What two of my colleagues, Ken Sheldon and Dave Vishcody and I did, is we developed a
theory that sort of, answers this question of what is, what are the most important determinants
of happiness? And the theory is in the form of a pie chart, so, it is very, kind of simple,
easy to understand. And so, this is very simplistic; basically I am going to give you some numbers
that are averages and approximations from many past studies, these numbers are not set
in stone, they are just approximations. So,approximately fifty percent (50%) of the variance in happiness
is due to our genes, so, when you look at all the people sitting in this room today,
and if you ask the question: "Why are some of you happier than others?" About fifty percent
(50%) of the answer lies in genetics. Some of you just have sort of, happier genes, so
to speak. About ten percent (10%) lies in our life circumstances; and again it may be
ten (10), some studies show it's eighteen (18), twenty (20), eight (8), twelve (12),
and so, this means that we all differ in our life circumstances, some of us are richer,
some of us are poorer, some of us are more or less attractive, more or less healthy,
and so, that does play a factor in happiness; play a part in our happiness. But, not as
big as you might expect, in fact a lot of people are astonished to see that number being
so small. They think: "Oh I'll be happier when I achieve more positive circumstances
in my life. When I get a new job, or when I get a boyfriend; when I have a baby." But,
the truth is, those things don't affect our happiness as much as we think they will. And
so, that leaves forty percent (40%) of happiness, again that number shouldn't be set in stone,
but sort of, quite a large number that is under our control, under our power to change.
My book, and my work, is really about: How do we harness that forty percent (40%)? What
is it that we can do by the ways that we think, the ways that we behave in our daily lives
that can affect our happiness level? By the way, both in terms of going up and going down,
too, we certainly can also do things that decrease our happiness levels below our set
points, or below our baseline.
Okay so, one thing that researchers have done, is they've looked at what happy people do.
They study happy people. So, you find a group of people who are really happy, who are really
sort of, successful at being happy, and you wanna find out, what is their secret. What
is it that they're doing? And actually, this is something that I started my career studying.
Research shows that happy people are really good at relationships; if you look at the
happiest people, they all really have really stable, fulfilling relationships, partnerships,
friends, even with their pets they have good relationships.
Okay, so, happy people are more grateful, happy people are more helpful and philanthropic,
happy people tend to be more optimistic about the future; they are more likely to live in
the present. So, again, this is sort of, studying people who are already happy; how do they
behave; what do they think? They tend to savour pleasures in their life, they make physical
activity a habit, they are often spiritual, or religious. Spirituality and religion aren't
a prerequisite for happiness, but it is correlated with happiness. And happier people are deeply
committed to goals; they have significant meaningful life goals that they are pursuing,
whether it's raising moral children, or building a house, or advancing in their career. Now
of course, these are correlational studies, so, we don't really know, but I used to, a
journalist used to call me often in these days when I did this kind of research, and
they would ask me: "Well what can we tell our readers about what they can do to become
happier?" And I'd often say, "Well, I don't know because; just because a happy person
does something doesn't mean if we do what they do we're gonna be happier, because this
is just a correlational finding." And then I started thinking and realizing that actually,
the question of how to become happier is a really interesting scientific question, and
that we could actually try and test that in the lab by doing experiments.