Customer Reviews

The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom

5 star:		(101)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is absolutely incredible - so much fascinating information, and so readable!!

First of all, the main hypothesis, that people make decisions with their gut and then use their brains to rationalize those decisions, is well supported. The examples are clear, real, and alive. You'll walk away from the book thinking, there are so many things that I do that I'm completely unaware of.

Secondly, my favorite thing about this book was that it was SO READABLE: it sounds like Jon Haidt is sitting across from you and speaking to you. (For example, you may have heard of the one and two marshmallow studies, but the story-like way that Haidt describes it will really capture your attention). Even the headings and section titles kept my curiosity up: what could that next section be about?

Third, the section on why human beings are hypocrites (ch. 4) is extremely interesting.

Finally, there is so much philosophy and history of psychology interwoven into the hypothesis of the book that you feel like you keep entering a new theatrical stage: one stage after the other, going to the center of a performance. And the best thing is, all the history, etc. is presented as "here is this story that shows why this happens" and "here's this other story."

This is flat out one of the most interesting, entertaining, and educational books I have read. Haidt has the true ability to bring truth and understanding to difficult issues. For some, it will make them think about things in ways they probably never have, for others it will make sense out of things that confused them, for me it did both. I can honestly say it made me look at certain aspects of my life and the world around me in a very different way and helped me grow as a person.

This is a remarkable book, that gives the lie to the old statement that people who have something to say can't normally express themselves, but those who are good at expressing themselves don't normally have much to say!

Using delightful sparkling prose, Jonathan Haidt has written a meaty and worthwhile book about happiness, emotion and the creation of personal meaning. It is so rare nowadays to find people who can place their work in a broad historical and cultural context. Yet Haidt does just that. Here we have a book in which discussions of the brain rub shoulders with the sayings of the Buddha.

I am sure that nobody is going to agree with everything that he says. But neither would he want us to: he is informing and provoking discussion and understanding. I worry a little about the scientists and writers who try to reduce complex behaviors to neurons and hormones alone, and Jonathan avoids that trap.

This is an insightful book that belongs on the shelf of anyone interested in some of the fundamental problems of living a happy, fulfilled life, and of making a positive contribution to the world.

Very highly recommended.

Jonathan Haidt has written a brilliant exploration of modern and ancient ideas about happiness and the inner workings of the human behaviors that affect it.

This book reads like a great conversation with the reader. From the beginning he employs the right balance of simple explanation - such as the central metaphor of the 'Rider and Elephant' (the conscious and autonomous aspects of your mind, respectively) - and deep, nuanced examinations of the ancient ideas and what the light of modern research shows about them.

The chapters are structured to first present a couple of quotes that encapsulate an ancient idea, such as "The Golden Rule" (do unto others...). He explains the ideas, gives some of the ancient context in which they developed (sometimes at very interesting length) and then starts to weave in the nuance and finer detail that modern study has brought to these ideas. He usually frames things in the context of their effect on happiness and other continuums of human state of being (such as spiritual elevation). Haidt is pretty balanced even when he has to point out problems that some of the ancient ideas have. There's never a sense that `science is right' and `the ancients were wrong' in an absolute way. Often he does quite the opposite, he points out what ancient intuition did get right compared to the very unbalanced thinking behind some of the past popular movements within his profession, such as Behaviorism.

Also, Haidt is laugh-out-loud funny a couple of times in the book!

I would encourage anyone to seek out Jonathan Haidt's interviews (the CBC radio program "Tapestry" is a very interesting one - Googling "Haidt Tapestry" will pull it up) as he is also very witty and funny conversationally - hardly surprising considering the ease of flow of his writing.

Although this book isn't a self-help book, I feel I've gotten more practically out of it than most self-help psychology books - and certainly there are ways to apply what you learn here. I believe I've benefited more because I felt so engaged and so hopeful that I now know what `works' and (perhaps more to the point) what doesn't in a clinically demonstrated way. I felt that because the book wasn't trying to change me, I resisted its information much less - it was a pleasure to read and not a `utility' for my life.

I highly recommend it!

I saw Chris Anderson (Wired Editor and TED co-founder) asked by Charlie Rose to name his favorite book of the last few years. "The Happiness Hypothesis" was the immediate response. Now this book is one of my favorites, too. The Happiness Hypothesis compares traditional philisohpical traditions with the lastest scientific discoveries, and the two ends meet well in the center. The author's own experiences provide narrative glue.

A major finding is that happiness is a set point for us, and that after good times and bad, we tend to return to our general level of happiness. At the same time, we can do things that help or hurt our happiness, and we can understand better how our minds and emotions work.

Factors that decrease happiness include persistent noise, lack of control, shame, dysfunctional relationships, and long commutes. Strong marriages, physical touch, meaningful relationships and religious affiliation tend to improve happiness. Activities with others enhance our happiness; status objects tend to separate us from others.

In terms of parenting, Haidt finds that secure children are well supported by parents who are nearby, providing safety and security. Avoidant children are neglected by their parents. And resistant children have parents who alternate between support and neglect. Haidt also shows how moral relativism is not good for children.

I was also fascinated by Haidt's observation that modernity and commercial culture slowly replaced the ideal of character with the idea personality, leading to a focus on individual preferences and personal fulfillment. This movement reached a height during the "values clarification" movement of the 1960s which taught no morality at all. The result of this is "anomie," a lost sense of self and right or wrong and feeling of being detached from other people and the world.

One of the most hopeful sections of the book talks about Martin Seligman's work on positive psychology, and the rediscovery of virtue. Seligman and Chris Peterson researched wisdom traditions and found that these six virtues are common across almost all cultures: (1) Wisdom; (2) Courage; (3) Humanity; (4) Justice; (5) Temperance; (6) Transcendence. These six categories serve to organize 24 character traits. (You can find the complete list on Wikipedia.) The conclusion is that you should work to cultivate your strengths, not your weaknesses. This area of study is a great breakthrough after 100 years of the psychological study of mental illness.

There were also many insightful nuggets I found in the excellent book, including:

- How oxytocin, cortisols and endorphins effect health and behavior.
- Haidt's belief that the chief causes of evil are moral idealism and high self-esteem.
- Letting off steam makes you angrier, not calmer.
- Wisdom is the ability to adapt, shape the environment, and know when to move to new environments.
- Pleasure comes more from making progress toward goals than from achieving them.
- Social constraints enhance happiness; total freedom decreases happiness (an insight seconded in "The Paradox of Choice").
- Trauma has benefits in that it shows how much adversity you can cope with. It also filters out false friends and changes priorities and philosophies toward the present.
- Passionate love cannot last; companionate love is what lasts.
- Haidt sees two types of diversity, demographic and moral.
- The three major dimensions of social relationships are liking, status and morality/ transcendence. Coherence across these spectrums leads to happiness.
- The six basic emotions that can be read on the face include joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust and surprise.
- Happiness often results from the collective elevation in a church or political rally.
- The three levels of work are a job, a career and a calling. The more autonomy at work, the more happiness.
- Vital engagement in the world leads to love made visible, which is a sign of deep happiness.
- Work that does good for others and leads to income and recognition will enhance happiness.
- Apostates who try to leave a group and traitors who undermine a group are subject to atrocities.
- Group chanting can lead to mystical experiences, which provide a sense of spiritual connection that leads to happiness.
- Eastern views and conservative politics focus on the collective, while Western views and liberal politics tend to focus on the individual.
- Volunteerism increases happiness, and service learning in schools reduces dropout rates.

This is a brilliant and sweeping narrative, and well worth the read. The cross-disciplinary nature of this work reminds me of EO Wilson's seminal work, Consilience. And parts of this book remind me of one of my favorite books of contemporary philosophy: Status
Anxiety, by Alex de Bouten.

Status Anxiety
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge

Well, this is a darn challenging book. The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt takes a look at the "modern truth in ancient wisdom." How to be happy? Dr. Haidt looks at the world's major spiritual beliefs, and distills their messages down to what they all agree on. It's enlightening and informative.

And how you know he's a college professor is this: H = S + C + V. H is, of course, for Happiness. S represents our biological "set point". If your mama was a grouch, you may have inherited her grouchiness. However, if your mother was more like Doris Day, you may have inherited a higher set point. You may innately see the glass as half full.

C represents the conditions of your life. Things like the quality of your daily commute, the noise or peace you encounter, your level of control in life, your feelings of shame or competency, and the nature of your key relationships. Address any problems in C and you will dramatically raise your H.

Finally, we come to V. V is for your voluntary activities -- the things you don't have to do but choose to do. Things like meditation, prayer, exercise, yoga, volunteering. Dr. Haidt's research shows that there is a strong link between altrusim and happiness. Intriguingly, adults who volunteer get more satisfaction from that act than do teens. And seniors? They get the most benefit from "giving back" than any other group. Studies have shown that people who volunteer of their time and talents actually live longer than those who don't.

If your S is generally pessimistic, you can try to increase H by consciously trying to be more optimistic, but the real H payoff comes from making even small changes in C and V, according to Dr. Haidt (and your friendly neighborhood life coach).

I was particularly drawn to the last part of Dr. Haidt's book -- where he discusses the differences between the ethics of liberals and conservatives. I won't give away the ending -- suffice it to say, I now have a different construct in which to view the endless debates between the "left" and the "right".

Bits of wisdom fly at us constantly from fortune cookies and the like. Perhaps because of this, you may only rarely stop to savor a great idea and make it your own. Author Jonathan Haidt provides a remedy to modern habits of superficial thinking with this accessible update on 10 great ancient philosophical themes, examined within a scientific framework of positive psychology. He demonstrates that the questions of the ages are still worth kicking around. We recommend this book to those who want to know why change is so difficult and happiness so elusive. It will give you plenty to think about and possibly change your life. At the least, it will point you in a positive direction.

My expectations of this book were great. Positive Psychology, pioneered by Martin Seligman, has balanced much of the Negative Psychology of symptoms and pathologies. This book has been promoted as a research based, theoretical basis for the Positive Psychology movement. The Happiness Hypothesis turns out, for me, to be more of a jingle than objective exploration. It's hard to find actual original hypotheses in it. There are many good pieces of advice (e.g., meditation and cognitive therapy can work) and research from psychology and neuroscience. But, often there are pseudo-scientific gestures, such as the "happiness formula" (the variables H=S+C+V are incredibly broad) and, even mathier, a triaxial graph (with no coordinates in objective reality).

His conversational style disguises biases and incomplete analyses. For instance, there's not enough attention to how happiness is affected by the degrees of acceptance one finds in one's community, family or culture.

There's a recurrent theme expressed by "You might need adversity to knock yourself into alignment." (p. 227) Haidt at times revels in the positive effects of adversity. While no growth is possible without challenge, his concept is so loose as to underwrite justifications for needless costs to human lives.

For all that, the book's okay. What I find to be disingenuous, even insidious, are the author's distortive conclusions and generalizations. He puts forward a simplistic dualism between religion and science, gloats about how he's "treasonous" in valuing the former (does that feel on the edge, Jon?). Likewise, he divides our political beliefs along the dualistic line of "liberals" who "want to maximize autonomy" and the "religious right" who are against "unlimited freedom where selves roam around with no higher purpose than expressing and developing themselves." (p. 210) Please save me from both these camps.

Haidt tells us he's studied a lot of philosophy. Presumably this qualifies him to summarize "modern philosophy" into the category of "logic and rationality" (p. 214), which he judges as having "lost touch with the passionate, contextualized nature of human life." I would say he's got a lot more studying to do to discover 20th century philosophers who've worked hard to point out the dangers of positing conclusions about the marvels of human nature.

Near the end of the book, he portrays a traditional Brahmin Hindu as exemplary of a fully happy life. Earlier, he celebrated the cosmic consciousness of the Bhagavad Gita. Is it a coincidence that Haidt's happiness is realized by the most privileged caste? Also, let's not forget that the Bhagavad Gita is, finally, an inspiration to Arjuna to obey the religious and social authorities, get back into the ranks of the army and do what he's told.

The best of Positive Psychology brings into the field the importance of positive emotions and values. For a detailed examination of how this can work out practically, see Frisch's Quality of Life Therapy: Applying a Life Satisfaction Approach to Positive Psychology and Cognitive Therapy. The danger in Haidt's book and other writings of the movement is how selected norms and Ancient to modern gurus are not critically analyzed and conclusions often rest on ideological positions that aren't clearly stated.

I really enjoyed Haidt's book. But it's definitely an odd book. The first half reads like a survey of the latest findings from positive psychology. Haidt also clumsily integrates quotes from various religions and philosophers, which I found sort of gimmicky.

The second half, starting with the chapter on Virtue, is Haidt's grand thesis. What started out as gimmicky - Haidt's analysis of world religions with respect to modern psychology - is finally consummated. Haidt presents evolutionary psychology's understanding of religion (it arose to assist group selection) and argues that while religion is wrong insofar as it postulates absolutes, it is integral to human happiness insofar as it militates against the free-rider problem. So Haidt, who freely admits he believes God is purely a fictional construct of the mind, finds value in theism because it motivates people to act altruistically. This is quite interesting because most atheists usually dismiss religions as unnecessary to create a civil society. Haidt seems to make the opposite case.

In the end, though, I found Haidt's advocacy of religion to be reductionistic and paternalistic. It seems to me that you can get religion's community spirit through other avenues, like nationalism. If religion's central premise, there is more to existence than the physical word, is false, then religious belief is delusional. Second, I thought Haidt's attempt to bridge the gap between science and religion was really subsuming religion under science. It's like declaring truce and then slipping a shiv in the opponent's gut while you shake hands. It's not very intellectually honest. And third, and this is somewhat tangential, I thought Haidt's understanding of all world religions as basically about the same thing was reductionistic and incorrect. For instance, Haidt argues that all religions posit the essential divinity within all people. This is the case with many Eastern religions, but this is certainly not the case with the classic monotheistic religions. In fact, in Christianity, this is the essence of what is wrong with the world, that humanity tries illegitimately to grasp the divine prerogatives.

But overall, I really enjoyed Haidt's book. His prose was very conversational and he tried to seem fair to both sides. Best of all, I found his thesis thought-provoking and engaging.

The editorial reviews have done a nice job of reporting on the content & context of The Happiness Hypothesis. I wish to report on the rewards of reading this book. I review a lot of material on the subject of happiness & other optimal emotion & mood states & I highly recommend Dr. Haidt's example of scholarly work, written as a very pleasurable read.

I appreciate Dr. Haidt's focused & grounded recommendations for achieving a life well-lived & loved, amidst easy to assimilate, constant, complex scholarly research.

Pleasure, engagement, & new perspectives, on top of great personal meaning are tremendous rewards for reading a book. Wouldn't you agree?