Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The Shifting Meaning of "Happiness" (video)

Cassie Mogilner (U Penn); Sepandar D. Kamvar and Jennifer Aaker (Stanford)
() Prof. Mogilner research shows that happiness is tied to temporal (time) focus as part of the 2011 BizTalks: "Five Wharton Professors - Five Game-Changing Ideas."

An examination of emotions reported on 12 million personal [and Buddhist] blogs along with a series of surveys and laboratory experiments shows that the meaning of happiness is not fixed; instead, it systematically shifts over the course of one’s lifetime. Whereas younger people are more likely to associate happiness with excitement, as they get older, they become more likely to associate happiness with peacefulness. This change appears to be driven by a redirection of attention from the future to the present as people age. The dynamic of what happiness means has broad implications, from purchasing behavior to ways to increase one’s happiness.

Prof. Cassie Mogilner, Department of Marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA (mogilner@wharton.upenn.edu)

The Science of Happiness

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