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The Futile Pursuit of Happiness Essay
"The Futile Pursuit of Happiness"
When it comes to predicting how something will make you feel in the future, you will most likely be
wrong. In the book Discovering Pop Culture, edited by Anna Romasino, is the article "The Futile
Pursuit of Happiness". In the article, author Jon Gertner talks about how people think certain things
bring them happiness but aren't as fulfilling as they may think. Gertner gives examples by writing
about four men that have been questioning how people predict what will make them happy and how
they feel after it happens. Among these men are a psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, psychologist
Tim Wilson, economist George Loewenstein, and psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Gertner uses facts
from scores of...show more content...
The article moves on to the term adaptation. Happiness is what motivates people to do things.
"Our brains are not tying to be happy. Our brains are trying to regulate us" (37). People are unable
to realize that they are adapting so they don't connect that with their decisions. People will adapt,
but the point is that they dont realize that they will adapt. This goes back to people being unable
to predict what will make them happy because they don't realize that they can adapt to anything.
People can also adapt to negative events no matter how much they think they can't. Gertner writes
about an interview he had with Gilbert about the death of a friend. Gilbert says that he can relate
to everyone else by thinking that he will never get over it and it will never get better. Even
though he has feels this way, he remembers his research and how he will learn to adapt.
Loewenstein's research is about how people cannot predict how they will behave in certain
situations. He explains that people act in a hot state when they are anxious, brave or scared. On the
other hand, people act in a cold state where they are calm and rational. "This empathy gap in thought
and behavior––we cannot seem to predict how we will behave in a hot state when we are in a cold
state––affects happiness" (39). The experiment that Loewenstein did was to find out how many
people would dance in front of
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The Futile Pursuit Of Happiness Essay

  • 1. The Futile Pursuit of Happiness Essay "The Futile Pursuit of Happiness" When it comes to predicting how something will make you feel in the future, you will most likely be wrong. In the book Discovering Pop Culture, edited by Anna Romasino, is the article "The Futile Pursuit of Happiness". In the article, author Jon Gertner talks about how people think certain things bring them happiness but aren't as fulfilling as they may think. Gertner gives examples by writing about four men that have been questioning how people predict what will make them happy and how they feel after it happens. Among these men are a psychology professor Daniel Gilbert, psychologist Tim Wilson, economist George Loewenstein, and psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Gertner uses facts from scores of...show more content... The article moves on to the term adaptation. Happiness is what motivates people to do things. "Our brains are not tying to be happy. Our brains are trying to regulate us" (37). People are unable to realize that they are adapting so they don't connect that with their decisions. People will adapt, but the point is that they dont realize that they will adapt. This goes back to people being unable to predict what will make them happy because they don't realize that they can adapt to anything. People can also adapt to negative events no matter how much they think they can't. Gertner writes about an interview he had with Gilbert about the death of a friend. Gilbert says that he can relate to everyone else by thinking that he will never get over it and it will never get better. Even though he has feels this way, he remembers his research and how he will learn to adapt. Loewenstein's research is about how people cannot predict how they will behave in certain situations. He explains that people act in a hot state when they are anxious, brave or scared. On the other hand, people act in a cold state where they are calm and rational. "This empathy gap in thought and behavior––we cannot seem to predict how we will behave in a hot state when we are in a cold state––affects happiness" (39). The experiment that Loewenstein did was to find out how many people would dance in front of Get more content on HelpWriting.net