The determinants of happiness are remarkably similar around the world, in countries as different as Afghanistan, the U.S, and Chile. Income matters to happiness but only so much; friends, freedom, and employment are good for happiness, while crime, poor health, and divorce are bad. Paradoxically, however, people in places like Afghanistan can be as happy as those in much wealthier and safer ones like Chile. One explanation is the remarkable human capacity to adapt to adversity and hardship. While adaptation may be a good thing for individual wellbeing, it can also result in collective tolerance for bad equilibrium which are difficult for societies to escape from.
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Happiness around the World: the paradox of happy peasants and miserable millionaires
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How We Decide
Tagged with psychology
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Mind Control: Psychology for the Web
We all know web design tricks to getting people to do what you want - make buttons bigger, use accent colors, etc. There are other strategies, however, that rely on the more proven tools of psychology; this session will explore reciprocity, scarcity, and more, and see how effective they can be.
Tagged with sxsw sxswi sxsw2010 conference psychology behaviour
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The Cure Within: A History of Mind-body Medicine
Anne Harrington, Chair, is Harvard College Professor and Professor for the History of Science, specializing in the history of psychiatry, neuroscience, and the other mind and behavioral sciences.
Professor Harrington received her Ph.D. in the History of Science from Oxford University, and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London, and the University of Freiburg in Germany. For six years, she co-directed Harvard’s Mind, Brain, and Behavior Initiative. She also was a consultant for the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Mind-Body Interactions. Currently she serves on the Board of the Mind and Life Institute, an organization dedicated to cross-cultural dialogue between Buddhism and the science.
She is also co-editor of Biosocieties, a journal concerned with social science approaches to the life sciences.
Professor Harrington is the author of three books: Medicine, Mind and the Double Brain (1987), Reenchanted Science (1997) and The Cure Within; A History of Mind-Body Medicine (2007) She has also published many articles and produced a range of edited collections including The Placebo Effect (1997), Visions of Compassion (2000), and The Dalai Lama at MIT (2006). She is currently working on a new book, tentatively titled, When Minds Fall Ill. Other research interests include the history of the neurological case history, and especially changing interests in the "inner world" of brain disorder; and the origins and larger significance of current visions of partnership between Buddhism and the brain sciences - so-called "contemplative neuroscience." http://psychjourney_blogs.typepad.com/psychjourney_podcasts/2009/06/the-cure-within-a-history-of-mind-body-medicine.html
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Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Zachary Shore of the Naval Postgraduate School about blunders, looking back through history and gleaning insights on life in the present. The techno-snafu’s start with no other than Thomas Alva Edison.
Tagged with psychology