrated that the relationship between income and time pressure was strengthened when participants were randomly assigned to think about the precise economic value of their time.
Does thinking about time, rather than money, influence how effectively individuals pursue personal happiness? Laboratory and field experiments revealed that implicitly activating the construct of time motivates individuals to spend more time with friends and family and less time working—behaviors that are associated with greater happiness. In contrast, implicitly activating money motivates individuals to work more and socialize less, which (although productive) does not increase happiness. Implications for the relative roles of time versus money in the pursuit of happiness are discussed.
Mogilner, C. (2010). The pursuit of happiness: Time, money, and social connection. Psychological Science, 21(9), 1348-1354.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610380696
The results of five field and laboratory experiments reveal a “time versus money effect” whereby activating time (vs. money) leads to a favorable shift in product attitudes and decisions. Because time increases focus on product experience, activating time (vs. money) augments one’s personal connection with the product, thereby boosting attitudes and decisions. However, because money increases the focus on product possession, the reverse effect can occur in cases where merely owning the product reflects the self (i.e., for prestige possessions or for highly materialistic consumers). The time versus money effect proves robust across implicit and explicit methods of construct activation.
Mogilner, C., &Aaker, J. (2009). “The time vs. money effect”: Shifting product attitudes and decisions through personal connection. Journal of Consumer Research, 36(2), 277-291.
https://doi.org/10.1086/597161
This research examines how a focus on time versus money can lead to two distinct mind-sets that affect consumers’ willingness to donate to charitable causes. The results of three experiments, conducted both in the lab and in the field, reveal that asking individuals to think about “how much time they would like to donate” (vs. “how much money they would like to donate”) to a charity increases the amount that they ultimately donate to the charity. Fueling this effect are differential mind-sets activated by time versus money. Implications for the research on time, money, and emotional well-being are discussed.
Liu, W., &Aaker, J. (2008). The happiness of giving: The time-ask effect. Journal of consumer research, 35(3), 543-557.
https://doi.org/10.1086/588699