Nobel Laureate: ‘You’re Only as Happy as You Remember’
Mar. 23, 2005 – It’s generally accepted that money can’t buy happiness, but what about the things it can buy?
According to psychologist and Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, they also do little to raise people’s sense of satisfaction and well-being – at least not in the long-term.
Speaking Tuesday as part of Texas A&M University’s University Distinguished Lecture Series, Kahneman said one’s expectations and memories of an experience have greater influence on that person’s happiness than the experience itself. Thus, while the belief that a luxury purchase equates a better life can raise one’s spirits, the item purchased only brings satisfaction when the person is thinking about it.
“There is an intensive mismatch between how wonderful it’s going to be to have that great big house or that wonderful refrigerator, and when you actually have it and are no longer focusing on it,” the Princeton professor said, using the Sub-Zero refrigerator in his home as an example.
“Top of the line,” he quipped. “How much joy does it bring into my life? None.”
Kahneman, winner of the 2002 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel – commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics – for his revolutionary contributions to understanding financial behavior and decision-making, said memories often take the place of reality – what he called “the focusing illusion.”
“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it,” he said. This, plus the fact that extreme experiences are more likely to be remembered, can cause even a short-term event – good or bad – to alter a person’s perception of his or her circumstances and overall satisfaction with life.
“Because memories are all that we get to keep of an experience, ultimately we have the feeling that they are the only real thing. The only things that matter if it’s a bad experience are ‘How bad did it get?’ and ‘How long did it last?’” he said. “The peak and the end seem to be what matters, mostly.” |
