Happiness Hypothesis

by Jonathan Haidt

book data

458 ratings, 4.16 average rating, 118 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		40%
4		38%
3		17%
2		2%
1		0%

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published

April 5th 2007 by Arrow (first published 2005)

details

Paperback, 320 pages

isbn

0099478897 (isbn13: 9780099478898)

description

Jonathan Haidt skillfully combines two genres-philosophical wisdom and scientific research-delighting the reader with surprising insights. He explains…more

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Jul 17, 2009

Richard rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

bookshelves: -bookclub, cognition, philosophy

Read in September, 2009

recommended to Richard by: Cognitive Science Reading & Discussion Group

As I was reading the first few chapters, I put this book on my "to buy" list, but my enthusiasm ebbed as I finished to book, and my natural inclination not to buy books I never expect to re-read has taken over.

But it's still a book I think I can recommend: it has plenty of interesting and thoughtful points to make, a few that are confusing and disconcerting, as well as some advice towards the front of the book.

The early chapters have a bit of a "self-...more

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7 comments

Jun 27, 2008

Chris rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone

When pitching Jonathan Haidt's "Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom" to friends, I often find myself explaining away the title -- no, it's not another self-help book and yes, it's about more than just plastering a silly smile on your face. With that said, the title is appropriate; Haidt is chiefly concerned with what's responsible for making humans happy.

The title fails, however, to convey the breadth and depth of Haidt's search, which touches on ph...more When pitching Jonathan Haidt's "Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom" to friends, I often find myself explaining away the title -- no, it's not another self-help book and yes, it's about more than just plastering a silly smile on your face. With that said, the title is appropriate; Haidt is chiefly concerned with what's responsible for making humans happy.

The title fails, however, to convey the breadth and depth of Haidt's search, which touches on philosophy, psychology, economics, evolution, and cognitive science, and skips effortlessly across the centuries, from the Stoics' philosophical minimalism to Ben Franklin's pragmatism to Robert Cialdini's work on Influence.

Haidt documents the evolution of the human mind, producing an overarching narrative that explains everything from the use of gossip and prozac to mental tendencies that steer men away from their stated values and towards self-destruction.

Along with Kluge, this book has profoundly shaped the way I view my brain. Before Haidt, I was aware that our brains appeared to systematically work against our best interest, and that these tendencies manifested in more general cognitive biases. Haidt, however, takes you behind the curtain, and provides a look at what exactly is going on in your brain and the evolutionary logic behind it. This book provided a more systematic take on cognition than the discrete observational work I had previously encountered.

My interest in correcting my cognitive failings largely emanates from my concern with my ability to grasp the truth. Haidt rightly adds that it's profoundly important to happiness in general. Cognitive therapy has allowed many to escape depression by directly attacking distortions in thought. These depressive distortions are direct relatives to those that scare up trouble in all of our lives, and Haidt provides an excellent primer on how to exorcise your cognitive demons through a few different means, thereby improving the way you think and possibly making you happier.(less)

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Jan 22, 2010

Bob Nichols rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028012)

Read in January, 2010

At the end of his book, Haidt says there are two ways we look at the meaning of life. One way looks at humans from the outside, where people are objects within a broader cosmic context. Meaning here is speculative, ranging from God-given hope and destiny to a mechanical and meaningless universe. The other way looks at humans from within, where people exist as subjects. Here, Haidt argues that science can establish some basic empirical truths.

Drawing on a wide variety of evidenc...more At the end of his book, Haidt says there are two ways we look at the meaning of life. One way looks at humans from the outside, where people are objects within a broader cosmic context. Meaning here is speculative, ranging from God-given hope and destiny to a mechanical and meaningless universe. The other way looks at humans from within, where people exist as subjects. Here, Haidt argues that science can establish some basic empirical truths.

Drawing on a wide variety of evidence, Haidt argues that we operate most fundamentally on a like/don't like basis, similar to the pleasure/pain theories seen in certain philosophical (Epicurean, Utilitarian) schools. This is what provides us with meaning, but it gets more complicated from here on out as happiness comes in different forms. It comes as attachment to the things of the world, non-attachment (Buddhism, Stoics) or, in what Haidt believes is the truest form of happiness, we engage the world in ways that transcend self-orientation. This latter form of happiness is the subject of his last chapter and, surprisingly, this is the weakest part of his book.

But otherwise, Haidt does a good job of drawing from the chapters of evolutionary psychology without going overboard. He says that we ride the elephant, and think the rider is in charge, but emotion and passion does most of the work. It is these that provide us with motivation and meaning, and we have a "like-o-meter" to everything we experience.

The elephant is shaped by natural selection "to win at the game of life." We can train the elephant, but the rider is the servant or advisor, not the king. This perspective of course stands in contrast to Plato and the rationalist philosophy that followed. This tradition Haidt provokingly characterizes with a question, "Why do philosophers hate love? For Plato and Kant and the others, reason, not our animal nature, is the gift of gods.

Likes and dislikes, however, send confusing signals. Haidt notes that the body is split into modules, each with its own emotions and agenda, split into the left and right brains, split into old and new brains, and split between the controlled and automatic brains. Our body is a confederation and conflict and irrationality come with the territory. Nevertheless, certain patterns emerge that collectively lead us, Haidt believes, to a vital engagement with life.

Refreshingly, Haidt supports the case for group selection, which gives humans a stronger care giving social nature (altruism-reciprocity) than allowed by neo-Darwinian theory. Haidt, though, goes too far when he suggests that humans need social attachment in the ways we traditionally think of this term. On this key social dimension, we range from very social to less social. Variation on the bell curve seems both reasonable based on what we see and consistent with the variation inherent in Darwinian theory.

This is a very balanced look at human nature that steers its way carefully between the two almost ideological camps (man as animal; and man as uniquely special). In a way, Haidt makes the case that our own animal nature is the gift of the gods. (less)

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Oct 18, 2009

Mike Moore rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

Read in October, 2009

This book has a lot going against it. The title is dippy, it's filed under self-help, and the author is attempting to condense the wisdom of the world's great traditions into easily consumed pop psychology.

He is, ultimately, quite successful.

I'm taking a star off, mostly because he has a few weak chapters and he's not a fabulous writer, but make no mistake: I consider this book to be a fine achievement that blends moral philosophy and current directions in psychology ...more

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Aug 27, 2009

Lynn Fikstad rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

Read in June, 2009

I picked up this book because of recommendations by other people who generally have good taste, my taste :). I was hesitant because it seemed like a pop psychology self help book. Self help books always consist of authors hectoring people to change their attitude about the world. This book acknowledged the fact, but didn't pretend to have a secret formula.

Here are a few ideas the author developed throughout the book which resonated with me.

- How we think about the wor...more

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Aug 07, 2009

Orton Family Foundation rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

Read in June, 2006

I’ve often marveled at how seemingly rational people can forgo reason when engaged in public debate over a land use issue. A few years back I was involved in a community meeting about a new village scale project being proposed for the center of a small Vermont town. Even faced with a plethora of facts, figures and testimonials to the contrary, many people held fast to their belief that the project—designed to mimic the design and spacing of the clustered houses already in the village center�...more I’ve often marveled at how seemingly rational people can forgo reason when engaged in public debate over a land use issue. A few years back I was involved in a community meeting about a new village scale project being proposed for the center of a small Vermont town. Even faced with a plethora of facts, figures and testimonials to the contrary, many people held fast to their belief that the project—designed to mimic the design and spacing of the clustered houses already in the village center—would result in traffic congestion, loss of views and lost sleep due to noisy neighbors. People too easily ignored the positive aspects of the project—avoidance of sprawl, better traffic flow from a new street network—and dwelled only on potential, if unlikely, negative effects. It proved difficult for people to think openly and rationally about this project. Thanks to a new book about happiness, of all things, I am beginning to understand why.

In his book, The Happiness Hypothesis, Jonathan Haidt (a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia) offers insight into where this type of irrational response comes from and why it is so hard for us to change our opinions and our behavior. Combining the wisdom of the past (from Freud to Buddha, Shakespeare to the Bible) with the latest cognitive research, Haidt engages the reader in an insightful exploration of what makes us happy and how we find meaning in our lives, and offers clues to understanding erratic personal and social behavior along the way. Many of the clues come from an understanding of the workings of the human mind—much of the book is devoted to this, starting with a very readable discussion of brain physiology and its impact on human responses. Throughout the book, Haidt provides a menu of things that we need to consider, work on, and ultimately achieve in order to find happiness. This could have resulted in a “self help” book but, thankfully, The Happiness Hypothesis avoids that fate.

Of particular usefulness to the planning field, or at least for understanding the dynamic of the meeting I attended, is the description of how the human mind is divided and often in conflict, resulting in a situation where feelings take preference over reasoning. Haidt uses the analogy of a rider (our rational and conscious self or ego) trying to control an elephant that often has its own desires and agenda (our unconscious, emotional self) to explain why we often have difficulty behaving in a rational way. It turns out it is sometimes very hard to control what our elephant does.

Haidt takes this concept further by looking at the evolution of the brain. In order to survive, humans have learned to take quick action when faced with a threat (“that is something that can eat me”) and respond slower when faced with opportunity (“should I catch and eat that frog now or later?”). As our species evolved, the fearful and cautious response was reinforced because it helped us survive and has now been hardwired into our brains. Consequently, our brain’s automatic system, our survival mechanism, is much stronger and more developed than our controlled system which reasons and plans, weighing pros and cons before taking action. The result is that we respond first, and rational thought comes later.

We don’t necessarily need such a strong automatic response today, but remnants of it give us what Haidt refers to as a “negative bias” and explain why we react strongly to threats, like a new kind development next door, that we fear may impact our quality of life, even if our reaction is irrational or pre-rational. This makes it difficult for us to engage in new or forward thinking. It also reduces the likelihood that we will be influenced by facts or arguments that speak to the rational rider, but not to the emotional elephant. To make matters worse, our brain is hard-wired to invent a rational argument or justification for our irrational behavior (i.e., the rider will invent an explanation for why the elephant does something that makes no sense).

The take-home message—as it relates to planning and bringing about changes in attitude and behavior—is to not focus so much on conscious thought (the rider), and the typical rational analysis of a situation in order to influence a decision, but rather to find ways to train the elephant to think and behave differently. Haidt suggests personal work to understand and improve ourselves as individuals, offering up meditation, cognitive therapy and Prozac as the three main pathways to this retraining. Although a part of me is really tempted to find out what would happen if all planning meeting participants were given a mood altering drug prior to public debate, I think there are less controversial approaches worth exploring first. Perhaps we need to de-emphasize the facts and set the ground work for a better public process by finding ways to help people in our communities understand their social lives, and habitual responses and behaviors, in a way that makes it possible for them to be less influenced by the behavior of their elephant. Then maybe they can engage with others more effectively. Complete Buddhist enlightenment may be too much to hope for, but if everyone worked a little harder to acknowledge and rein in their elephants we’d all be better off.

Read more reviews by the Orton Family Foundation in our Scenarios e-journal at http://www.orton.org/resources/publicati...

-Karen Yacos(less)

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Jul 24, 2009

Debbie Nance rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

Read in January, 2008

And thus we move, logically, to The Happiness Hypothesis. Ben Tanaka, main character of Shortcomings, could use The Happiness Hypothesis. Ginger Pye and the rest of the Pye family apparently intuitively knew The Happiness Hypothesis.
Haidt looks at ancient wisdom and compares it to the result of the new science of positive psychology. Some of the things I learned from this book:

*Reciprocity is the best guide to life. This is the classic “Do unto others” thought.

...more

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Jul 13, 2007

Melissa rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: people who work w/ people

This book is witty, well-researched, well organized, helpful... and I love the author's voice. It's a great Great GREAT book to read if you find yourself with a bit of a black cloud over your head... It's the opposite of an "Atkins Diet"-like book: he doesn't propose some sort of whacky 14-step program to become happy. He just dissects all of the various aspects of life and lays out the results logically, and you find yourself with a mirror in your hand. It's really a great book.

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Jul 15, 2009

Matildabrown2003 Brown rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

Read in September, 2007

Such an amazingly interesting read, this book came recommended by my mother at a time when I was feeling particularly sorry for myself. And slapped it right out of me. You may find this book in the 'self-help' section at your local book store but it is so much more. Haidt makes learning fun!!! It's true. From what I remember... psychological explanations on the human brain and all it's complexities to philosophies on love, religion and even the hygiene differences between our fellow homo-sapiens...more

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Dec 05, 2009

Peter Jansen rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

Read in December, 2009

I would have liked to give this 4.5 stars but seeing I don't have that option in goodreads and because it was great I'm giving it 5 stars.

Why was it so good:
*It really made me think
*It was superbly written and really interesting
*It's a really important topic

This is not a self-help book. I don't have a particular aversion to self-help books and I have read quite a few of them. In fact I think they are much maligned form of literature which has a noble ...more

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Apr 23, 2008

John is currently reading it (review of isbn 0465028020)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Read in April, 2008

recommended to John by: the New Yorker
recommends it for: the Planet

I wish all my friends would read this book...look at the cover, it's a photograph of a person riding an elephant in the ocean...aren't you interested?

...check out the author's lecture to the New Yorker Symposium
NEW YORKER SYMPOSIUM

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Jul 20, 2009

Trevor rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

First of all there is a tone to this book that I thought from the beginning was really going to be a problem for me. I guess that is the tone of self-help books. All the same, this book was much more interesting and much more challenging (at least, to me) than most other self-help books I’ve read. I actually found parts of this book quite confronting.

The parts of this book that I liked the most were those where he was discussing his elephant and rider metaphor. Essentially, he b...more First of all there is a tone to this book that I thought from the beginning was really going to be a problem for me. I guess that is the tone of self-help books. All the same, this book was much more interesting and much more challenging (at least, to me) than most other self-help books I’ve read. I actually found parts of this book quite confronting.

The parts of this book that I liked the most were those where he was discussing his elephant and rider metaphor. Essentially, he believes that we are part instinctual creatures and part rational agent – however, we like to believe that the rational agent (the rider) is in control, whereas the rider is sitting on top of an elephant that rarely sleeps and that has desires and needs that the rider does not always recognise or acknowledge. In the long run the elephant will get its way unless the rider recognises the elephants desires and seeks to redirect them. The rider can only do this, according to this book, by meditation, therapy or drugs.

The other bit I found interesting was the stuff on Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow – which I’ve recently bought, but haven’t gotten around to reading. The idea that if you do what you love (Aristotle’s arête) that you don’t notice time and that this is the source of happiness (Aristotle’s eudemonia).

I also really liked that this book presses home the idea that we are a social animal and that as a social animal we really do need to make contact with other animals of our species to be happy. As someone who spends a lot of time alone this was one of the areas of the book that I did find personally challenging. The other challenging bits, as I’ve mentioned, where were he talked about doing work that was not directed towards your main strengths and interests.

There were parts of this book that didn’t quite work for me. The stuff on religion in particular. It is an interesting point, of course, that religious people tend to be happier than those without religion, but I didn’t feel I came away from reading this section with anything like a good understanding of why that should necessarily be the case or if seeking to be more like religious people would make people without religion more happy or even if that would be a good thing. As someone without religion I can see how having a belief that there is someone (an infinite father figure, generally) watching over you and who is concerned for your well-being, would be a comfort and would probably promote happiness. But even then perhaps not if life started going badly. Some of the things that happen in life are awful and perhaps I’m better off being able to put those things down to pure chance than if I was religious (and assuming I would also remain logically consistent) also having to blame those things on a God who had it in for me for some reason.

Where this book is particularly good is in challenging the movement we have towards working longer hours that seems to have taken over our lives. He points out that people are at their happiest when they are with family and friends, and yet our endless pursuit of wealth and career success takes us away from those we love the most and also where we are most happy. As he points out, this doesn’t make much sense.

So, what is the secret to happiness? Well, surround yourself with people you love, find out what engages your interest and do that, have control over what you do, don’t live in the suburbs where you have to commute to work for hours every day, create ‘religious’ spaces in your life where you value things as holy and do things to connect with both your physical self and with society at large.

See, it’s remarkably easy…

I still think Stumbling on Happiness was a better book, but this one was worth the read.
(less)

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Mar 22, 2009

Julie rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

bookshelves: brainstuff

Read in May, 2009

I am thankful for the lovely metaphor that Haidt uses to describe how brains work like a rider and elephant. Haidt describing the elephant as our ancestral, subconscious system that drives our most elemental impulses - the rider is our frontal cortex, the higher mental functions, good/bad, future consequences.

This is the paragraph I love:

"The image that I came up with for myself, as I marveled at my weakness, was that I was a rider on the back of an elephant. I'm hol...more

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Jan 01, 2010

Jenny rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in March, 2010

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a nice blend of so-called pop psychology, editorial, and research-based discoveries about psychology and neurology. The subtitle suggests that the book is a review of ancient philosophies applied to modern life, but I think that it is only a part of the book. Haidt surely reviews current findings against the teachings and writings of ancient (and not-so-ancient) philosophers and religious leaders generally, but I think he really presents a broader dis...more

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Sep 12, 2009

Petrina rated it:

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Read in January, 2010

I was skeptical given the title, but I enjoyed and was even enriched by this book. With relevant insights gleaned from religions and civilizations around the world, the Positive Psychology movement and modern neurological science, the social psychologist-author assesses why we are the way we are and what does and doesn’t contribute to happiness. Better yet, he does so in an engaging, readable manner. There are hundreds of studies and stories distilled and mingled for our consideration.
...more

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Sep 07, 2009

Keya Wang rated it:

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bookshelves: anthropology, books, cultures, elevation, moral-emotions, moral-philosophy, moral-psychology, positive-psychology, religions, social-psychology, sociology, world

Read in September, 2009

practicality finds ways which are easy thru natural occurrance

asian parents: idealism

"it is impossible to live the pleasant life w/o also living sensibly, nobly and justly, and it is impossible to live sensibly, nobly and justly w/o living pleasantly." - Epicurus

weaving your lifelong anectode
selected conditions - environment, stage of life, roles played - adaptations
genetic predispositions of innate abilities

...more

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Jan 09, 2009

Arahshiel rated it:

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Read in February, 2009

Just Finished This One

Now I realize this is just IMHO, but this book is quite possibly the BEST book on happiness I have ever read. It's not just the "I'm Okay, You're Okay," or 'don't have the luxury of a negative thought' mentality. Neither of those approaches have ever worked for me - and honestly, most of the time I feel that the people who write books like those mentioned have never actually struggled with more than a day or two of the blues.

This book does ...more

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Oct 02, 2008

Taka rated it:

(review of isbn 1596590971)

bookshelves: 2-nonfiction-you-must-read, japan_jul07-present, social-science

Read in October, 2008

A gold mine--

Imminently readable, full of wisdom both ancient and modern, and unbelievably edifying, this book deserves the highest of praises. Haidt manages to merge philosophy, psychology, sociology, and religious studies to present an irresistibly fascinating work of - for lack of a better term - philosophy, as it was understood in the ancient times. It's an incredible guide on how to live a happy life, and to do that, he marshalls everything from Socrates, the Bible, the Romans, ...more

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Aug 04, 2008

Bob Selden rated it:

(review of isbn 0465028020)

I liked the Happiness Hypothesis yet I found it difficult to critique. Why? Well, it’s probably not the type of book I usually read. In fact it sat on my coffee table for over a month before I got started. When I did, I found it fascinating.

Jonathan Haidt is a Professor of Psychology. I would love to be one of his Psych 101 students. He tells a good story with lots of examples and presents most, if not all, of the “breakthrough” research in social psychology over the las...more

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Jul 28, 2008

Nicholas rated it:

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bookshelves: biology, philosophy, psychology

Read in June, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Good summary of a lot of different stuff.

The basic idea is that the mind is divided between the conscious and the unconscious. The central metaphor is that the conscious mind is a rider on an elephant. He can tell the elephant where to go but if it doesn't want to then it won't. You're will is insufficient to control your actions. The idea then is to slowly train the elephant to do what you want it to do.

The author then goes on to say that deep relationships, a calling in...more