Friday, December 12, 2014

Science: Is it better to be happy or right?

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly
Yes, dear. You're right again, dear. Whatever you say, dear. (Well that was easy!)
If happy, I smile. If I want to be happy, I smile. If I smile, my mind feels happy (BB).
(RobRom HC) Saccharine Trust's "I Am Right" (see lyrics below).
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Happiness is overrated: It's better to be right, study finds
It is better to be right than to be happy -- at least for one husband on the cutting edge of science.

As part of an unusual experiment, the husband was instructed to “agree with his wife’s every opinion and request without complaint,” and to continue doing so “even if he believed the female participant was wrong,” according to a report on the research that was published Tuesday [Dec. 9, 2014] by the British Medical Journal.
 
The husband and wife were helping a trio of doctors test their theory that pride and stubbornness get in the way of good mental health.

In their own medical practices in New Zealand, they had observed patients leading “unnecessarily stressful lives by wanting to be right rather than happy.” If these patients could just let go of the need to prove to others that they were right, would greater happiness be the result?
 
The entire world is slightly happier than it used to be
Whole world is happier now
Enter the intrepid husband. Based on the assumption that men would rather be happy than be right, he was told to agree with his wife in all cases.

However, based on the assumption that women would rather be right than be happy, the doctors decided not to tell the wife why her husband was suddenly so agreeable.
  
Both spouses were asked to rate their quality of life on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the happiest) at the start of the experiment and again on Day 6. It’s not clear how long the experiment was intended to last, but it came to an abrupt halt on Day 12.
 
Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender (SUNY)
“By then the male participant found the female participant to be increasingly critical of everything he did,” the researchers reported. The husband couldn’t take it anymore, so he made his wife a cup of tea and told her what had been going on.
 
That led the researchers to terminate the study. Over the 12 days of the experiment, the husband’s quality of life plummeted from a baseline score of 7 all the way down to 3. The wife started out at 8 and rose to 8.5 by Day 6. She had no desire to share her quality of life with the researchers on Day 12, according to the report.
 
Still, the team was able to draw some preliminary conclusions: “It seems that being right, however, is a cause of happiness, and agreeing with what one disagrees with is a cause of unhappiness,” they wrote.
 
They also noted that “the availability of unbridled power adversely affects the quality of life of those on the receiving end.” More

I AM RIGHT
Jack Brewer (Saccharine Trust)
LYRICS: "You were always cunning like the game you'd play/ As your mindless kindless friends would say/ You got what you wanted but not what you needed/ No matter how hard you pleaded/ Your 18 and you know it all/ So how in the hell could you ever fall/ For such a thoughtless gutless fool/ Who taught you about drugs and kept you out of school// Isn't that right/ I am right/ I am right/ I am right/ No one no one is gonna tell me otherwise/ No one no one is gonna fill this boy with lies// The trash can jazzman really was a has been/ Though you laid him down like he was the last man/ Though your family never took it calmly/ When they pulled the covers you were in jeopardy/ With your back in a brace your arm's in a sling/ Your doctor's screaming, Have you had your fling?!/ Well you spent all your time in the protest line/ But what did you get from screaming screaming screaming,/ I am right/ I am right/ I am right/ I am right!?/ No one no one is gonna tell me otherwise/ No one no one is gonna fill this boy with lies/ So forth and so forth/ You really had a cold heart/ Once on your knees, you weren't such a bad sport/ You started crying when they caught you lying/ No one ever said you weren't trying/ With your mind on the freeway/ Your mouth on a cliche/ You walked in the party talking like a DJ/ You had your rations of middle class fashions/ I am right/ I am right/ I am right I am right/ No one no one is gonna tell me otherwise/ No one no one is gonna fill this boy with lies!"

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