Customer Reviews

Happiness: The Science behind Your Smile

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This brief but scholarly and entertaining little book is not the expected 'self-help book' - or is it? Daniel Nettle explores studies collecting data on people's views of whether or not they are happy (polls), on brain systems (biology), on anti-depressants, hallucinogens, and dopamine (biochemistry), and on the media/marketing blitz of recipes for achieving happiness. It is all very concise, non-biased, and informative.

But by far the most helpful and sensible information contained in this book is Nettle's quiet explanation of how we as humans are geared to determine 'happiness' on comparisons with our fellow beings: is my income as big as theirs, my car/house/lifestyle, business success and yes, even sexual achievement as gratifying as my neighbors'? It often boils down to a polarity between 'wanting' and 'liking' - the decision is ultimately ours. Nettle contends that in constantly pursuing happiness (or questioning why our levels don't meet expectations), the most we can hope for is 'what psychologists call subjective well-being'. He then closes with rays of hope that with increased scientific and biochemical investigation, the goal of happiness just may be closer at hand.

Nettle quotes Hawthorne: "Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." A well-written, necessary book for today's society. Grady Harp, August 05

Drugs such as nicotine "stimulate the 'wanting' system, making them the perfect self-marketing products. If you are a smoker, you have been duped by chemistry into spending a lot of time and money on doing something you don't actually enjoy." And if you don't smoke? Well, there's nothing really to take solace in since you too are afflicted similarly, but solely by a genetic bug to outperform others (or at least try to); programmed by evolution. Evolution, the author reasons, "hasn't set us up for the attainment of happiness, merely its pursuit." We consequently stive for better pay, a nicer home, newer cars; conquests of all sorts---elevations of our status in some regard, all; even if little of it makes us marginally more happy. "Thus our biggest enemy if we decide we want to be happy beings, is the very psychology we have to use to do it." That is not to say most folks aren't happy. As studies around the world (cited by the author) have shown, from poor and more well-off countries alike, we are happy, generally speaking---most folks rating their happiness between 6-8 on a ten point scale---but more because most of us are genetically predisposed not to wallow in despair (which explains why we are still here; reproductive success being the proof herein). The author doesn't specifically address the issue but it seems implied to conclude that most folks anywhere---from time immemorial to now, in most any country, whether rich or poor---will rationalize that what they have isn't bad (& while it certainly could be better---and perhaps will, with hope), they'd acknowledge being generally happy (ie., the 6, 7, or 8 of 10, above). The point of this book, to summarize then, is that by doing more of what one does, hoping to reach, say, a 9, 9.3, 9.5---you name it, is realistically impossible. Mind you, I didn't say one cannot increase their personal happiness; or move from a 5.5 to a 7 or whatever on the happiness scale. It's just that we ought not deceive ourselves that $20,000 more a year will make us happy, or that an impressive title will, or a new job---or that in 10 years we will be happier because of such expectations being fulfilled. Heck, even winning the lottery doesn't make most 'happy happy' for any considerable time period, once they adapt to having what they perhaps dreamed would bring them happiness. There's the rub: Wanting Wanting Wanting keeps us going (& is very productive from a macro perspective--capitalism, after all, has exponentially increased living standards for billions), but addiction to always wanting more is only going to get us just that---More. But don't expect it to bring happiness. Next week should your boss say that she/he, because of a lack of work, needs volunteers to take a few days off without pay, raise your hand. Likewise, spend more time with your kids (even if it costs you financially), your galfriend/boyfriend, husband/wife, boating/golfing/tennis buddies, ecetera. Only by doing more of what you really enjoy will you be happier. There's a lot of potential herein too, I personally believe. Don't we all spend too much time (wasting time) watching TV & seeing the most talked about (but usually terribly unsatisfying) new films? Sense of community is down (leading to increases of those suffering from depression) TV viewership is always up, & most are working more hours to pay for things they really don't need. This is a small, short book (184 written 4X6 sized pages) that addresses something few of us give much thought to---whether we can immeasurably increase out happiness by simply bucking some convential misnomers instead of focusing on a chimera of "happiness." Cheers!

Nettle summarises the various studies and statistics available on the subject of what make people happy. Importantly, he has a useful discussion on the types of happiness; feelings of joy, judging oneself to be happy, and realising one's potential. He focuses on the second, and crunches through the studies, also provding useful scientific explanations of how the brain works. Three of the most interesting things that stood out for me were that most people are actually happy, control within one's job is more important than income, and there is a distinct (biological) difference between wanting and liking. The latter is the root of addiction (and advertising), and also shows how getting what one wants may not lead to happiness.

I would have been interested in seeing a greater discussion on why the rates of depression are on the rise, yet most people are happy. Is it the case that the extremes of society are getting more pronounced? Or simply, we are more aware of depression than before. I also thought that his view that those who are neurotic (tendency to negative emotions) and introverted (closed to experiences) tend to be less happy was somewhat circular. This is the crux of the issue, that is, what causes what! Does being happy lead one to be less neurotic or the other way around?!

On balance, the book was informative, concise and life-enhancing

Nettle has produced a terse gem of a book. The writing is all beef no fat. The theory and studies presented are poignant and relevant. This is one of the best books on 'Happiness' I have read.

Nettle's main thesis is that humans are notoriously bad at knowing what will make them happy. This is because evolution has programmed us to maximize reproductive success, not to maximize our felicitous feelings. He points out that most of the things people think will make them happy do not. These include having money/material goods, having a hot wife/husband, eating great food, drinking, doing drugs, short term indulgence in TV, or other media, etc.

The things that really determine our happiness level are genes, satisfaction, autonomy, and challenges.

Nettle breaks down our happiness system into many components. one is a dopamine system that prods us to want. This is what tricks us into thinking that lighting another cigarrette will make us happy as we get more and more miserable and our health fades. Another system is the reward system consisting of opioids. These neurotransmitters blunt our pain and heighten our pleasure. This is what is released during copulation, eating, drinking, etc. The fact that we have seperate brain systems for wanting and having is interesting and highly explanatory.

Nettle adds many details that I shan't get into. If you want to know more, read the book. Heck, it only takes about five hours.

One thing that I find fascinating is the concept of the hedonic treadmill. This is the idea that if we get status and other worldy goods, we adapt to them so quickly that our happiness level returns to what it was before we got them.
I always had an inkling that this was the case from personal experience. Yet, I find it fascinating that people still bloviate about how having this or that thing would make them happy. No, it would not; and there is solid scientific evidence to back this contention. The fact that we fallible humans fall prey to this illusion so often only proves what Randolph Nesse said, "natural selection does not give a fig about your happiness."

The best part of this book, besides its scientific nature, is the authors' restraint. He offers no panaceas or guides to follow on the way to happiness. All he does is summarize the evidence and leave it to the reader to find his or her own way.

A brilliant bedtime read.

Wow - it's wonderful to read a book based on research instead of opinions and hopes. Daniel Nettle combs through the newest findings on emotion to help us focus on workable, sane, and ultimately useful ways to approach happiness and unhapiness.

Did you know that happiness is fleeting for important evolutionary reasons? If a primate were to swoon over the happiness of finding shelter or food for too long, he or she might become so addle-pated as to miss a warning of impending danger. So, trying to stay happy all the time is actually a pretty stupid idea, and the brain won't go for it.

Similarly, the urges of wanting something and liking something are separated for important survival reasons. You could see a beautiful fruit and desire it, but upon tasting and smelling it, you could find that you don't like it at all. It's important to separate wanting and liking, then, in the modern brain. We think we LIKE money, status, and competing (ooh, shiny!), but in fact, we may only just WANT them, and when we get them, we may find that they taste and smell and feel unpleasant.

The focus, then, is to separate what we think we want from what actually makes us happy, and focus on the happiness -- not simply the desires. Kinda Buddhist, but without all the rules.

Another extremely helpful and relieving thing is to understand that "negative" emotional states like anxiety, anger, hypervigilance, and shame were supposed to be hyperactivated in humans. The things that alarm or hurt us are much more important to our survival (they can kill or endanger us very quickly) than liking things is. So "negative" emotional states tend to hang around. It's better to be hypervigilant, evolutionarily speaking, than it is to be all happy-go-lucky (and dead).

So modern people need to understand their brains, and work with their intellect and compassion to calm the emotional signals that can sometimes cause suffering. It's not about ignoring your emotions or feigning joy or some such nonsense - it's about becoming a fully functioning, rational being in relation to your emotions and what really makes you happy.

Thank you Daniel Nettle. I am now much clearer about my emotions, and happier (in a calm and rational way) than I have been for decades. Good on you!

I heard the author discuss this book on NPR and had to have it. I liked it so much, I bought a copy (after previewing it via the library). This is science based information, that is also an easy read. The gist of it is: So much of who we are, how we react, is hard-wired. You can be practical; if you can change your thinking, you change your feelings. Even if you can't change it completely, you can be aware that alot of it is about how you are thinking about it. It is not set in stone. It changed my mind-set because it made perfect sense and it worked for me! After receiving the information, I was infinitely happier with my lot in life. Nothing changed, except how I perceived my thinking and how my thoughts influenced my emotions. It was one of the few books I consider worth owning. Use it as a "reminder" from time to time; you may not be able to control all the events in your life, but you have some control about how your "feel" about them. Thanks for the eye-opener Mr. Nettle.

This hand sized paperback by Daniel Nettle has it all: wisdom, wit, useful information, philosophical discourse, groundbraking psychology and, good old common sense. The subject is happiness (of course) and, from the very beginning of the book, some myths and misconceptions are challenged and dispelled and, taking their place appear the well reasoned arguments and conclusions from the author. If you enjoy a brilliant mind at work this book is for you.

This book delves between Economics, Psychology, Neuroscience and Evolutionary Biology to try and survey our general understanding of human happiness, and discuss the major ways in which happiness can be measured. Nettle does a good job of moving quickly from topic to topic, summing up the necessary data without going into too much detail in any particular place. This book is not an in-depth study in and of itself, but provides a good starting point for people interested in learning more. (It ends with a "Further Reading" section which suggests the book's purpose is exactly that.)

The one major criticism I have of the book is that there are some places (just a few!) where Nettle proves unable to resist the temptation to insert his own theories and explanations without very much supporting evidence. He seems particularly keen to dismiss external conditions as strongly affecting happiness, in favor of his theory that "neuroticism" is responsible for the greatest differences. He also puts forth that the increased happiness found in married individuals is probably mostly temporary, and a large spike in happiness for newlyweds may be driving the average up. While there is nothing wrong with either hypothesis *as such*, he does little to make these cases, and they're put forth fairly prominently.

Still, this is a minor criticism. For the range of topics it covers, and its relatively short length, this book contains a wealth of information and ideas for further places to study happiness.

One of the points of departure is Paul Ekman's "identification of a set of basic emotions--fear, sadness, disgust, anger, surprise, and joy--which are universally recognized" (12). Nettle adds a view of happiness from the perspective of evolutionary psychology, which sees evolution as a major agent in the way we feel. He then bases this discussion on two main types or levels of happiness, which can be simplified to, respectively, pleasure and well-being. He explicitly notes that he will not discuss a third level, that of Aristotle's eudaimonia (the fulfillment of one's life). He also distances himself from considering happiness within a moral context.

We can summarize the book's thesis in this quote: "the purpose of the happiness programme in the human mind is not to increase human happiness; it is to keep us striving" (43).

From that point on, Nettle's reports many research findings that, for the most part, seem obvious: people will never be completely happy, intellectuals are basically neurotics, richer people are happier than poorer people (if they have control over their lives), happiness is strongly related to personal health; also, if you are married, have no disabilities, and live with no high levels of noise, you will be happier than others; people will default back to a baseline of happiness after a significant increase in their happiness (as in winning the lottery, for instance). Other findings are just curiosities not fully explained; for instance, there seems to be "some evidence" that women who have "cosmetic breast surgery" experience an "improvement in well-being [that] is real and lasting" (84); another factoid is that France is less happy than Spain, while the US is number five in ranking of happiness (51). A recapitulation of the different research findings can be found on pages 166, 169-70.

The author's interests are, however, not cultural or economical, as he makes an effort to point out the fact that maybe "happiness stems mainly not from the world itself, but from the way people address the world" (113). This seems to be the case when one studies happiness in the context of introverted and extroverted temperaments. The research seems to tell us that our personalities won't change and, consequently, this realization can have very distressing consequences for some people. However, accepting that happiness may be very much "immutable" does not necessarily put you in a deadlock; to escape it, you need not to think too much about your levels of happiness and "lift your eyes [. . .] to the broader horizon" (115).

The author states: "People's behaviour is driven by desire, and by an implicit theory about what will make them happy. This implicit theory may be at odds with what is really the case. Recall that people over-estimate how much happier achieving the things they want will make them, and under-estimate their ability to cope with things they don't want" (153). For the author, the solution for those very unhappy people is to change the subject itself, by means as varied as drug therapy, meditation, socialization (volunteering), detaching oneself from the desire, etc.

The book ends with some hopeful notes. We need to have flow in our lives, which is "a state where challenges are high, but skills are sufficient to match them. It is not necessarily a happy state, but it is a fulfilling and gripping one" (171). We also need to realize that in order for happiness to be meaningful, we need to have the possibility of unhappiness (172). Most importantly, happiness is not attainable as imagined by most people, but it will help us "broaden our holding in the other stocks that make up good human life, such as purpose, community, solidarity, truth, justice, and beauty" (175).

The book can be interesting precisely in those topics that the author mentions but does not explore; namely, the question of how happiness relates to the social and is affected by questions of moral awareness. As the loose balloon on the cover of the book seems to suggest, happiness is hard to grasp. Perhaps "the pursuit of happiness" is also an elusive goal, for it is so dependent on individual definitions.

This very short book is a gem. Most if not all statements enunciated in the book are based on scientific studies and interpreted with a very high standard of objectivity. Call me simple, but I find its thesis very coherent and true. A must read for anyone who genuinely wants to know the FACTS on this most elusive human experience.