Moving to California Won't Make You Happy
Daniel Kahnerman | 2:19
Transcript
If we talk about subjective well being, there are two really different ways of looking at it. And one is to look at people's mood, or state of mind, or they live their life. And the other is to measure their satisfaction or their emotional reaction, when they think about their life, we know now that these two are really quite different.
And they, they're sensitive to different factors. So the thing that make you satisfied do not necessarily make you happy. People have very little idea how their tastes will change, this susceptible, first of all, to what we call the focusing illusion. And that is makes it virtually impossible to think straight about your own life. Nothing is quite as important as you think it is, while you're thinking about it. So the mere act of thinking about something makes it more important that it's going to be so you're thinking, how much happier would I be living in California?
And, you know, you're saying, Oh, you'd be a lot happier. Well, no, you won't be a lot happier. How much happier? Would I be? You know, if my income increased by 30%? You think a lot? No, it wouldn't. So just about everything that people think about, they exaggerate its importance. If you look at life satisfaction, what makes people satisfied with their lives? In a most of what we know, it has a lot to do with people.